08/11: Hank Thompson, 1925-2007
Category: American Culture
Posted by: A Waco Farmer
From the Waco Trib:
"Hank Thompson, Waco native, died Tuesday of lung cancer at his Keller home; he was 82. Thompson shaped country music in the 1950s and 1960s with his “honky tonk swing,” a danceable sound that made his Brazos Valley Boys the No. 1 country music band from 1953 to 1965. He pioneered much that is standard in the music industry, from lighting and sound systems to stereo recording, live albums and Las Vegas concerts."
"Thompson’s death came only days after spokesman…had announced the country star was retiring after more than 60 years as a performer. Fittingly for some Waco friends, his last public performance came Oct. 8 at the Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo, a day proclaimed as Hank Thompson Day by Gov. Rick Perry and Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy."
I am linking Carl Hoover's excellent obituary here--but I am also adding the tribute in full under the "read more" section, as the Trib does not permanently archive their stories on the internet.
Country Music Hall of Fame link here.
Via YouTube, Thompson's first hit, "Whoa Sailor," and a retrospective montage to the tune of "Six Pack to Go."
Perhaps his most famous lyric (from the "Wild Side of Life") and one that embodies a dominant motif for a generation of country music artists and fans:
I didn't know God made honky tonk angels
I might have known you'd never make a wife
You gave up the only one that ever loved you
And went back to the wild side of life
The glamour of the gay night life has lured you
To the places where the wine and liquor flows
Where you wait to be anybody's baby
And forget the truest love you'll ever know
Perhaps the quintessential "somebody done somebody wrong song."
From the Bosque Boys: Hats off to the leader of the Brazos Valley Boys. Rest in Peace.
For the Trib article in its entirety:
Hank Thompson remembered as a local country music pioneer
Thursday, November 08, 2007
By Carl Hoover and Terri Jo Ryan
Tribune-Herald staff writers
Friends and classmates of country music great Hank Thompson added a final verse of fond memories and praise after the Waco native died Tuesday of lung cancer at his Keller home.
Thompson, 82, shaped country music in the 1950s and 1960s with his “honky tonk swing,” a danceable sound that made his Brazos Valley Boys the No. 1 country music band from 1953 to 1965. He pioneered much that is standard in the music industry, from lighting and sound systems to stereo recording, live albums and Las Vegas concerts.
What do you think?
Share your memories of Hank Thompson — click here
What friends remembered Wednesday, though, was what millions of fans had heard in the singer’s warm, jaunty baritone or saw in his smile: a matter-of-fact friendliness that never quit in spite of his considerable fame and fortune.
“He rose about as high in his chosen profession as anyone can, and yet he never forgot his roots — his family or his friends or his fans,” said longtime friend Milton Wilson, who knew Thompson since their days as West Junior High School students in 1938.
Thompson’s death came only days after spokesman Tracy Pitcox had announced the country star was retiring after more than 60 years as a performer. Fittingly for some Waco friends, his last public performance came Oct. 8 at the Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo, a day proclaimed as Hank Thompson Day by Gov. Rick Perry and Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy.
He was born Sept. 3, 1925, the son of mechanic Jule Thompson and Zexia Ida Wells Thompson. His family called him by his given name, Henry William, but everyone else knew him as Hank, and music soon became connected with his name.
“We used to play on the streets for nickels and dimes,” recalled 82-year-old Louis Miller, “me and him and Tommy Williams. I was a drummer, Hank played the guitar, of course, and Tommy played bass. . . . We were poor as snakes, but we had lots of fun.”
Thompson’s first step up the ladder of success came through the talent show on broadcaster Mary Holliday’s “Jones’ Fine Bread Kiddie Matinee Show” on WACO-AM. His singing and harmonica playing made him such a hands-down favorite that Wilson, who would go on to a career as an actor in New York, recalled that kids would throw their hands up in resignation whenever they heard Thompson was scheduled to compete.
“It was a done deal: He’d win,” Wilson said.
Thompson parlayed his singing talent into radio, and as a high school student, he could be heard on WACO as “Hank the Hired Hand.” After graduating from Waco High School, he served in the U.S. Navy, where he spent off-time performing in stateside clubs and on the ships on which he served.
He also studied electronics on the GI Bill after his Navy service and would go on to study electrical engineering at Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Austin and Princeton University — a technical background that few country singers could boast and one that made him quick to adopt advances such as stage lighting, portable sound systems and stereo recording years before his competitors.
