Thomas Wayne (singer)
Thomas Wayne ( born July 22, 1940 in Batesville, Mississippi, as Thomas Wayne Perkins; † August 15, 1971 in Memphis, Tennessee) was an American rockabilly and pop singer. His biggest hit was Tragedy.
Life
Childhood and youth
Thomas Wayne was born in 1940 in Mississippi. His twelve- year older brother was Luther Perkins, the beginning of the 1950s moved to Memphis, where Johnny Cash met and whose guitarist was. Thomas Wayne attended Humes High School in Memphis and founded during which his classmates Nancy Reed, Sandra Brown and Carol Moss a quartet.
Career
With this group, and the young guitarist Chips Moman, he performed at school events. As a newspaper boy, he also came to Scotty Moore's house and sang to it one day. Moore was impressed: " Thomas was my paper boy [ ... ] But he always wanted to sing. . So finally, We took Thomas and cut a couple of sides on him. He had a good voice. "Along with Moore, Bill Black (bass) and Jimmy Van Eaton (drums) took Wayne You're the One That Done It / This Time on, which was published by Fernwood Records. The plate showed good airplay and would re-published in March 1958 by Mercury Records.
For his Wayne's Single Scotty Moore picked the ballad Tragedy, which was written by Gerald Nelson Fred Burch. Wayne brought the De - Lons and together with musicians such as Joe Lee ( saxophone), the song was recorded at Hi Studio. For about three months nothing happened with the single until a promoter from Buffalo ordered 60,000 copies and Fernwood Wayne sent on tour along the East Coast. The song was later a hit, reaching over one million copies sold gold status, placed on number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and # 20 of the R & B charts.
However, Wayne could never repeat his success. His next singles at Fernwood were unsuccessful and in 1961 there appeared his plate. After every appearance of Phillips International and Santo Records, also based in Memphis, Wayne ultimately gave up his career as a musician. " Thomas was not the most handsome guy in the world; I thought maybe did what part of it, "Moore later recalled. Wayne then worked as a sound engineer for Moore with Joe Simon and Ringo Starr in a studio in Nashville. On August 5, 1968, his brother Luther died from the effects of fire.
1971 Thomas Wayne died in a car accident in Memphis.