Representative Albums: "The Best of Buddy Knox," "She's Gone: The Liberty Years," "Buddy Knox's Golden Hits"
Representative Songs: "Party Doll," "Hula Love," "Rock Your Little Baby to Slee"
Biography
Buddy Knox was the first artist of the rock & roll era to write and record his own number one hit, 1957's million-selling classic "Party Doll" -- a pioneer of the Lone Star State rockabilly sound that would later earn the name "Tex-Mex," the arc of his career anticipated that of fellow Texan Buddy Holly, yet while Holly is now enshrined in the pantheon of rock's true immortals, Knox's contributions remain sadly underappreciated. Wayne Knox was born July 20, 1933 on a farm just outside the tiny West Texas town of Happy -- during World War II, his mother Gladys performed with her siblings as part of a family gospel group, although his love of country music first inspired him to pick up the guitar. After high school Knox attended West Texas State College, earning a business administration degree while moonlighting in an amateur vocal group called the Serenaders that also included double bassist Jimmy Bowen and guitarist Donny Lanier; in 1955, the trio rechristened themselves the Rhythm Orchids, so named after their purple shirts they wore on-stage. With the addition of drummer Don Mills, who first joined the Rhythm Orchids on-stage with nothing more than a pair of brushes and a cardboard box, the group's melancholy country covers acquired a swinging backbeat approximating something close to rock & roll, much to the delight of the assembled barroom patrons.
Following a local gig, the Rhythm Orchids met Sun Records star Roy Orbison, who recommended they travel to Clovis, New Mexico to record with producer Norman Petty (better known for his subsequent work that other famous Texan rock & roller, the aforementioned Buddy Holly). Mills opted to return to school, so the remaining trio recruited drummer Dave Alldred to play on two Petty-produced tracks: "Party Doll" -- written by Knox at the age of 12 -- and "I'm Stickin' With You," the latter featuring Bowen on lead vocals. After handing Petty their $60.00 studio fee, the Rhythm Orchids returned to West Texas with acetates in hand; Blue Moon Records owner Chester Oliver soon pressed 500 copies, and when the initial run sold out -- thanks in large part to heavy airplay from Amarillo radio personality Dean Kelly -- the band founded its own label, Triple D, to issue 2500 more. Lanier's sister, a fashion model living in New York City, then passed a copy to music publisher Phil Kahl, and with partner Morris Levy, Kahl licensed the single for national release via the newly formed Roulette label. Roulette split the original Petty session into two separate releases, with Bowen's new "Everlovin'" backing "I'm Stickin' With You" on Roulette (4001) and "My Baby's Gone" appended to "Party Doll" (Roulette 4002); while the former reached the Top 20, selling in excess of a million copies, "Party Doll" proved far more successful, remaining on the best-seller list for 23 weeks and topping radio play lists coast-to-coast following a memorable rendition on television's Ed Sullivan Show.
From that point forward, Knox and Bowen pursued simultaneous solo careers for Roulette, although both continued employing the Rhythm Orchids as their backing unit. The follow-up to "Party Doll," "Rock Your Little Baby to Sleep" -- credited to "Lieutenant" Buddy Knox, a nod to the singer's then-ongoing six-month stint in the U.S. Army Tank Corps -- cracked the Top 30 in mid-1957 and again sold a million copies, as did its follow-up, "Hula Love." Knox's vocal style on these seminal efforts was clean and natural, the band's rockabilly sound more a jaunty, skittering update of traditional country than a white derivation of R&B, à la Holly -- in fact, by the end of 1957 Knox was arguably the bigger star of the two, headlining DJ Alan Freed's national package tours and even appearing in the feature film Jamboree. He closed out the year with the rave-ups "Devil Woman" and "Swingin' Daddy," followed in mid-1958 by a cover of Ruth Brown's "Somebody Touched Me" that reached number 22 on the pop charts. The subsequent "That's Why I Cry" went nowhere, however, and with 1959's "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself" -- a song banned on many radio stations -- Knox & the Rhythm Orchids scored their final Hot 100 entry.
