Quinton Claunch

Quinton Claunch (* 1922 in Tishomingo , Mississippi ) is a former American country musician and producer. During his career, Claunch worked, often with Bill Cantrell, for Sun Records and Hi Records .

Life

Born in Mississippi in 1922, Claunch moved to Muscle Shoals , Alabama in the early 1940s , where he and Edgar Clayton founded the Blue Seal Pals , which Bill Cantrell later joined. With this group Claunch appeared on various radio stations and went on tours. In 1948, however, the Blue Seal Pals broke up, so Claunch and Cantrell moved to Memphis , Tennessee , where they initially worked primarily in professions outside of the music business.

In 1954 Claunch and Cantrell wrote the song Daydreamin ' , which they wanted to record with the young singer Bud Deckelman from Memphis. They auditioned for Sam Phillips , owner of Sun Records , who turned down the song. The song was then suggested to Lester Bihari, who agreed to a deal. He had the song recorded with Deckelman for his label Meteor Records , in return Claunch and Cantrell, both technicians, agreed to repair the recording device in the studio. The song quickly became a local hit, so Jimmy C. Newman covered it and made it a national country hit.

After this success Sam Phillips came back to the duo Claunch and Cantrell and from then on both worked for Sun in the country area. Phillips, who previously mainly produced blues and had now made his latest discovery with Elvis Presley , now turned his focus to the country market due to Presley's successes. Claunch and Cantrell wrote new songs, discovered singers for the label and played on the recordings as guitarist and bassist. Between 1954 and 1957 they worked with, among others, Maggie Sue Wimberley, the Miller Sisters , Charlie Feathers , Carl Perkins , Lendon Smith and others. For example, Charlie Feathers recorded her Defrost Your Heart , Miller Sisters Finders Keepers and Ten Cats Down , Junior Thompson Raw Deal and Eddie Bond Can't Win for Losing, and This Ole Heart of Mine .

With Carl Perkins they worked on the song Sure to Fall , which was intended as a B-side for Blue Suede Shoes . At the last moment, however, Phillips changed the B-side and took Honey Don't . Sure to Fall was then to be released with Tennessee , but that never happened. Claunch and Cantrell were well aware that Phillips had lost interest in commercial country recordings and was busy with rockabilly . So they left Sun in 1957 and decided to start their own record label. Together with the rockabilly singer Ray Harris , who had also previously been under contract with Sun, and the record store owner Joe Cuoghi they founded Hi Records .

Claunch stayed with Hi as a producer until 1960 and continued to work in his regular job during the day to support his family. In the 1960s, Claunch remained connected to the music scene and founded the Goldwax Records label with Doc Russell in 1964 , which had a number of hits. In 1969 there were differences of opinion between Russell and Claunch, so the label was closed. Claunch then continued to work in the music business. Elliot Clark, a businessman from Memphis, bought the Goldwax catalog in the mid-1980s and revived the label. Clark managed to bring Claunch back into the company as Vice President, so that in 1991 and 1992 some "best-of" CDs were released for his production. Shortly afterwards, however, Claunch left Goldwax.

literature

• Escott, Colin / Hawkins, Martin: Good Rockin 'Tonight. Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll. New York City, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991, pp. 119-121

Web links

• Quinton Claunch at Allmusic (English)