• Warren Smith: Rockabilly Legend
    1 replies, posted
I was browsing the music forum when released the distinct lack of Rockabilly which I found quite strange. I know it's an old genre but there's bound to be some other Rockabilly fans out there, right? Well in short he's a Rockabilly artist famous for his single "Rock and Roll Ruby", not actually written by him. He soon gained fame matching up to even the great king himself, Elvis Presley. Obviously, his legacy didn't last as long as "The King"'s making him a lesser known Rockabilly legend that deserves some respect for his almost Elvis-esque songs. From Wikipedia: [IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/WarrenSmith.JPG/220px-WarrenSmith.JPG[/IMG] Warren Smith was born in Humphreys County, Mississippi to Iola and Willie Warren Smith, who divorced when he was young. He was raised by his maternal grandparents in [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise,_Mississippi"]Louise, Mississippi[/URL] where they had a small farm and dry goods store.Smith took up the guitar to while away his evenings while in the United States Air force stationed in San Antonio, Texas. By the time of his discharge from the service, he had decided to make a career of music. He moved to West Memphis, Arkansas and auditioned, successfully, to play the Cotton Club, a local hot spot. Steel guitarist Stan Kessler, who was playing at that nightclub with the Snearly Ranch Boys, immediately spotted Smith's potential and took him to Sun Records to audition for Sam Phillips, with the Snearly Ranch Boys providing backup. Phillips liked what he heard, and decided that "Rock & Roll Ruby", a song credited to Johnny Cash, would be Smith's first record. (Smith later claimed that "Rock & Roll Ruby" was actually written by George Jones and sold to Cash for $40.) Smith recorded it on February 5, 1956. Phillips, who was hedging his bets over whether rock and roll would maintain its popularity, released that record with a country crooner, aptly named "I'd Rather Be Safe Than Sorry", on the flip side. By May 26, "Rock & Roll Ruby" had hit No. 1 on the local pop charts. Smith's first record for Sun went on to outsell the first Sun releases by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. [video=youtube;EGoPxL54caM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGoPxL54caM[/video] So thoughts on Smith? (Those of you who play Fallout New Vegas might recognize his song "Uranium Rock" from CONELRAD radio)
Big fan of the genre, though I haven't really listened to Warren Smith. Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash are probably the rockabilly artists I've listened to most over the years. Roy Orbison too, but he only produced a few singles in the fifties and didn't really come to prominence until the 60s with songs that weren't really rockabilly.
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