After two additional singles for Roulette -- "Taste of the Blues" and 1960s "Long Lonely Nights" -- Knox left the label following a dispute about royalty payments, and he signed as a solo act with Liberty, where producer Snuff Garrett softened his approach considerably. His Liberty debut "Lovey Dovey" reached number 25 in 1961, but Garrett's teen idol-inspired production did not serve Knox well, and successive efforts like "Ling-Ting-Tong" (his final pop chart entry, at number 65), "Three-Eyed Man," "Dear Abby" and "All Time Loser" muted the dynamic presence of his earliest, finest music. Knox cut nine singles for Liberty in all before teaming with longtime A&R exec and promoter Ray Ruff to form the Ruff label, issuing just one single for the company, 1964's "Jo Ann," before signing on with Reprise for a pair of little-heard efforts, 1965's "Livin' in a House Full of Love" and the following year's "Love Has Many Ways." With a move to United Artists, Knox teamed with house producer Bob Montgomery to become a full-fledged country artist -- when "Gypsy Man" hit the Nashville charts in 1968, it proved his final chart hit. Knox ultimately moved to Vancouver, opening a nightclub called the Purple Steer and maintaining a relentless tour schedule throughout the 1970s and 1980s; on February 5, 1999, the longtime smoker was told he had contracted inoperable lung cancer -- just nine days later, he was dead. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Knox was born in the tiny farming community of Happy, Texas and as a boy learned to play the guitar. In his teens, he and some high school friends formed a band called the "Rhythm Orchids." After performing on the same 1956 radio show as fellow Texan Roy Orbison and his "Teen Kings" band, Orbison suggested Knox go see record producerNorman Petty at his studio in Clovis, New Mexico, the same studio where the legendary Buddy Holly recorded several of his early hits including "That'll Be The Day".
Knox recorded three songs at Petty's studio, most notably "Party Doll" that later was released on the Roulette label and went to No.1 on the Cash Box magazine music chart in 1957. This success was followed by "Rock Your Little Baby To Sleep", a No.17 hit, and "Hula Love", a No.9 hit. While he never achieved the same level of artistic success as Holly or Orbison, Buddy Knox enjoyed a long career in music. For his pioneering contribution, Knox was elected to the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. "Party Doll" was voted one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
In the early 1960s Buddy signed with Liberty Records and released a number of more mainstream pop records, featuring string arrangements and vocal backup singers. "Lovey Dovey" and "Ling-Ting-Tong" were the most notable recordings from this era. The sound captured on these recordings was a distinct departure from his earlier rockabilly work for Roulette Records. Liberty Records, and principle producer Tommy "Snuff" Garrett, successfully employed the same production techniques for their other mainstream pop artists of the time which included Johnny Burnette and Bobby Vee.
In 1968 Knox, who had been living in semi-retirement in Macon, Georgia while running his publishing company, moved to Nashville and signed a new recording contract with United Artists Records. Working with producer Bob Montgomery, Knox honed his traditional rockabilly style more toward the modern country sound of the day. His first album on U/A earned him the nickname by which he would be known for the remainder of his life. The title song of the album, "Gypsy Man", written by Sonny Curtis and featuring Curtis' impressive acoustic guitar work, received considerable airplay on country radio and earned him respect from a new generation of fans.
Several singles recorded by Knox between 1968 and 1974 were notable for the fact he experimented with a variety of sounds and styles and, from a creative and critical standpoint, may have been his most productive era. His version of Delaney Bramlett's "God Knows I Love You", along with his self-penned "Salt Lake City", placed Knox firmly in the midst of the new pop music genre being populated by artists such as Delaney & Bonnie, Eric Clapton, and others who were on the leading edge of the developing Southern rock style such as Black Oak Arkansas and the Allman Brothers Band. His cover version of James Hendricks' "Glory Train" was another impressive stylistic stretch and featured a gospel-like chorus of back-up singers. Although recorded in Nashville, the arrangement and fuzz tone guitar licks on "Glory Train" sounded unlike anything that came from Music City during that time. His gentle remake of the Fleetwoods' 1959 classic "Come Softly to Me" demonstrated a vocal range never heard on his old rockabilly recordings. He also reached out to the new generation of songwriters who would become prominent during Nashville's "Outlaw Era" of the 1970s, as he was one of the first artists to record Mickey Newbury's "I'm Only Rockin'". Several other major country music artists later recorded this song but under the alternate title of "T. Total Tommy". Buddy also recorded songs by edgy writers such as Alex Harvey, John D. Loudermilk and Gary Paxton. On several of these recordings Knox experimented with multi-tracking his voice by singing multiple harmony parts with himself, something very few artists had done at that time. Despite the critically impressive amount of work recorded by Knox during this period he failed to connect with a mass audience as he had done in the late 1950s, and failed to shake his image as a '50s rockabilly artist.
During this same time frame, Knox was also involved in several business ventures in Canada. One of these was said to be a partnership with Gordon Lightfoot and involved a chain of Canadian nightclubs.
