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Tex Williams real success would follow. The experts one chart single, which was also the
were proved wrong though. Thanks to title of the album which was out over
Continued from page 18 the mode.rn production of singer/ song- here on Pye "The· Hazy, Lazy Days Of
:writer Ray Pennington, the South/Lee Summer" (Pye International NSPL
Chart-wise, Tex Williams went
through a quiet patch after "Smoke, composition "Too Many Tigers" broke 28201).
Smoke, Smoke" in 1947. The following the duck with a minor run in 1965. In What of the future? Well, as you
year he had a minor pop and Country the. same year Kenny Price's com- probably saw in July's CMP, Tex has an
hit with "Life Gets Tee-jus, Don't It". position "Big Tennessee" also reached . album out on · a new West Coast label
But the major honours for this comedy the lower reaches of rhe charts. It bore Cor.ral Records, and I asked him if he
narration went to the tune's composer, more than a passing resemblance to could foresee when he would take to
the legendary old-timer Carson J. Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John", and the road again with a full western
Robison. In 1949 fex scored with Jimmy was among those who noticed, swing sound. "It's already starting to
"There's A Bluebird On Your Window- but he took no action. "Bottom Of A happen in the States", he replied.
sill", then for 16 long years Tex Mountain", in 1966, became Tex's first "Leon McAuliff, I had a call from him
Williams was totally missing from the top 20 hit since 1949. a few months ago, asked if I could get
Billboard Country Charts. Tex continued with a succession of part of the original band together. Of
minor hits on Boone until 1968 (one
Like all Country singers in the middle of the last was "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke course a lot of the original Wes tern
and late fifties, Tex suffered badly from '68"). In 1970, afte.r Boone had. folded, Caravan are gone, but people like
the rock and .roll era. At one time, on he followed his producer Ray Penning- W. Murphy on the steel guitar, Pedro
the Decca label, he even went rock- ton to Monument Records, and re- DePaul on the accordian, are still
abilly himself, but to no avail. Unlike entered the charts with a song called around. Leon said rhe colleges are
many of his contemporaries, he took "It Ain't No Big Thing", and it wasn't. crying out for the original sound of the
a very long time to be re-established But the follow-up did much better. Texas Playboys and Leon's band -The
as a chart artiste, with stints at Liberty, This wa·s an early Dick Feller novelty Cimarron Boys, and the Western Cara-
in addition to Decca, providing no real song with a long-winded title "The van, and you can name your own
chart success. This is not to say that Night Miss Nancy Ann's Hotel For price". The interview took place over
in this lean period Tex was inactive. Single Girls Burned Down", and it did a year ago, and to the best of my
On the contrary, he toured all over the much to re-activate Tex's career. Tex knowledge this has yet to happen, . but
wo.rld working civilian and servicemen's only had a couple of small successes with the popularity of Western Swing
clubs and theatres, but his career was on Monument and, 1 n 1972, left the constantly on the increase it's surely
in dire need of a boost. It came from label. He signed to the West Coast only a matter of time.
a surprising quarter. label . Granite, which is owned by So there is plenty of life left in Tex
During the mid-sixties the small Britain's own ATV Co.rporation, but Williams, a unique talent, and one
labels did not enjoy the power they run by the legendary West Coast whose best times could be yet to come,
have today, and when Tex Williams . producer Cliffie Stone, who has excelled at an age when most people in the
signed for the tiny Boone label, no one in almost every facet· of the music entertainment business are totally
in the music business thought that any business. The partnership .resulted in forgotten.

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