“He was my idol for many, many years,” said Waco guitarist Ken Frazier. Frazier, 69, remembered that Thompson would come and sit on the porch of the Fraziers’ Parrott Avenue home, play guitar and sing for the neighborhood’s kids. When rheumatic fever left Frazier homebound for months at a time, Thompson would drop by with his girlfriend, Dorothy Ray (who would become Thompson’s first wife), visit and play guitar.
And when Frazier’s own guitar playing threatened to keep him off Holliday’s talent show, Thompson intervened. “Hank tuned that thing for me, showed me two chords and the songs I could sing with those two chords,” Frazier said.
Thompson’s Country Music Hall of Fame biography says he might have gone into electrical engineering but for “Whoa, Sailor,” his song that became a regional hit in 1947 and opened doors to Nashville, thanks to country star Tex Ritter.
The rest became country history. The Texas singer followed up “Whoa, Sailor” with national hits like “Humpty Dumpty Heart” and “Green Light.”
In 1952, Thompson and his Brazos Valley Boys topped the country charts with what became his best-known song, “The Wild Side of Life.”
That song, which featured the lyric, “I didn’t know God made honky-tonk angels,” inspired a famous “answer song.” “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” written by J.D. Miller, became a No. 1 hit for Kitty Wells.
Thompson’s ear for what country listeners wanted and his songwriting skills fueled remarkable chart success in the 1950s and 1960s with hits like “Rub-a-Dub-Dub,” “Waiting in the Lobby of Your Heart,” “Six-Pack to Go,” “Oklahoma Hills,” “Wake Up, Irene” and “Squaws Along the Yukon.”
It established a career that would include such accomplishments as:
* 29 Top 10 country hits.
* 79 charted country hits.
* Charted songs in six decades.
* Thompson’s Brazos Valley Boys’ unmatched reign as Billboard’s top country band from 1953 to 1965.
* Performances on seven continents.
* The first live country album, 1961’s Live at the Golden Nugget.
* Election to the Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1997.
While Thompson’s contributions to country music were considerable, his relatively circumspect behavior didn’t trigger the celebrity gossip and stories that floated about such legends as Hank Williams or George Jones. “He wasn’t a character,” Frazier said. “There are not a lot of Hank Thompson stories like you hear about Hank Williams or Merle Haggard.”
Unless you count the two times when Thompson, with perhaps more than a six-pack to go, almost crashed the private plane he was fond of flying to and from gigs, Frazier added.
Country music’s shift to a pop-influenced sound in the ’70s saw Thompson’s music fade from country charts, but the musician kept up a busy schedule into the 1990s, thanks in part to rediscovered interest in his songs in the 1980s, when country tipped back to a more traditional sound. In 1989, Thompson was inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame, the only Waco musician with that honor.
He was back in Texas around that time, settling near Keller with his second wife, Ann, whom he married in 1970. It was in that home where he died Tuesday night.
Waco musician Dick Gimble, son of famed Texas fiddler Johnny Gimble, played with Thompson about 10 times in his career, including — another first for Thompson — the first country music cruise ship tour in 1981.
Gimble played with Thompson one last time in May when Thompson joined Johnny Gimble in a joint concert at McLennan Community College’s Bosque River Stage. Thompson’s health led him to perform while seated in a chair, but he stayed after the show to sign scores of autographs, Gimble recalled.
Waco country band leader Johnny Bradshaw, a founder of the Music Association of Central Texas, remembered that night. “There was Johnny Gimble, 81, and Hank Thompson, 81, under the blue moon,” he said. “I remember thinking, ‘Everyone here should remember this night for the rest of their lives because it was happening once in a blue moon.’ ”
Thompson’s final month brought him back to his hometown. Zack Owen and Jim Cody, morning personalities on country station WACO-FM, interviewed him before his HOT Fair appearance.
“We talked about how country music had changed over the years, and he mentioned that musicians bonded together more back then, thanks to package tours where they all traveled together,” Owen said. “He was a true legend, maybe one of those overlooked legends . . . and his last show was in Waco. How better could that be?”
Bradshaw will air a tribute to the country music legend Sunday on his “Texas Barn Dance” program, which airs from 7 p.m. to midnight on KBCT-FM (94.5).
