singer; songwriter
Personal Information
Born on November 18, 1927, in Detroit, MI; died on March 2, 2003, in Los Angeles, CA; married Theresa McNeil, 1980s (died 1990).
Career
Singer and song writer, 1951-2003; lead singer with the Midnighters, 1951-63, 1980s-1990s.
Life's Work
Hank Ballard was a singer and songwriter who earned acclaim in the 1960s with his music and singing. Originally known for his lewd lyrics with the group the Midnighters, Ballard's true claim to fame came when he penned and recorded "The Twist," which would become not only a top R&B hit, but also a dance craze throughout the United States and Europe. Ballard recorded over 20 singles that reached the upper positions of the R&B charts and by the time of his death in 2003 had been performing for almost 50 years.
There is a lot of information available about Ballard's life and career, but some of it is controversial, and various biographical files dispute the facts of his life. For instance, according to birth records, Hank Ballard was born in Detroit, Michigan on November 18, 1927. In later years, however, all of the biographical material on Ballard would make him ten years younger and list his birth year as 1936. Ballard was born John H. Kendricks.
Early Life Formed Love for Music
In some of the interviews with Ballard himself he spoke about the sadness of his early childhood and the fact that he always had a sense of abandonment. His memories of his mother are colored by his last view of her. He told Mai Cramer in an interview on the Real Blues website, "you know, last time I saw my mom, she was running on the gun sight of my father--of a double barreled shotgun. The last time I saw her, she was ducking into the woods--trying to avoid his shotgun blast." He was six years old at the time. His father died the following year, leaving him to be raised by very strict Baptist relatives in Bessemer, Alabama.
Between the ages of seven and 15, Ballard lived in Alabama. There he sang in the gospel choir at his church and started a long love affair with vocal music. His early love of blues music soon changed to R&B in his teen years. He was also influenced by the country music around him, and he found much to admire in the singers of the day. In an interview with Mai Cramer, Ballard stated that famed cowboy singer, Gene Autry inspried him. "That was the man that started me singing. I used to try to emulate him, you know. I had my little toy guns. He was not my favorite fighter, though. He was my favorite singer. He was too handsome to be a fighter." At 15 he could no longer take the restrictions of his life in Alabama, so he ran away from his relatives and went back to Detroit, where he found a job working on the line for the Ford Motor Company. One of his cousins, Florence Ballard, was also in Detroit at the time. Florence Ballard later worked for Motown and was a member of the Supremes. In the liner notes to the album Sexy Ways: The Best of Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, Ballard summed up his music: "I'm a little country; I'm a little R&B; I'm a little pop; I'm a little gospel; I'm a little bit of everything," which has probably explained why his music had such universal appeal.
Started Career With the Royals
While working on the assembly line, Ballard met Sonny Woods who was singing with a doo-wop group called the Royals. At that time, the Royals featured Lawson Smith, Henry Booth, and Charles Sutton, with Alonzo Tucker on the guitar. When Smith, the group's lead singer, was drafted, Ballard joined the group--and the rest, as they say, was history. He made his singing debut in 1951 at an amateur contest organized by bandleader Johnny Otis. The contest was at Detroit's Paradise Theater. Otis was so impressed by the group and by Ballard's rich baritone-tenor voice, that the Royals were contracted to the Federal label to record their first record "Every Beat of My Heart," which would become a smash hit in later years for Gladys Knight and the Pips. In the early years, the group was known for their dreamy slow songs, but this soon bored Ballard. He quickly became lead singer of the group and started writing his own songs, bringing to the group a hard gospel edge. His song-writing career began in 1953 with "Get It," which he co-wrote with Tucker. This was the beginning of a move into what they called a "raunchy groove" with lyrics suggestive to the times. "Get It" became a top ten R&B hit and gave the group a big boost in popularity. Ballard's music continued along the same theme and earned the group a lot of attention and some censure when in 1954 they cut "Work With Me Annie." At the time, the lyrics were considered so suggestive that the song was banned and not played on most radio stations. In spite of this, the tune quickly soared to number one on the R&B charts. Today, the lyrics look almost laughingly pale: "Annie please don't cheat/Give me all my meat."
