TRIBUTE TO BILL BLACK
By Mahnuel Muñoz
Bill Black had two distinct phases in his career in which he left a notable mark on early rock & roll: first as Elvis Presley’s bassist and then as the leader of his own band, which had numerous instrumental hits in the early ’60s.
Black first recorded for Sun Records in early 1954 as a member of a country band, Doug Poindexter & The Starlite Wranglers, which also included guitarist Scotty Moore. The group issued only one single for Sun (“Now She Cares No More/”My Kind Of Carrying On“, 1954) but that was enough to introduce Black and Moore’s talent to Sun director Sam Phillips, who joined to the couple with Elvis Presley.
Elvis, Scotty and Bill released five singles with Sun between 1954 and 1955, which are generally recognized as some of the best rockabilly records ever made and show Presley at his most youthful and uninhibited. Black was a crucial part of Presley’s early sound with his “slapped” bass and exuberant stage attitude. Black continued to work with Presley until 1958, leaving the band in part due to disputes over financial terms.
He formed his Combo in 1959, and the instrumental “Smokie,” released late that year, reached the Top Ten on the charts.
Bill Black’s Combo stuck to the “Smokie” formula for many of their subsequent singles; They weren’t overly imaginative, but they were quite successful, placing eight singles in the Top 40 between 1959 and 1962, including “White Silver Sands“, “Josephine“, a version of the “Don’t Be Cruel” that he already did with Elvis, ” Blue Tango” and “Hearts Of Stone”. Their sales were largely boosted by the suitability of their rock instrumentals as background music in bars, clubs and dinner parties, with many of their records placed in jukeboxes. They were still in the Top 100 as of 1964, the year they were also on The Beatles‘ first American tour.
Black, unfortunately, developed a brain tumor and died on October 22, 1965 (according to Peter Guralnick‘s biography, October 21 according to other sources) at only 39 years old and before rock historians had the opportunity to allow him to tell his story. version of the Elvis Presley story.
Information provided by Mahnuel Muñoz
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