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HANK THOMPSON / CMG SIGNATURE SERIES
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| Media Format: |
| Honky Tonk Music - CD |
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DESCRIPTION:FEATURED PRODUCT! This CD (Compact Disc) features HANK THOMPSON singing these country music hit songs. The following song titles are included on this CD (Compact Disc) - The Wild Side Of Life
- Wake Up Irene
- Rub-a-dub-dub
- Humpty Dumpty Heart
- The New Green Light
- Waiting In The Lobby Of Your Heart
- The Blackboard Of My Heart
- Wildwood Flower (Instrumental)
- Don't Take It Out On Me
- Whoa Sailor
- Most Of All
- Green Light
- I've Run Out Of Tomorrows
- Honey Honey Bee Ball
Hank Thompson
Western swing and honky tonk are related but they're not the same. Western swing features big bands with twin fiddles and swinging dance tempo tunes. It's good time music, while honky tonk leans more toward small combos and sad stories about life. Hank Thompson is one of the few Country stars who was so great at both that you didn't much care where one began and the other one left off. It was all Country Music, and Hank Thompson brought it everywhere with his top notch band the Brazos Valley Boys—about 250 playing dates a year. During his 15 years on Capitol Records he took turns with both kinds of music and charted 20 Top Tens. His Capitol sales exceeded 30 million records, an amazing number for a Country artist of that period. Arguably his biggest hit was the 1952 #1 smash, "Wild Side Of Life", which many people came to consider the greatest of all the honky-tonk songs ever recorded. Hank was born in Waco, Texas, in 1925 and was influenced early by Jimmie Rodgers. If you listen closely you will hear powerful influences of another Jimmie Rodgers follower, Ernest Tubb. Hank was not a Tubb clone, however. His voice is a powerful, accurate, resonant, confident baritone and every song he ever sang was unmistakably his. This'll probably surprise you. The unrepentant Country singer and band leader Hank Thompson was an Ivy Leaguer, at least for a little while. After three years in the Navy during World War II, Hank attended Princeton University for a time, then went back to Texas and studied at Southern Methodist and the University of Texas. None of these experiences led to a degree, so he went back home to Waco and did a live show on local radio station KWTX. Folks liked his singing, and that bolstered his confidence enough that he started a band he called the Brazos Valley Boys. The Brazos Valley Boys would be a part of his career for many years. In Country Music, Texas is its own country and Hank was soon a Texas star, playing shows all over the central part of the state. A short stint with Globe Records attracted attention from folks outside his area, including Tex Ritter, who liked him so much that he helped Hank get a deal on Capitol Records. His first hit was "Humpty Dumpty Heart", released in January 1948. Hank was a pioneer country performer on TV and in Las Vegas. By the 1960s his best years as a hitmaker were behind him but Country fans were thrilled to see him appearing on many premier network TV variety shows. In 1989 Hank was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, but he wasn't ready to rest on his laurels. He continued to perform about 120 dates a year, with the same vocal and instrumental sound that made him one of America's best and most popular real country singers. This album is a great sampler of Hank Thompson hits, some of it Texas two-step swing, some of it heart-wrenching honky tonk. If you haven't listened to Hank Thompson in a long time, you will be surprised at how well his records hold up today. These 14 jewels retain their luster because the songs are fun, the band is great and Hank Thompson is, well, Hank Thompson; one of the best Country recording artists ever to pull on a pair of cowboy boots. — Michael Kosser
For an entire listing of all HANK THOMPSON items click here
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