Updates

• Added info on Jimmy Ford, thanks to Volker Houghton. • Extended and corrected the post on Happy Harold Thaxton (long overdue), thanks to everyone who sent in memories and information! • Added information to the Jim Murray post, provided by Mike Doyle, Dennis Rogers, and Marty Scarbrough. • Expanded the information on Charlie Dial found in the Little Shoe post.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Something about Bill Beach

Syd Nathan's King Records produced, although it's more famous for Country and R&B, some good Rockabilly. Listen to Charlie Feathers, Mac Curtis, Moon Mullican, Hardrock Gunter... then you know what I mean. Bill Beach is surely not a name that comes to mind when you hear "King Rockabilly", but the man with only one release did a good job, though. Let's see what we know about him:

Download his complete recordings

Rockabilly artist Bill Beach was born in 1932 in Glencoe, Kentucky. In 1956, he was active in Cincinnati, Ohio, and cut a session for King in April of that year. The backing band (ld gtr, stl gtr, bs, dms) is unknown to me, but the musicians sound like Delbert Barker's line-up later in June (Ralph Barker on gtr, Steve Lake on bs, Chubby Howard on stl gtr, Clarence Dison on dms) - but that's only a guess. However, Beach cut "Peg Pants" and "You're Gonna Like My Baby" (King 45-4940), which was issued in June on King. The record did not made the charts and Beach disappeared into the wildwood. Nobody knows what happened to him. Some suggested, "Bill Beach" was only a pseudonym for a country singer, who recorded rockabilly under this name, because he didn't want to upset his fans. But as Terry Gordon shows, Beach really existed.

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