This song launched the Royals who changed their name to the Midnighters to avoid being confused with another R&B group, the Five Royales. The success of "Work With Me Annie" was repeated with two spin off records, "Annie had a Baby" and "Annie's Aunt Fanny." Each of the three records sold well over a million copies. To appeal to the more conservative white audiences, "Work With Me Annie" was later re-recorded in a cleaned up version as "Dance With Me Henry." Ballard and the Midnighters had become a major attraction on the R&B circuit. They performed in major theaters around the country including the Howard in Washington, D.C., and the Apollo in New York City. The group was now known for their quirky, often lewd songs. They were also well known in the R&B music world because of the intense, energetic guitar interludes in their songs. In 1955, still recording for the Federal label, the group cut additional hits such as "Henry's Got Flat Feet (Can't Dance No More)" and "It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)."
"The Twist" Became Greatest Hit
One of the more controversial areas of Ballard's career involved the writing, recording, and subsequent popularity of "The Twist." There are several stories behind how the song was originally written, but what seemed clear was that the tune evolved from a converted gospel song called "Is Your Love For Real." The lyrics and dance movements associated with the song probably came about through Ballard watching some teenagers and the Midnighters themselves moving to the music. In any case, the song was to become a major hit in 1958 and to start a dance craze throughout America and Europe. It also spawned several other records and dances.
The story of the Twist becoming a hit was rather bizarre. "The Twist" was released in 1958 as the B-side of "Teardrops on Your Letter." Although Ballard tried to tell the recording company that "The Twist" was the better song, the company disagreed and refused to change the recording. The public actually agreed--"The Twist" never reached higher than 16 on the top hits charts, but "Teardrops on Your Letter" rose to number four. "The Twist" came to the notice of Dick Clark, director of American Bandstand and he wanted the group to come on the show and perform the song. By this time, the group was called Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. There are several opinions of what happened at this point, but negotiations fell through and Ballard never appeared. Reportedly Clark was disenchanted by Ballard's rather notorious reputation involving the lewd lyrics of the Annie songs.
Clark, however, knew that "The Twist" was something special, and he held auditions to try to find someone else to sing the song. He chose Chubby Checker because he sounded the most like Ballard. Checker apparently duplicated the Ballard recording, right down to the dance movements that he went to the Midnighters to learn. In 1960 Checker sang the song on American Bandstand and the song along with the dance craze became a major teenage fad. Checker's recording of the song hit number one on the R&B charts both in 1960 and again in 1961. Ironically, Checker's version was so close to Ballard's that Ballard thought it was their recording when he first heard it. Although Checker's recording of "The Twist" was to become the most popular, it also catapulted the Midnighters' recording with it. Ballard followed this success with several million-selling dance hits like "Finger Poppin' Time" and "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go." These recordings reached number seven and number six respectively on the pop charts. The Midnighters had by this time switched recording companies and were cutting records for the King label. Ballard also capitalized on the dance craze caused by "The Twist" with other dance hits such as "The Hoochie Coochi Coo," "The Continental Walk," "The Float," and "The Switch-A-Roo." In the early 1960s Ballard had charted 22 singles on the R&B charts.
Branched Out on His Own
In 1963 Ballard disbanded the Midnighters and branched out on his own. He retained rights to the name, however, and reactivated the group later in his life. In the late 1960s the country was invaded by the Beatles and other British singing groups and R&B took a back seat. Ballard's popularity dwindled and he started performing solo in small clubs. During part of this time he also joined James Brown and performed with the James Brown Revue. In the late 1960s, he had several single recordings that hit the charts. "How You Gonna Get Respect (When You Ain't Cut Your Process Yet)" reached number 15 on the R&B charts in 1968.
Ballard, an all-round entertainer with a tremendous stage presence, continued to write songs, make records, and perform almost to the end of the century. He produced one minor hit in 1972, "From the Love Side." He made a stir in 1974 with his "Let's Go Streaking" on the Charly label, which he reportedly recorded in the nude. He toured and sang frequently in England during this period, where the audiences loved him. In the 1980s his career was rejuvenated when he met and married Theresa McNeil. As his manager, McNeil polished up Ballard's image and started him into a long-overdue comeback. In the mid-1980s he created and sang with new sets of Midnighters, first female, then male. In 1987 he recorded a live double album, Hank Ballard Live at the Palais. Ballard received a personal crushing blow in 1990 when his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident. He never fully recovered from the loss.