A celebration of Thompson’s life and career will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the famed Fort Worth country nightclub Billy Bob’s Texas. Thompson’s widow, Ann, requests that donations in his name be made to The Heart of Texas Country Music Museum in Brady or a favorite charity.
choover@wacotrib.com
757-5749
"Hank Thompson, Waco native, died Tuesday of lung cancer at his Keller home; he was 82. Thompson shaped country music in the 1950s and 1960s with his “honky tonk swing,” a danceable sound that made his Brazos Valley Boys the No. 1 country music band from 1953 to 1965. He pioneered much that is standard in the music industry, from lighting and sound systems to stereo recording, live albums and Las Vegas concerts."
"Thompson’s death came only days after spokesman…had announced the country star was retiring after more than 60 years as a performer. Fittingly for some Waco friends, his last public performance came Oct. 8 at the Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo, a day proclaimed as Hank Thompson Day by Gov. Rick Perry and Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy."
I am linking Carl Hoover's excellent obituary here--but I am also adding the tribute in full under the "read more" section, as the Trib does not permanently archive their stories on the internet.
Country Music Hall of Fame link here.
Via YouTube, Thompson's first hit, "Whoa Sailor," and a retrospective montage to the tune of "Six Pack to Go."
Perhaps his most famous lyric (from the "Wild Side of Life") and one that embodies a dominant motif for a generation of country music artists and fans:
I didn't know God made honky tonk angels
I might have known you'd never make a wife
You gave up the only one that ever loved you
And went back to the wild side of life
The glamour of the gay night life has lured you
To the places where the wine and liquor flows
Where you wait to be anybody's baby
And forget the truest love you'll ever know
Perhaps the quintessential "somebody done somebody wrong song."
From the Bosque Boys: Hats off to the leader of the Brazos Valley Boys. Rest in Peace.
For the Trib article in its entirety:
Hank Thompson remembered as a local country music pioneer
Thursday, November 08, 2007
By Carl Hoover and Terri Jo Ryan
Tribune-Herald staff writers
Friends and classmates of country music great Hank Thompson added a final verse of fond memories and praise after the Waco native died Tuesday of lung cancer at his Keller home.
Thompson, 82, shaped country music in the 1950s and 1960s with his “honky tonk swing,” a danceable sound that made his Brazos Valley Boys the No. 1 country music band from 1953 to 1965. He pioneered much that is standard in the music industry, from lighting and sound systems to stereo recording, live albums and Las Vegas concerts.
What do you think?
Share your memories of Hank Thompson — click here
What friends remembered Wednesday, though, was what millions of fans had heard in the singer’s warm, jaunty baritone or saw in his smile: a matter-of-fact friendliness that never quit in spite of his considerable fame and fortune.
“He rose about as high in his chosen profession as anyone can, and yet he never forgot his roots — his family or his friends or his fans,” said longtime friend Milton Wilson, who knew Thompson since their days as West Junior High School students in 1938.
Thompson’s death came only days after spokesman Tracy Pitcox had announced the country star was retiring after more than 60 years as a performer. Fittingly for some Waco friends, his last public performance came Oct. 8 at the Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo, a day proclaimed as Hank Thompson Day by Gov. Rick Perry and Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy.
He was born Sept. 3, 1925, the son of mechanic Jule Thompson and Zexia Ida Wells Thompson. His family called him by his given name, Henry William, but everyone else knew him as Hank, and music soon became connected with his name.
“We used to play on the streets for nickels and dimes,” recalled 82-year-old Louis Miller, “me and him and Tommy Williams. I was a drummer, Hank played the guitar, of course, and Tommy played bass. . . . We were poor as snakes, but we had lots of fun.”
Thompson’s first step up the ladder of success came through the talent show on broadcaster Mary Holliday’s “Jones’ Fine Bread Kiddie Matinee Show” on WACO-AM. His singing and harmonica playing made him such a hands-down favorite that Wilson, who would go on to a career as an actor in New York, recalled that kids would throw their hands up in resignation whenever they heard Thompson was scheduled to compete.
“It was a done deal: He’d win,” Wilson said.
Thompson parlayed his singing talent into radio, and as a high school student, he could be heard on WACO as “Hank the Hired Hand.” After graduating from Waco High School, he served in the U.S. Navy, where he spent off-time performing in stateside clubs and on the ships on which he served.
He also studied electronics on the GI Bill after his Navy service and would go on to study electrical engineering at Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Austin and Princeton University — a technical background that few country singers could boast and one that made him quick to adopt advances such as stage lighting, portable sound systems and stereo recording years before his competitors.
