Don Willis
Don Willis (born September 30, 1933 in Munford , Tennessee , as Don Franklin Willis , † March 1, 2006 in Memphis , Tennessee) was an American rockabilly musician .
Life
Childhood and youth
Don Willis grew up on a farm in Tipton County . Willis was enthusiastic about music from an early age and had Ernest Tubb , Eddy Arnold , Perry Como and Bing Crosby as role models. After graduating from Munford High School, he learned to play the guitar and entered a talent competition in Covington , Tennessee in the mid-1950s , where he met guitarist Shelby Byrd. Together with Vaugn Allen Kent they formed a band called The Orbits .
Career
At first their repertoire consisted of traditional country music , but they soon switched to rockabilly , which was very popular in the southern United States from 1956 . In the same year Willis and his two friends played Sam Phillips , the owner of Sun Records , unsuccessfully . During her audition, Phillips only recorded one song, Deep In My Heart I Have A Place For You ; however, the tape has been lost to this day. Willis continued to work at the Kimberly-Clark Company during the week while performing with Byrd and Kent on weekends. He also wrote the songs Boppin 'High School Baby and Warrior Sam . Willis recorded both tracks as a demo and gave them to Jay Rainwater in Nashville , Tennessee, who offered Willis a contract with Mercury Records .
Meanwhile, Willis had met Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton through a work colleague, who had founded the new local label Satellite Records. Stewart gave Willis the opportunity to record both titles in his studio and release them as a record. Willis accepted and turned down the Mercury contract for it. In the spring of 1958 he released his first single, which consisted of Boppin 'High School Baby and Warrior Sam . However, the label had no financial means and the record was only pressed in hundreds of copies, so that the single received no attention.
Willis made no further records until 1964. However, its second release was again a failure. Willis had a regular job that week but still found time to lead his show band The Memphis Kings , with whom he toured the southern states and occasionally recorded titles. Together with his band he even recorded an album that he sold at his concerts. During the rockabilly revival in the mid-1970s, his two songs from 1958 achieved undreamt-of popularity in the scene and are still today, due to the echo effect, as classics of the later rockabilly. In 1991 an LP was released with Willis' collected works. In addition, Willis had plans to come to Europe for the Hemsby Rock'n'Roll Weekend , but had to cancel the concert due to his poor health. Don Willis died at the age of 72 years to cancer .
Discography
| year | title | Record company |
|---|---|---|
| 1958 | Boppin 'High School Baby / Warrior Sam | Satellite Records |
| 1964 | Mar's Dame / A Glass of Wine | Style Records |
| 19 ?? | Give Me All Your Love / Our Love Don't Travel On The Same Road | Top Gun Records |
|
not published |
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Willis, Don |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Willis, Don Franklin (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American rockabilly musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 30, 1933 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Munford , Tennessee |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 1, 2006 |
| Place of death | Memphis , Tennessee |