Hayden Thompson
Hayden Thompson (born March 5, 1938 in Booneville , Mississippi ) is an American rockabilly and country musician . Thompson is one of many musicians who emerged from Sun Records .
Life
Childhood and youth
Hayden Thompson was born in Mississippi in 1938. After his brother died early, Thompson became the only child of his parents, Baxter and Thelma. He got his first guitar at the age of five , which he soon learned to play, and was influenced by the country stars of the time such as Hank Snow and the Delmore Brothers . Thompson also heard the blues from artists such as Howlin Wolf and BB King . As a teenager, he began appearing on the radio and in talent competitions.
Career
At the age of 16, Thompson formed his first band, the Southern Melody Boys, in high school . The group consisted of Cricket Grissom, his sister Marlin ( bass ), Clyde Hill ( guitar ), Perry King ( steel guitar ) and Junior Johnson ( fiddle ) and played mainly covers of current country hits. The local label Von Records quickly became aware of the group and released the band's first single in 1954. Although I Feel The Blues Coming On / Act Like You Love Me sold well, it remained the group's only record.
Thompson separated from the Southern Melody Boys and got a recording contract in 1956 with Sam Phillips in Memphis , Tennessee , the owner of Sun Records . Before that, Thompson was often present in Phillips 'little studio on Union Avenue and was even the singer of Slim Rhodes ' band. Sam Phillips then agreed to take on Thompson as a solo musician at the end of the year. Together with Billy Lee Riley's band and the young Jerry Lee Lewis , he played a version of Little Junior Parker's Love My Baby and One Broken Heart . However, both tracks weren't released until almost a year later when Phillips founded his new label Phillips International in November 1957. However, Bill Justis ' song Raunchy became a hit, with which Thompson quickly disappeared from the scene. Thompson stayed in Memphis for some time and recorded other titles, but none of them were published. Even so, he took part in a few tours with other Sun artists such as Billy Lee Riley and Sonny Burgess .
Thompson moved to Chicago in 1958 , where he continued to record singles and also made an album for Kapp Records. One of his biggest fans at the time was a young singer named Waylon Jennings . Thompson's records were never hits, but allowed him a guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry . Since Thompson now had a wife and children, he withdrew from the music business and worked as a chauffeur.
In the 1980s, as part of the rockabilly revival in Europe, his songs became classics among rockabilly fans and Thompson began his first tour of England. Since then he has recorded a number of albums and is still a permanent guest at international rockabilly festivals.
Discography
Singles
year | title | Record company | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1955 | I Feel The Blues Coming On / Act Like You Love Me | From 79-HT 1001 | |||
1957 | Love My Baby / One Broken Heart | Phillips Int. 3517 | |||
1960 | Dream Love / Tom Thumb (with the Roy Hodges Band) | Beat 1011 | |||
1961 | Whatcha Gonna Do / Summer's Almost Over | Profile 4015 | |||
1963 | Queen Bee / Pardon Me | Arlen 728 | |||
1966 | 16.88 / Here We Go Again | Kapp K-734 | |||
1966 | And She Said / Eighteen Yellow Roses | Kapp K-763 | |||
1967 | A Present for Mommy / You Don't Have To Be a Baby to Cry | Kapp K-795 | |||
1967 | If It's Alright / Girl from Arkansas | Brave 1015 | |||
1970 | Don't Let It Trouble Your Mind / I Need All The Help I Can Get | Nashville North 300 | |||
1971 | Long Black Train / Long Black Train | Nashville north 303 | |||
1973 | I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone / Blue Moon of Kentucky | Extremely Brave BOS-346 | |||
1973 | I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone / Blue Moon of Kentucky | Nashville north 346 | |||
1975 | I'll Kiss You Again / Tell Me That's The Way It Will Be | HT 101 | |||
1976 | Fairlane rock / blues, blues, blues | Sun 605 (France) | |||
198? |
EP: Here's Hayden Thompson
|
Spade 105 (UK) | |||
1984 |
Shake, Rattle & Roll
|
Sunrock CI-001 (Sweden) | |||
1987 | What'm I Gonna Do / The Boy From Tupelo | Sunjay SJ-52 | |||
1990 | Wrong Road Again / Pretty Little Love Love Song / Fried Chicken | Sunjay SJ-54 | |||
2017 | Trouble On The Line | Blue light | |||
Unpublished titles | |||||
1956 |
|
Sun Records | |||
1957 |
|
Sun Records | |||
1958 |
|
||||
1959 |
|
||||
|
Sun Records | ||||
1960 |
|
||||
1961 |
|
||||
|
|||||
1963 |
|
||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
[Status unknown] |
Albums
- 1966: Here's Hayden Thompson (Kapp)
- 1985: Booneville Mississippi Flash (Charly, UK)
- 1985: The Rockin 'Country Man (Sunjay, Sweden)
- 198 ?: Rockabilly Guy 1954-1962 (Charly, UK)
- 1990: The Time Is Now (Sunjay, Sweden)
- 1999: Love My Baby (Geede)
- 2005: Rockabilly Rhythm (St. George, with the Rhythm Rockers)
- 2007: Hayden Thompson (Blue Light, Finland)
- 2008: Rock-a-Billy Gal: The Sun Years, Plus ( Bear Family )
- 2010: Standing Tall (Blue Light)
- 2017: Learning The Game (Blue Light)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ On Thompson's recordings for Sun Records see: Colin Escott, Martin Hawkins: Good Rockin 'Tonight. Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll . St. Martin's Press, New York City 1991, pp. 178-180
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Thompson, Hayden |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American country and rockabilly musician |
DATE OF BIRTH | March 5, 1938 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Booneville, Mississippi |