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Tommy Sands

 
Artist: Tommy Sands
Tommy Sands

Similar Artists:

Influenced By:

Elvis Presley
  • Born: August 27, 1937, Chicago, IL
  • Active: '50s, '60s
  • Genres: Rock
  • Instrument: Vocals
  • Representative Albums: "The Worryin' Kind," "Steady Date with Tommy Sands," "Sands at the Sands"

Biography

The multi-talented Tommy Sands was born August 27, 1937, in Chicago, IL, to show-business parents. His entry into the business was no mistake, surprise, or happenstance, but genetic and inevitable. His father played piano and his mother sang. He took guitar lessons when he was eight years old and became an adequate axeman. By this time the Sands had moved to Houston, TX, where Sands got the acting bug. He moved to Los Angeles after high school and landed a job on Cliffie Stone's country & western television show. The exposure led to regular appearances on Tennessee Ernie Ford's weekly televison program and nightclub gigs.

He got a big break in 1957 when he got the lead role in The Singin' Idol, a television drama on rock & roll. The producer's first choice was Elvis Presley but he wasn't available, so a search went on and Sands won. A single from the show Teenage Crush on Capitol Records went to number two on Billboard's pop chart and Sands became an overnight sensation. He appeared on many Kraft Theater shows and nearly every network variety show on television. No one-hit wonder, he also hit the charts with "Goin' Steady," "The Worryin' Kind," "Blue Ribbon Baby," "Sing Boy Sing," "The Old Oaken Bucket," and "The Parent Trap." The release of "I'll Be Seeing You," marked a new musical direction for Sands. He cut two albums with Nelson Riddle and continue to release singles for a variety of labels, but none in the teen rock format that made him famous.

From the late '50s to the '70s he appeared in more than 150 television programs, and many movies including Sing Boy Sing (his first), Babes in Toyland, The Longest Day, Ensign Pulver, None but the Brave, Mardi Gras, and The Violent One. He married Nancy Sinatra in 1960; the union lasted five years. Where is he now? Still performing and thrilling fans all over the world. What else? It's in his genes. ~ Andrew Hamilton, All Music Guide
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Actor: Tommy Sands
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  • Born: Aug 27, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '50s-'60s
  • Major Genres: Western, Musical
  • Career Highlights: The Parent Trap, None But the Brave, Mardi Gras
  • First Major Screen Credit: Kraft Television Theatre: Flesh and Blood (1957)

Biography

Formerly lauded (by his press agents) as the next Elvis Presley, Tommy Sands started out as a juvenile actor on television. As a youth, he recorded a few hit rock & roll singles; he made his feature-film acting debut as the same in Sing, Boy, Sing (1958). His film career lasted in a similar vein through the late '60s until a liver disease coupled with mental breakdowns forced him to leave acting. He did, however, make a few guest appearances on the television crime drama Hawaii Five-O. Sands was formerly married to singer/actress Nancy Sinatra. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Tommy Sands
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Tommy Sands (born Thomas Adrian Sands, August 27, 1937, Chicago, Illinois[1]) is an American pop music singer and actor.

Contents

Early life

Born into a musical family in Chicago, his father was a pianist and his mother a big-band singer.[1] While still young, he moved with his family to Shreveport, Louisiana. Sands began playing the guitar at age eight and within a year had a job performing twice weekly on a local radio station.[1] He was only 15 when Colonel Tom Parker heard about him and signed him to RCA Records.

Career

His initial recordings achieved little in the way of sales but in early 1957 he was given the opportunity to star in an episode of Kraft Television Theatre. He played the part of a singer who was very similar to Elvis Presley, with guitar, bouffant hair, and excitable teenage fans. On the show, his song presentation of a Joe Allison composition called "Teenage Crush" went over big with the young audience and, released as a 45 rpm single by Capitol Records, it went to No.3 on the Billboard Hot 100 record chart.[1]

Sands' sudden fame brought an offer to sing at the Academy Awards show and his teen idol looks landed him a motion-picture contract to star in a 1958 musical drama called Sing, Boy, Sing.

Acting

Sands performed in several films including Mardi Gras (1959),[1] Babes in Toyland (1961), Ensign Pulver in 1964, and None But the Brave (1965) playing a Marine Second Lieutenant, but both his singing and film career had faded by the 1970s.

Personal life

In 1960, he married Nancy Sinatra and for a time they were the toast of Hollywood, California. He was divorced from Sinatra in 1965 and has a daughter, model Jessica Sands, born in 1977 from another relationship.

Sands' pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

In live versions of his hit Beyond The Sea singer Bobby Darin says "My lover stands on Tommy Sands" referring to the marriage of Tommy to Nancy Sinatra.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 95/6. ISBN 0-214-20512-6. 

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Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tommy Sands" Read more