Pee Wee King
Pee Wee King ( born February 18, 1914 as Julius Frank Kuczynski in Abrams, Wisconsin, † March 7, 2000 in Louisville, Kentucky) was an American country music singer and songwriter, who wrote, among other things, the title of Tennessee Waltz.
- 2.1 albums
Life
From a young age played King fiddle and accordion in polka- group his father, who had immigrated from Poland to the United States. Gene Autry, who in Chicago had his own radio show, heard him play day and took him in his band. He coined the nickname " Pee Wee ". 1934 they moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where Autry and the band was hired by WHAS - TV channels. Autry joined shortly thereafter to Hollywood. Pee Wee King first worked with the Log Cabin Boys and then put together his own band, the Golden West Cowboys, who played a mix of western swing and pop music and non-standard for the country music of that time instruments such as drums, trumpet, accordion or electric guitar experimented.
Career
King proved to be a capable organizer and bandleader. In 1937, he and his band received an engagement at the Grand Ole Opry. As a singer talents such as Eddy Arnold or Cowboy Copas were hired, which itself became stars later. Important personality was multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Redd Stewart, together with the King 1946 wrote the hit song Tennessee Waltz. A year later they reached with the song number three on the country charts. Patti Page thus succeeded in 1950 a worldwide hit. In the following years and decades, the title of numerous musicians was interpreted and guaranteed its creators a steady flow of royalties.
A little later King succeeded with Tennessee Polka again a place - 3 hit before with Slow Poke could conquer the top spot in 1951 for the first time. In the pop charts and reached number 3 on the plate was 22 weeks listed in the charts. His chart success continued until the mid-1950s. After that, he was mainly successful as a songwriter. He had several TV shows and took roles in Gene Autry - Westerns.
1970 Pee Wee King, who composed more than 400 songs in his life, was admitted to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Four years later he received the highest award of country music: He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. He also took over important positions in the influential Country Music Association for several years.
Pee Wee King died on 7 March 2000 at the age of 86 of a heart attack.