William Patton
"Bill" Black, Jr. (September 17, 1926 – October 21, 1965) was an
American musician who is noted as one of the pioneers of rockabilly music.
Black was the bassist in Elvis Presley's early trio and the leader of Bill
Black's Combo.
Bill Black had two
distinct phases of his career in which he made a notable mark on early rock
& roll music: first as the rockabilly bass player for Elvis Presley and
then as a bandleader of Bill Black's Combo, which scored numerous instrumental
hits in the early '60s. Such is the way of the world that his most artistically
important contributions, as one-third of the rockabilly trio that Elvis Presley
fronted at the beginning of his career, brought him much less commercial reward
than the far less remarkable hit records under his own name.
Bill was born in 1926 in
Memphis, Tennessee, the oldest of nine children of a motorman for the Memphis
Street Railway. His father played popular songs on the banjo and fiddle to entertain
the family. Black learned to play music at the age of 14 on an instrument made
by his father—a cigar box with a board nailed to it and strings attached. At
the age of sixteen, Black was performing "honky-tonk" music on
acoustic guitar in local bars.
During World War II, Black
was stationed with the U.S. Army at Fort Lee in Virginia. While in the Army, he
met Evelyn, who played guitar as the member of a musical family. They married
in 1946 and returned to Memphis. Black worked at the Firestone plant.
Black began playing the
upright bass fiddle. He modelled his "slap bass" technique after one
of his idols, Fred Maddox of Maddox Brothers and Rose. Black also developed a
"stage clown" persona in the same way that Maddox entertained
audiences. Black performed as an exaggerated hillbilly with blacked-out teeth,
straw hat and overalls. According to his son, Black said his goal was always to
give his audience "a few moments of entertainment and maybe a little bit
of humour that'll tickle 'em for a while."
In 1952, Black began
playing club and radio shows with guitarist Scotty Moore. Along with two other
guitarists and a fiddler, they performed country music tunes by Hank Williams
and Red Foley in Doug Poindexter's band, the Starlight Wranglers. Black and Moore
also played in a band with Paul Burlison, Johnny Burnette, Dorsey Burnette on
steel guitar, and a drummer.
Black first recorded for
Sun Records in early 1954 as a member of a country band, Doug Poindexter and
the Starlite Wranglers, who also included guitarist Scotty Moore. That group
issued just one single for Sun, but that was enough to make the talents of
Black and Moore known to Sun head Sam Phillips, who put the pair together with
Elvis Presley.
Under the billing of Elvis Presley, Scotty, and Bill, they put out five records on Sun in 1954 and 1955, which are usually acknowledged as some of the finest rockabilly records ever done and Presley at his most youthfully uninhibited. Black was an important part of the early Presley sound with his slap stand-up bass and ebullient onstage manner.
Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley and Bill Black - The Blue Moon Boys
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Under the billing of Elvis Presley, Scotty, and Bill, they put out five records on Sun in 1954 and 1955, which are usually acknowledged as some of the finest rockabilly records ever done and Presley at his most youthfully uninhibited. Black was an important part of the early Presley sound with his slap stand-up bass and ebullient onstage manner.
Black and Moore continued
to work with Presley until 1958, leaving his band in large part due to disputes
over financial terms. Black and Moore had taken one-quarter of the royalties at
the outset of Presley's career, but even after Presley had rocketed to stardom
with RCA starting in 1956, they were on a mere 200 dollars/week wage. Although
Moore would eventually work with Presley again, Black never did, joining a
Memphis group that evolved into Bill Black's Combo in 1959. Their instrumental
"Smokie," released late that year, made the Top Ten.
Bill Black's Combo stuck
to the formula of "Smokie" for many of their subsequent singles: a
basic shuffle beat, simple bluesy R&B riffs, and some rinky-dink organ and
smoky saxophone lines on top. They weren't too imaginative, but they were quite
successful, placing eight singles in the Top 40 between 1959 and 1962,
including "White Silver Sands," "Josephine," "Don't Be
Cruel," "Blue Tango," and "Hearts of Stone."
Their
sales were greatly boosted by the suitability of their instrumental rock for
background music at bars, clubs, and diners, with many of their discs placed in
jukeboxes. They were still charting in the Top 100 as late as 1964, the year
they also toured with the Beatles during the British stars' first nationwide
American tour.
Here’s “Yogi” from The 1961 Movie "Teenage Millionaire"
5 comments:
For Bill Blacks Combo - Greatest Hits & Tunes By Chuck Berry go here:
http://www23.zippyshare.com/v/oeS0aD6g/file.html
01. Bill Black Do It - Rat Now.mp3
02. Josephine.mp3
03. Rollin'.mp3
04. Hearts Of Stone.mp3
05. Yogi.mp3
06. White Silver Sands.mp3
07. Blue Tango.mp3
08. Willie.mp3
09. Ole Butter Milk Sky.mp3
10. Royal Blue.mp3
11. Don't Be Cruel.mp3
12. Smokie Pt. 2.mp3
13. School Days.mp3
14. Sweet Little Sixteen.mp3
15. Roll Over Beethoven.mp3
16. Maybellene.mp3
17. Carol.mp3
18. Little Queenie.mp3
19. Brown-Eyed Handsome Man.mp3
20. Nadine.mp3
21. Thirty Days.mp3
22. Johnny B. Goode.mp3
23. Reelin' And Rockin'.mp3
24. Memphis, Tennessee.mp3
Thanks to the Rockin’ Bandit for original link.
Just noticed your Bill Blacks Combo post, looks cool, but unfortunately the zippy link has expired...
Any chance on a re-up?
Found it eventually on Rocking bandits blog. Re-Posted by me here:
https://www.sendspace.com/file/bdf251
Link available for a short time.
Many thanks for this re-up!
I checked the Rocking Bandit blog as well, but all his links are Rapidgator premium only, irritating....
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