Thomas Wayne born 22 July 1940

Thomas Wayne (July 22, 1940 - August 15, 1971) was an American singer. He is best remembered as a one-hit wonder for "Tragedy". 

He was born Thomas Wayne Perkins in Batesville, Mississippi and was the younger brother of Luther Perkins, the guitarist who developed and first played the trademark two-string guitar style behind Johnny Cash. Wayne attended Humes High School in Memphis, which Elvis had made famous in the few years since he had graduated from the school, located just a dozen or so blocks from the Union Avenue location of Sun Records. 

Thomas had a good excuse for stopping by the modest facility from time to time, not because of Presley, who had already left the label (and Memphis, temporarily) for RCA Victor's Nashville, New York and Hollywood studios while in the process of becoming a household name, but because his brother was a "big shot" with the Tennessee Two. 

L-R: Thomas Wayne, Carroll Smith,
Scotty Moore & Ron Stovall

It seems hanging around the Sun studio was a good idea considering the younger Perkins was introduced to Scotty Moore who later, in his capacity as vice president of Fernwood, took a chance with the budding singer. Wayne's first single for the label in 1958 was Ray Scott's "You're the One That Done It," a midtempo rocker also released on the larger Mercury label. The flip side, Chips Moman's "This Time," had hit potential realized three years later by Troy Shondell. 

                             

In September, Moore produced Wayne's recording of "Tragedy. The song was written by Fred Burch and Gerald Nelson. "Tragedy" was the biggest, and arguably best, piece of music they ever created, separately or collectively. Three girls from Humes High, all acquainted with Thomas, were called upon to supply background vocals at the session for "Tragedy" and its flip side, the teen-leaning "Saturday Date." Sandra Brown, Carol Moss and Nancy Reed were unceremoniously dubbed The DeLons and made the rounds with Wayne to perform and promote the record. 

It broke nationwide in January 1959 and reached the top ten in March. The girls were brought in for the follow-up single, "Eternally," amiably complementing Wayne's lead vocal on a Burch-Nelson ballad that was probably too similar to gain any momentum of its own; it barely scraped the charts in May while "Tragedy" was still riding high. It sold over one million copies, earning gold disc status. 

There was one more single with the DeLons and two solo 45s after that, including "Girl Next Door" in early 1960, written by Wayne with Bill Rice, another Fernwood artist. Elvis latched onto the song shortly after his March release from the Army, recording it as "Girl Next Door Went A'Walking" for his grand re-entrance LP, Elvis is Back! 

Wayne waxed one single "No More No More" for the Capehart label in 1961, then did a one-shot for Sun's subsidiary, Phillips International, "I've Got it Made" (written by Rice). He made one final effort for Santo Records  "8th Wonder of the World," another tune written by Gerald Nelson and Fred Burch. Fed up with his lack of success, Thomas largely retired from the mike and took more of a sound engineering role, behind the scenes, but still in the music industry. 

The message of "Tragedy" resonated further when a version by The Fleetwoods went top ten in the spring of 1961 and Brian Hyland's remake hit the charts in '69. The title of Wayne's one big hit can be regrettably applied to his own life. It’s documented that he was troubled by alcohol and family problems during his last few years. Scotty Moore reports that at that time Wayne’s behaviour had become increasingly erratic. Scotty, himself, was very supportive, recording and releasing records with Thomas on a record label he’d set up (Belle Meade). 

On August 15th 1971, Thomas drove down the entrance ramp on Interstate 240 in Memphis, crossed four lanes, went right across the partition straight into traffic coming from the other direction. He died seven hours later in hospital.  Although the death was recorded as accidental, most are under the opinion that it was suicide. 

(Edited from Way Back Attack & Toppermost)