Don Woody
Don Woody (born July 29, 1937 in Tuscumbia , Missouri ) is an American rockabilly singer who later worked as a businessman.
Life
Don Woody led his own student band while he was still in high school. After graduating from college, Woody first worked as a disc jockey at the KICK club in Springfield , Missouri . Woody was approached one evening by a talent agent who shortly thereafter hired him to support the Red Foley- run Ozark Jubilee . In the following two summers he toured the central southern United States with Billy Wimberley's Western Swing Band , during which time he wrote four songs with friend and partner Paul Simmons. He sent these tracks as a demo to Decca Records , which immediately signed him. Together with the Slewfoot Five , the backing band , he recorded his Simmons-written songs Bird Dog , Barking Up The Wrong Tree , Make Like a Rock'n'Roll and Morse Code in 1956 . However, only the first two titles were published by Decca, which also sold well; however, the record company could not be persuaded to renew the contract with Woody. One reason for this was probably that the Everly Brothers had a hit that same year with the song of the same name, Bird Dog , which, however, had no connection to Woody. Brenda Lee recorded Bigelow 6-200 for her debut single on Decca , also written by Woody and Simmons.
Woody then recorded the songs Not I and Red Blooded American Boy for the Arco Records label , but they were not as successful as his two previous releases with Decca. Because of his failures, Woody then decided to drop his musical career and instead worked for the trading company Sears-Roebuck , for which he ran the Dallas office . Woody continued to do business after that. In 1976 the British band Matchbox covered Woody's song Make Like A Rock'n'Roll ; in the same year Barking Up The Wrong Tree made it into the UK Top 50 charts.
Today, the now retired Don Woody lives with his wife Betty, with whom he has a child, in his home in San Antonio . In May 2007 Woody appeared again in public for the first time: at the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Festival he performed a concert with Sleepy LaBeef , Billy Lee Riley and Narvel Felts and in November 2009 his first appearance in Europe followed at the Cruise Inn during the Rockabilly Festival Bash in Amsterdam .
Discography
| year | title | Label # | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Bird Dog / Barking Up The Wrong Tree | Decca 9-30277 | |||
| 1958 | Not I / Red Blooded American Boy | Arco 4623 | |||
| Unpublished titles | |||||
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Decca | ||||
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Woody, Don |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American rockabilly singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 29, 1937 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tuscumbia , Missouri |