I am no moderator, but this is really off-topic and should
probably not end up on this list.
Have a great day,
Alex
----- Original Message -----
From: Mr. B. D. Rurry <[email protected]
To: Braillenote List <[email protected]
Date sent: Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:17:49 -0500
Subject: [Braillenote] More sad news for C and W Fans on the BN
List
SAD NEWS IN COUNTRY MUSIC
HANK LOCKLIN HAS PASSED AWAY
Grand Ole Opry Legend Hank Locklin has passed away at the age of
91. There are no details on the cause of death and I do not have
funeral arrangements at this time.
Birthday: February 15
Birth Place: McLellan, Florida
Scottish Ancestor Captained Ship to Maine in 1700's
Also Irish
Mayor of McLellan - Honorary Title
Please Help Me I'm Falling: Billboard's First 100 Years Number 2
Single
Send Me The Pillow You Dream On: BMI Million Player
Longevity tells the success of the Grand Ole Opry's Hank Locklin.
Whether you listened to him on Texas radio in the 1940s, on RCA
Records during country music's golden age of the 1950s, 60s and
70s, or even today on the Opry or television commercials,
Locklin's legendary tenor voice rings sharp and clear.
Locklin reached country music's zenith with such standards as
Please Help Me I'm Falling and a song he wrote, Send Me The
Pillow That You Dream On. They were two of the most popular hits
of that country music golden age along with many of his other
nuggets like Geisha Girl, Let Me Be The One and Country Hall of
Fame.
But the measure of Locklin's stature in country music covers more
than simply mega hits. The ageless performer has been enjoyed by
six decades of music followers. Consider this:
--His popularity has no boundaries, ranging across the United
States and overseas to Europe, England, Japan, Germany and
Holland.
--His recordings of the 1950s and 60s helped popularize "The
Nashville Sound" as country music refined itself with full vocal
and instrumental
backing. When you listen to the opening notes of his 1960 Please
Help Me I'm Falling, you're listening to pianist Floyd Cramer
play the slip note
piano style which would become so popular in recording sessions
and launch Cramer's solo career.
--Locklin's overwhelming popularity in Ireland since the 1950s
brought country music to new heights over there. It resulted in
his recording an
RCA album, Irish Songs Country Style, in 1963.
--Those television infomercials, selling multi-set compact discs
of country classics, feature his hits.
--Since he wrote Send Me The Pillow in 1949, the Locklin standard
has been recorded by Dean Martin, Johnny Tillotson, Roy Rogers,
Dolly Parton and
Dwight Yoakam among others.
--His recording of Please Help Me I'm Falling is in the Clint
Eastwood movie A Perfect World.
--And if you happened to be at the Grand Ole Opry on a Saturday
night back in 1995, you witnessed a magical Opry moment as
superstar Vince Gill came on stage to harmonize with Locklin on
The Pillow.
"The Lord gave me a good voice and I can still sing," said
Locklin. "I am blessed. I wrote a song that became a huge hit
and
(record producer) Chet Atkins gave me another big song (Please
Help Me) to record. I've recorded with the best musicians in the
business and have called many of country music's biggest stars my
friends."
His music education took its turn following a childhood accident.
At age nine Locklin was bedridden after getting hit by a school
bus. He passed the time learning to play guitar. He had already
begun singing at the local church where his mother, Hattie,
played piano.
In the 1930s, Locklin made his radio debut singing on WCOA radio
in Pensacola, strumming his guitar for instrumental backing. In
the 1940s he would perform with a band in Mobile, Alabama at the
histler Community House. Locklin would eventually work his way
through Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas where things began to
break for him.
In 1948 Locklin and his band, The Rocky Mountain Playboys, landed
a morning radio show on KLEE in Houston, Texas. He made his
first
record on the Gold Star label that year before joining Four Star
Records in 1949 for a six-year run. The Four Star years saw
Locklin perfect his songwriting with Send Me The Pillow You Dream
On , Same Sweet Girl, The Last Look At Mother and Born To Ramble.
He also enjoyed Four-Star success with Let Me Be The One and
Knocking At Your Door.
Locklin's career took a gigantic step when he signed with RCA
Records in 1955 . In 1957 one recording session produced two
Locklin chestnuts: the ever-popular Geisha Girl which spent 39
weeks on the Billboard country charts and peaked at #4 and a
remake of Send Me The Pillow which spent 35 weeks on the
Billboard country charts and topped out at #5. .
In 1960 Locklin rocketed across the country and pop charts with
Please Help Me I'm Falling. Recorded in January of that year in
Nashville, the song spent 14 weeks as Billboard's #1 song and a
total of 36 weeks on the country charts. The song also climbed
to
#8 on the Billboard pop charts. Billboard's 100th Anniversary
issue listed it as the #2 most successful country single of the
rock and roll era. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award and
won the Cash Box Award for Best Country Song of 1960. That same
year Locklin became a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
Locklin's other RCA hits during his 19-year run at the record
label ('55-1974) include It's A Little More Like Heaven, Happy
Birthday To Me, From Here To There To You, Happy Journey, We're
Gonna Go Fishing and Country Hall of Fame. His RCA albums
include
Hank Locklin Sings Hank Williams (which received a NARAS
nomination for Best Country Western Vocal Performance in 1964);
Please Help Me I'm Falling; Happy Journey; Country Hall of Fame;
Hank Locklin, Danny Davis and The Nashville Brass; The Best of
Hank Locklin; Hank Locklin Sings Roy Acuff; Irish Songs Country
Style; The Mayor of McClellan and Hank Locklin-The First Fifteen
Years.
Locklin later recorded for MGM Records. His works at Four Star
and the first half of his RCA years have been re-issued and
documented in two CD box sets issued by Bear Family Records.
Today his voice and sound endure. And Hank Locklin is still
singing.
Comin to you live from the home of
B. D. Rurry, Esquire
Wife Imma Jean
Redbone Coon Hound, Jake and Kittycat named Kalamazoo
Rurrysville, Tennessee U S A
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