Glenn Reeves

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Glenn Reeves.

Glenn Reeves (born Floyd Glenn Reeves December 29, 1930 - November 19, 1998) was an American rockabilly singer-songwriter and radio deejay. He released eight singles in his recording career, but is best-remembered for his demo of the song "Heartbreak Hotel" which later became Elvis Presley's first number one hit.

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered "classic" rock and roll. Some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll. The term "rockabilly" itself is a portmanteau of "rock" and "hillbilly", the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie-woogie, jump blues, and electric blues.

Single (music) Type of music release usually containing one or two tracks

In the music industry, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular. In other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album.

Heartbreak Hotel single

"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Tommy Durden, Mae Boren Axton and Elvis Presley.

Biography

Reeves was raised in Shamrock, Texas; while in high school he formed his first band which played Western swing music. He studied briefly at the University of Houston before serving in the Korean War. After returning from the military, he received a position as a radio deejay on KCTX (AM) Radio in Childress. In 1955, Reeves recorded his debut single "I'm Johnny on the Spot" for record producer Bob Tanner's TNT Records. Reeves recorded an additional single for the label in the same year. A frequent collaborator with him was Mae Boren Axton, a high school teacher with a background in musical promotion who co-wrote all four of Reeves' TNT sides. [1] [2]

Shamrock, Texas City in Texas, United States

Shamrock is a city in Wheeler County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 1,910. The city is located in the eastern portion of the Texas Panhandle centered along the crossroads of Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 83. It is 110 miles (180 km) east of Amarillo, 188 miles (303 km) west of Oklahoma City, and 291 miles (468 km) northwest of Dallas.

Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance halls and clubs in Texas, Oklahoma and California during the 1930s and 1940s until a federal war-time nightclub tax in 1944 contributed to the genre's decline.

University of Houston state research university in Houston, Texas, United States

The University of Houston (UH) is a public research university in Houston, Texas and the main institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, UH is the third-largest university in Texas with over 46,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of Houston–University Park from 1983 to 1991. The Carnegie Foundation classifies UH as a doctoral degree-granting institution with "highest research activity."

Axton, who was tasked with writing a song for Elvis Presley, worked most frequently with steel guitarist Tommy Durden, culminating with the basis for the song "Heartbreak Hotel", in October 1955. The duo asked for Reeves' help, but remarked it was "the silliest thing I've ever heard" after he heard the title of the track. Nonetheless, Axton recorded an initial version with Durden before Reeves returned, and agreed to record his own demo of "Heartbreak Hotel" in a style similar to Presley's. Reeves refused an offer to be co-credited with the song, but, when Presley recorded it, he duplicated Reeves's own phrasing; "Elvis was even breathing in the same places that Glenn did on the dub" Durbin later recalled. It was Presley's first record for RCA Records and also the first of a string of number one hits. [3] [4]

Elvis Presley American singer and actor

Elvis Aaron Presley, also known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".

Steel guitar type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument

Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii by Joseph Kekuku in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use of a bar or slide called a steel.

Tommy Durden American musician

Thomas Russell Durden was an American steel guitarist and songwriter, who is most notable for co-writing Elvis Presley's breakthrough hit, "Heartbreak Hotel".

Reeves continued to work with Axton and Durden on compositions like "Honey Bop" for Wanda Jackson and "Rockin' Country Style", a rock and roll tune which Reeves recorded in June 1956 for Atco Records. Both "Rockin' Country Style" and an earlier single distributed by Republic Records were produced by Murray Nash in Nashville. [3] When Atco showed no interest in renewing his recording contract, Nash and Axton advertised Reeves's services around Nashville and secured a four-record deal with Decca Records. He recorded in 1957 and 1958 with little success, and later focused on the music scene in Florida disc jockeying on WQIK Radio and hosting his own country music show. In the 1970s and 1980s, Reeves became the executive producer of Jamboree USA , a long-running barn dance show, while promoting several successful country music festivals. [2]

Wanda Jackson American singer, songwriter, and musician

Wanda Lavonne Jackson is a retired American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist who had success in the mid-1950s and 1960s as one of the first popular female rockabilly singers, and a pioneering rock-and-roll artist. She is known to many as the "Queen of Rockabilly" or the "First Lady of Rockabilly".

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s from musical styles such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues, and country music. While elements of what was to become rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until 1954.

ATCO Records is an American record company and label founded in 1955 as a division of Atlantic Records. It was devised as an outlet for productions by one of Atlantic's founders, Herb Abramson, who had returned to the company from military service. It was also intended as a home for acts that did not fit the format of Atlantic, which was releasing blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and soul. The Atco name is an abbreviation of ATlantic COrporation. Atco also provided distribution for other labels, including RSO Records, Volt, Island, Modern, Ruthless, and Rolling Stones Records.

Reeves died of cancer in 1998 at 67 years old. [2] In 2011, Bear Family Records released Johnny on the Spot: Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight, a compilation album of Reeves's recorded works, including his demo of "Heartbreak Hotel". [5]

Bear Family Records record label

Bear Family Records is a Germany-based independent record label that specializes in reissues of archival material ranging from country music to 1950s rock and roll to old German movie soundtracks.

A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for release together as a single work, but may be collected together as a greatest hits album or box set. If from several performers, there may be a theme, topic, time period, or genre which links the tracks, or they may have been intended for release as a single work—such as a tribute album. When the tracks are by the same recording artist, the album may be referred to as a retrospective album or an anthology.

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References

  1. ↑ Leggett, Steve. "Glenn Reeves - Biography". allmusic.com. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "GLENN REEVES". rockabilly.nl. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Hawkins, Martin (2011). "Johnny on the Spot: Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight (CD booklet)". Bear Family Records.Missing or empty |url= (help)
  4. ↑ "Mae Boren Axton Interviews Elvis Presley : 1955". elvis.com. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  5. ↑ Erlewine, Steven. "Johnny on the Spot: Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight - Review". allmusic.com. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
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