Sonny
West {born July 30, 1937, near Lubbock, Texas) is a rock and roll-musician. He
wrote "Oh, Boy!" and several other Buddy Holly songs.
Joe
"Sonny" was the fifth and last child of Joseph & Alberta West. He
was born July 30 1937 at the family home in Clovis Road, on the outskirts of
Lubbock. Shortly afterwards the family moved to El Morro, a rural area near
Grants, NM where the family homesteaded 160 acres. Although the family
invariably lived in remote areas, 
which didn't have electricity, Sonny was
listening to the family's collection of 78's on a wind-up gramophone by the age
of 6. This covered marching songs by John Philip Sousa to Gene Austin and
Jimmie Rodgers train songs.
Sonny
played various brass instruments at school and took up mandolin during a spell
in California. On returning to New Mexico he had private guitar lessons from
Michael Lee Bell whose father was a local musician. School Music Appreciation
courses introduced him to classical music but by his early teens Sonny was more
interested in blues, especially Jimmy Reed, together with some country by the
likes of Hank Williams. This naturally led him to rock & roll. Sonny left
school in Gallup, NM at age 17 and started working at a general store in a
Navajo Reservation where it was normal to trade shop merchandise for handmade
Indian jewellery and rugs. He'd already been working school concerts and
whatever other gigs he could find.
By
late 1955 Sonny was living in Farmington, NM where he befriended Gibson-playing
lead guitarist, Buddy Smith. They worked together on a live Saturday night show
for the local station, 
Radio KENN and whatever gigs they could find. Around
April 1956 Sonny phoned Sam Phillips in hopes of an audition for Sun Records
but Sam discouraged the idea. Nevertheless he quit his job at a Ford dealership
and made the long speculative trip to Memphis in his '51 Chevy to audition. But
Sam wouldn't even listen, saying he already had too much talent to handle. The trip
wiped out all Sonny's money and he moved in with his sister Ramona and her
husband in Texas. He met and was encouraged by Bob Kaliff, a DJ at the local
Radio KLVT.
Sonny
soon formed a band with Jimmy Metz (string bass) and Doc McKay (drums) and as
the sound developed he asked Smith to join the band with the intention of
getting a recording contract. McKay's mother ran a Dance Studio, which the
group used to rehearse and write songs. They were never more than part-time
musicians but 
worked as far away as Dallas, where they guested on the Big 'D'
Jamboree but discovered they couldn't follow Jerry Reed. They also had a
residency at a Lubbock teen club (probably the Bamboo) where Sonny met Buddy
Holly. The two also worked on KDAV's Sunday Party.
Sonny
began recording demos of his songs; one was titled All My Love which was
covered by Buddy Holly as Oh Boy for which Norman Petty added his name to the
composer credits. Sonny left Clovis after a blazing row at a 1958 recording
session between Sonny & Norman.
Sonny,
like many others, may have had mixed feelings about his association with Norman
Petty but his income as a songwriter was certainly increased thanks to Buddy
Holly and The Crickets recording his songs. Whether Petty's share of the
songwriting and publishing royalties of these songs could be justified is less
certain, 
and Sonny's career as a singer certainly faltered after he refused to
assign a third of the writer's share along with the customary 50% publishers
cut. Despite this, he remained in contact with Norman and Vi Petty until their
deaths and continued to offer them new songs. Unfortunately, the present owners
of the Petty Studios have not responded to Sonny's requests to return to him
the unissued (and possibly forgotten) recordings that probaby remain in their
vaults.
Sadly,
in the early 1960's he became involved in a pseudo-religious group which almost
destroyed him partly because he agreed to their demand he renounce music and
trash all copies of his discs.
Since
quitting music Sonny has paid the bills by distributing and
repairing jukeboxes
and pinball machines, naturally including 
Rock-Ola product! He gained a patent
on a new cartridge which allowed modern microgroove stereo discs to be played
on old jukeboxes. He's also worked as a rancher and silversmith but became a
photocopier technician in 1985.
In 1990 Sonny privately issued a 12 song
cassette including one new song, the clever "Ride", which may be the
only song to link "Maybelline", "CC Rider" and Luke The
Drifter, and a new version of "Oh Boy" which was inspired by an
"Oh Buick" car advert and contains the new line "Oh Boy, I've
Seen The Light" which pays homage to Hank Williams and is perhaps Sonny's
reaction to composer credits on publishing contracts.
West’s
‘50s life as a musician and songwriter was not easy, especially because of his
parents’ frequent relocations in the 
Southwest. But that didn’t dissuade him
from his artistic expression. It only made him more determined, and even though
West experienced frequent, rock-ribbed painful moments of discouragement, he
had the strength and exceptional talent to meet that powerful negative head on
and come away a winner. Without a doubt, Sonny West has earned his due as a
major historic contributor during the maturation of rock ‘n’ roll while it was
in its early infancy.
West is one of the original inductees of the
Rockabilly Hall of Fame® and the West Texas Musicians Hall of Fame and is the
recipient of BMI's million airplays award. His songs have been recorded by
scores of artists and are featured in dozens of movies, TV shows and
documentaries.
Sonny
continues to write and record his own material and since coming out of musical
retirement in 2001 regularly appears on stage shows and roots music shows
performing his well known classics. (info edited mainly from rollercoasterrecords.com)
Blue Monday ( France ) Presents " There's A Good Rockin' Tonight 10 éme Anniversary "
Festival d'Attignat 29 / 04 / 2012 Tommy Allsup & Sonny West - It's So Easy
After high school he went to work with fiddle player Art
Davis in Miami, Oklahoma; from there to the Cowboy Inn in Wichita, Kansas with
singer, fiddle player Jimmy Hall. In 1952 and 1953, he moved back to Tulsa,
Oklahoma to join the "Johnnie Lee Wills Band." From 1953 to 1958, he
had his own band, "The Southernaires" in Lawton, Oklahoma with home base
being the Southern Club.
After Holly's death, in 1959 Allsup moved to Los Angeles
where he played with local bands, and did session work, including a songwriting
credit for The Ventures, "Guitar Twist". He returned to Odessa,
Texas, where he worked with Ronnie Smith, Roy Orbison, and producer Willie
Nelson. He was also producer on the futuristic, prophetic trans-Atlantic &
Australasian hit, "In the Year 2525" by one-hit-wonders Zager &
Evans. 