Ballard's influence was evident in many groups over the years. In the Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul, Stambler said " The Allman Brothers recall that their early bands often played Hank Ballard songs in the early and mid-1960s, and quite a few other groups that were to spawn the most successful rock bands of the late 1960s similarly used Ballard material as an important part of their repertoires."
In a 1996 interview with Mai Cramer, posted on the Real Blues website, Ballard summarized his attitude about music as follows: "There's no medicine out there as great as music. Music has been more therapeutic than holistic medicine. There's something about music that's just therapeutic. If you're looking for youth, you're looking for longevity, just take a dose of rock 'n' roll." As a culmination of his career, Ballard was recognized by his peers and inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. Ballard died on March 2, 2003, at his home in Los Angeles of throat cancer. With him was his friend and caretaker, Anna Ayala who was quoted in the Courier-Mail as saying "He was just a very good man and loved by many people." Ballard will be long remembered for the rich heritage of music that he left behind.
Awards
Inductee, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1990.
Works
Selected discography
- "Every Beat of My Heart" (single), 1951.
- "Get It" (single), 1953.
- "Work With Me Annie" (single), 1954.
- "Henry's Got Flat Feet (Can't Dance No More)" (single), 1955.
- "It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)" (single), 1955.
- The Midnighters, Federal, 1955.
- Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Deluxe, 1957.
- "Teardrops on Your Letter" (single), 1958.
- "The Twist" (single), 1958.
- Singin' & Swingin', King, 1959.
- Mr. Rhythm & Blues (Finger Poppin' Time), King, 1960.
- Let's Go Again,, King, 1961.
- Twistin' Fools, King, 1962.
- Jumpin' Hank Ballard, King, 1963.
- A Star in Your Eyes, King, 1964.
- Glad Songs Sad Songs, King, 1965.
- "How You Gonna Get Respect (When You Ain't Cut Your Process Yet)" (solo single), 1968.
- You Can't Keep a Good Man Down, King, 1969.
- "From The Love Side" (single), 1972.
- "Let's Go Streaking" (single), 1974.
- What You Get When the Getting' Gets Good, Charly, 1985.
- Hank Ballard Live at the Palais, Charly, 1987.
- Sexy Ways: The Best of Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Rhino, 1993.
- Naked in the Rain, After Hours, 1993.
- From Love To Tears, Pool Party, 1998.
Further Reading
Books
- The Blackwell Guide to Soul Recordings, edited by Robert Pruter, Blackwell, 1993.
- The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Volume 1, edited by Colin Larkin, London: MUZE, 1998.
- The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, edited by Donald Clarke, New York: Viking, 1989.
- The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, edited by Jon Pareles and Patricia Romanowski, Rolling Stone Press/Summit Books, 1993.
- Santelli, Robert, The Big Book of Blues, Penguin, 1993.
- Shannon, Bob, and John Javna, Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll, Warner Books.
- Stambler, Irwin, Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul, St. Martin's, 1977.
Periodicals- Cincinnati Post, March 3, 2003.
- Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Australia), March 13, 2003.
- Detroit News, March 4, 2003.
- Express, (London, England), March 5, 2003.
- Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia), March 18, 2003.
- Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland), March 8, 2003.
- Independent (London, England), March 4, 2003.
- Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland), March 4, 2003.
On-line- "Hank Ballard and the Midnighters," The History of Rock 'n' Roll, www.history-of-rock.com/hank_ballard_and_the_midnighters.htm (July 28, 2003).
- "Mai's Interview of the Month, November 1996, Hank Ballard," Real Blues, www.realblues.com/interv13.html (June 16, 2003).
- "We remember: Hank Ballard," Lee Bailey's EurWeb, www.eurweb.com (July 28, 2003).
— Patricia A. Donaldson
