Hal Willis
Hal Willis ( born July 15, 1933, Rouyn -Noranda, Quebec, Canada as Leonald Francois Joseph Guy Gauthier ) is a Canadian country music and rockabilly singer and songwriter.
- 2.1 Singles
- 2.2 albums
Life
Childhood and youth
Born and raised in the French speaking part of Canada on a farm, Gauthier said, accordingly, only French as a mother tongue. Nevertheless, he heard excited the Grand Ole Opry to, one of the most successful radio show in America and was a fan of Hank Williams. His brother played guitar and sang, generally his family was very musical. After Gauthier had completed the sixth grade, he left home and traveled through the country. He has worked as a lumberjack or van driver. In the evening he appeared as a musician on in bars and hotels to supplement his livelihood.
In 1949 he met the country singer Ginger Booth, and was a member of her band, the Melody Rangers. Booth brought Gauthier in English and together they joined the radio stations CKRN in Rouyin and CFCF in Montreal. After the furniture store owner George Taylor, who also owned a record label, the two at one of her performances in the Beaver Club heard, he offered them the chance to take plates on his label. However, Gauthier should acclimate for an English - sounding name. Thus, from Leonald Gauthier " Hal Willis ". With Ginger Willis took on some hillbilly songs that have been published in Taylor's Rodeo Records. In August 1951 Willis and Booth were married.
Career
After an appearance in the American Buffalo advised them to Webb Pierce, who had been following her performance to move to Nashville, since there the possibilities seemed bigger to start a career.
Willis and his wife followed Pierce's advice and traveled to Nashville. Through his help Hal and Ginger got a job at the Rainbow Club. Ginger also worked as a secretary for Marty Robbins. In February 1956, Willis received an invitation from country singer Hank Snow, participate with his wife on a tour of the USA. On the tour also took part of the rock ' n' roll star Bill Haley and the young Elvis Presley. Inspired by Elvis' rockabilly title Willis wrote some rockabilly tracks. In Murray Nash's recording studio, which was in the same building as the office of Marty Robbins, Willis took the title My Pink Cadillac and Bop -A- Dee Bop -A- Doo in a session with Glenn Reeves on. In return, Willis played on Reeves recording Rockin ' Rollin' Country Style guitar. Willis ' plates are now very popular with rockabilly collectors but also extremely expensive. In 1958 he played for a Top Hit Tunes cover from current hits and took in the next few years for various record labels, including Decca Records, Athens and Records Sims Records. In Sims he could publish his most successful single. The Country Title The Lumberjack peaked at # 5 on the Billboard charts and sold over 1.5 million copies. He also had the opportunity to go with the big stars of country music on tour, so among other things, Webb Pierce, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Porter Wagoner and Loretta Lynn.
Willis remained active as a musician and composer and performed publicly. In the years 2000 and 2001 he made three albums again with attention to itself, two of which are Coast To Coast and the Christmas album Santa's Clones. There is also some singles were released from the albums. On October 26, 2003 his wife Ginger died.
Even today occurs Hal Willis on publicly. He is planning another album in the future.