Boyd Bennett

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Seventeen
  US 5 07/09/1955 (17 weeks)
  UK 16 December 29, 1955 (2 weeks)
My Boy - Flat Top
  US 39 11/12/1955 (8 weeks)
Blue Suede Shoes
  US 63 04/14/1956 (10 weeks)

Boyd Bennett (born December 7, 1924 in Muscle Shoals , Alabama , † June 2, 2002 ) was an American songwriter , drummer and rock 'n' roll singer . His most famous title was the top ten hit Seventeen .

biography

Bennett was born in Alabama but grew up in Goodlettsville near Nashville , Tennessee . At the age of four he sang gospel music with his grandfather . At the age of 14 he won a folk song talent competition in Evansville and formed his first band when he was in high school . After serving in the US Navy in 1946, he worked as a disc jockey in Louisville , Kentucky , and also appeared as a drummer and singer in various bands. With his western swing band The Southlanders , which was soon to be renamed Boyd Bennett and His Rockets , he played on regional stages in Kentucky, Ohio and especially regularly in the Rustic Ballroom of Jasper , Indiana . In addition, the musicians temporarily had their own television show as Boyd Bennett and His Space Buddies .

After Bill Haley and His Comets had great success in 1954 with their "new" music, which a little later was referred to as Rock 'n' Roll , Bennett and the Rockets also changed their style. In 1955 they recorded Seventeen , a song Bennett had written with Carl Gorman and John Young . It became their biggest hit and rose to number five on the US pop charts . A cover version by the Fontane Sisters even made it to 3rd place, and Rusty Draper also found himself in the top 20 with a version. In Great Britain , Bennett's original, which reached number 16, and a cover version of Frankie Vaughan made it into the top 20 .

In addition to Bennett, band member Big Moe (actually James Muzey) sang ; he was the lead singer on Seventeen and My Boy - Flat Top , the second hit in the US. This song, also a joint work by Bennett and Young, was more successful in other versions than Bennett's original: Dorothy Collins reached the US Top Twenty; in Great Britain, like Seventeen , it hit the charts in an interpretation by Frankie Vaughan. Bennett and his "rockets" now toured together with Haley and his "comets"; the audience was fooled into a battle of the bands , a "battle of the bands" between the two combos .

Despite the commercial success, critics were not enthusiastic about Bennett's rhythms and saw him as a copy of Haley's troupe: “The title [ Seventeen ] is considered a confirmation that a record of poor musical quality and banal lyrics can reach the country rock audience could quite satisfy. Big Moe intoned the words monotonously while the band put a rough beat behind it. "

In 1956, the Rockets acted as a band from Moon Mullican on his classic rockabilly single Seven Nights to Rock . A cover version of Carl Perkins ' Blue Suede Shoes , in which Bennett took over the lead vocals, was the last hit for Boyd Bennett and His Rockets that year . They made further recordings for King Records until 1959 , after which Bennett switched to Mercury at short notice . After a few unsuccessful singles - only Boogie Bear was able to break into the lower chart regions in 1959 - "he realized that he was too old for the contemporary rock 'n' roll audience and decided to withdraw from the business." More than three decades later, Bennett was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame for his contribution to this genre of music .

The royalties on his songs made Bennett a multiple millionaire. He became a businessman, ran the Thunderbird nightclub in Indianapolis, and became a co-owner of a television station. About ten years later he founded a company that manufactured parts for heating and air conditioning systems. During this time he lived in Dallas , Texas . Except for occasional charity appearances with country singer Ray Price , he had left the rockabilly stage behind. It was not until 1980 that he made music recordings again, but this time, as in his childhood, he again devoted himself to gospel; four albums of gospel music were released. Boyd Bennett made his last public appearances in 1996, singing Amazing Grace at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem and the Our Father in Bethlehem Church of the Nativity . During the last years of his life, he ran a company for medical and orthopedic supplies with his wife Ann-Margaret, with which they both moved to Sarasota , Florida in 2002 .

Bennett suffered from pulmonary fibrosis and was diagnosed with cancer - the aftermath of his service in the US Navy, on whose ships he inhaled deadly asbestos dust from isolations, and which he ultimately succumbed to in June 2002.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charts UK
  2. ↑ Information on the US charts according to Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, 1994, p. 44
  3. ↑ a b Rockabilly Hall of Fame
  4. ^ A b Donald Clarke (ed.): The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music , London 1990, ISBN 0-14-051147-4 , p. 97
  5. ↑ The title reached number 5 in the bestseller charts, number 8 in the juke box charts and number 9 in jockey charts, cf. Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, 1994, p. 44
  6. ↑ Ehnert, Günter (Ed.): Hit Records. British Chart Singles 1950-1965 . Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1988, p. 17; on Frankie Vaughn, whose cover version reached number 18, see p. 112
  7. ↑ cf. Photography of the label
  8. ↑ cf. Photography of the label
  9. ^ Frank Laufenberg / Ingrid Laufenberg: Frank Laufenbergs Rock- und Pop-Lexikon , Volume 1, Düsseldorf / Munich 2000 5 , ISBN 3-612-26206-8 , p. 128
  10. ↑ a b "Not only was the original successful, but the song spawned several cover versions, making Bennett several million dollars. [...] Bennett realized that he was too old for the current rock & roll audience and decided to retire from performing " , www.boydbennett.com
  11. ↑ "He did not realize until later that his lungs and those of all his shipmates were filled with deadly asbestos dust from the insulation on the exposed pipes ... a future death sentence. This lethal asbestos dust disabled and eventually killed many of the men who served on these ships years later. " Bio on BoydBennett.com
personal data
SURNAME Bennett, Boyd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer, drummer, and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Muscle Shoals , Alabama, USA
DATE OF DEATH June 2, 2002