“He was my idol for many, many years,” said Waco guitarist Ken Frazier. Frazier, 69, remembered that Thompson would come and sit on the porch of the Fraziers’ Parrott Avenue home, play guitar and sing for the neighborhood’s kids. When rheumatic fever left Frazier homebound for months at a time, Thompson would drop by with his girlfriend, Dorothy Ray (who would become Thompson’s first wife), visit and play guitar.
And when Frazier’s own guitar playing threatened to keep him off Holliday’s talent show, Thompson intervened. “Hank tuned that thing for me, showed me two chords and the songs I could sing with those two chords,” Frazier said.
Thompson’s Country Music Hall of Fame biography says he might have gone into electrical engineering but for “Whoa, Sailor,” his song that became a regional hit in 1947 and opened doors to Nashville, thanks to country star Tex Ritter.
The rest became country history. The Texas singer followed up “Whoa, Sailor” with national hits like “Humpty Dumpty Heart” and “Green Light.”
In 1952, Thompson and his Brazos Valley Boys topped the country charts with what became his best-known song, “The Wild Side of Life.”
That song, which featured the lyric, “I didn’t know God made honky-tonk angels,” inspired a famous “answer song.” “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” written by J.D. Miller, became a No. 1 hit for Kitty Wells.
Thompson’s ear for what country listeners wanted and his songwriting skills fueled remarkable chart success in the 1950s and 1960s with hits like “Rub-a-Dub-Dub,” “Waiting in the Lobby of Your Heart,” “Six-Pack to Go,” “Oklahoma Hills,” “Wake Up, Irene” and “Squaws Along the Yukon.”
It established a career that would include such accomplishments as:
* 29 Top 10 country hits.
* 79 charted country hits.
* Charted songs in six decades.
* Thompson’s Brazos Valley Boys’ unmatched reign as Billboard’s top country band from 1953 to 1965.
* Performances on seven continents.
* The first live country album, 1961’s Live at the Golden Nugget.
* Election to the Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1997.
While Thompson’s contributions to country music were considerable, his relatively circumspect behavior didn’t trigger the celebrity gossip and stories that floated about such legends as Hank Williams or George Jones. “He wasn’t a character,” Frazier said. “There are not a lot of Hank Thompson stories like you hear about Hank Williams or Merle Haggard.”
Unless you count the two times when Thompson, with perhaps more than a six-pack to go, almost crashed the private plane he was fond of flying to and from gigs, Frazier added.
Country music’s shift to a pop-influenced sound in the ’70s saw Thompson’s music fade from country charts, but the musician kept up a busy schedule into the 1990s, thanks in part to rediscovered interest in his songs in the 1980s, when country tipped back to a more traditional sound. In 1989, Thompson was inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame, the only Waco musician with that honor.
He was back in Texas around that time, settling near Keller with his second wife, Ann, whom he married in 1970. It was in that home where he died Tuesday night.
Waco musician Dick Gimble, son of famed Texas fiddler Johnny Gimble, played with Thompson about 10 times in his career, including — another first for Thompson — the first country music cruise ship tour in 1981.
Gimble played with Thompson one last time in May when Thompson joined Johnny Gimble in a joint concert at McLennan Community College’s Bosque River Stage. Thompson’s health led him to perform while seated in a chair, but he stayed after the show to sign scores of autographs, Gimble recalled.
Waco country band leader Johnny Bradshaw, a founder of the Music Association of Central Texas, remembered that night. “There was Johnny Gimble, 81, and Hank Thompson, 81, under the blue moon,” he said. “I remember thinking, ‘Everyone here should remember this night for the rest of their lives because it was happening once in a blue moon.’ ”
Thompson’s final month brought him back to his hometown. Zack Owen and Jim Cody, morning personalities on country station WACO-FM, interviewed him before his HOT Fair appearance.
“We talked about how country music had changed over the years, and he mentioned that musicians bonded together more back then, thanks to package tours where they all traveled together,” Owen said. “He was a true legend, maybe one of those overlooked legends . . . and his last show was in Waco. How better could that be?”
Bradshaw will air a tribute to the country music legend Sunday on his “Texas Barn Dance” program, which airs from 7 p.m. to midnight on KBCT-FM (94.5).
A celebration of Thompson’s life and career will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the famed Fort Worth country nightclub Billy Bob’s Texas. Thompson’s widow, Ann, requests that donations in his name be made to The Heart of Texas Country Music Museum in Brady or a favorite charity.
choover@wacotrib.com
757-5749
