Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Terry Fell and the Fellers - Truck Driving Man - Don't Drop It



Gonna keep w/ the early country style tunes w/ one from 1954 by Terry Fell & the Fellers. Truck driving man has an uptempo early rockabilly thing going on, while don't drop it has a more traditional country thing going on. However it sort of boarders on a novelty because of the weird thing old Mr. Fell is doing with his mouth..... Actually kinda makes it cooler than if it was a straight up country song....

Terry Fell (1921–2007) was an American country musician.

Fell was born in Dora, Alabama on May 13, 1921 and got his first guitar at the age of nine. Later he learned mandolin and took singing lessons. When he was 13 years old, his father died; and three years later he moved alone to California, where he spent some time in a camp of the Civilian Conservation Corps. After he briefly lived in Alabama again, Fell and his mother moved to to the US West Coast. There he began playing in 1943 as bassist for Merl Lindsay.

Fell started his record career in 1945 as a member of Billy Hughes band. His first record was with Hughes on Fargo Records. He then began his solo career for Cortney and 4 Star Records, although none of his singles were hits there.
During his first session for RCA in Hollywood, he recorded a song that would become a hit. Although the A-side, "Don't Drop It", was underplayed, the B-side, "Truck Drivin Man", become a classic, especially in the trucker country music scene. In 1955, he made a guest appearance on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee.
Fell remained with RCA for the following two years; however, he never produced a single with the same success. RCA extended his contract in 1956. In 1959 he began military service in the U.S. Army and was stationed in West Germany. Along with Elvis Presley, who was at the same time a GI, he wrote the song "Mississippi River". The single was never released, but the rights were later sold for $30,000 in 1996.
Due to the lack of success and health problems his career fell short. Later, for a short time, he managed country star Buck Owens and wrote a song in 1961 with Bobby Edwards titled "You're The Reason". In 1962, Fell moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he was a songwriter for various publishing companies, until he went to board. Published in 1993 with Bear Family Records, the album Truck Drivin Man was released with his collected works. Terry Gordon noted that it was discontinued in 1998, but revised again. Because of his achievements in country music he was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
Fell died April 4, 2007 in Madison, Tennessee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fell


Terry Fell and the Fellers - Truck Driving Man

Terry Fell and the Fellers - Don't Drop It

4 comments:

Your driver said...

Thanks. I never knew this was the original version. One of those songs like Louie Louie that I have many versions of.

Holly said...

Great single, thank you!

Devil Dick said...

glad you guys are enjoying!!!
cheers!
tommy

Mighty 1 said...

I've tried 3 times to leave this comment. Is this part of your "find"? I've been looking for this record at a reasonable price for years. Nice one!