Mel Tillis

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Mel Tillis bigraphy, stories - Country music singer and musician

Mel Tillis : biography

August 8, 1932 –

Lonnie Melvin "Mel" Tillis (born August 8, 1932) is an American country music singer. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s, with a long list of Top 10 hits.

Tillis’s biggest hits include "I Ain’t Never", "Good Woman Blues", and "Coca-Cola Cowboy". On February 13, 2012 President Barack Obama awarded Tillis the National Medal of Arts For his contributions to country music. He also has won the CMA Awards’ most coveted award, Entertainer of the Year. He is also known for his speech impediment, which does not affect his singing voice. His daughter is country music singer Pam Tillis.

Discography

Biography

Early life

Tillis was born in Dover, Florida in 1932. His stutter developed during his childhood, a result of a bout with malaria. As a child, Tillis learned the drums as well as guitar. At age 16 he won a local talent show and soon joined the United States Air Force and worked for the railroad. When young Tillis was stationed in Okinawa, he formed a band called The Westerners, which played at local nightclubs. Tillis attended the University of Florida.

After leaving the military in 1955, Tillis worked a number of odd jobs and moved to Nashville, Tennessee the following year. Tillis wrote "I’m Tired", a No. 3 country hit for Webb Pierce in 1957. Other Tillis hits include "Honky Tonk Song" and "Tupelo County Jail". Ray Price and Brenda Lee also charted hits with Tillis’s material around this time. In the late 1950s, after becoming a hit-making songwriter, he signed his own contract with Columbia Records. In 1958, he had his first Top 40 hit, "The Violet and a Rose", followed by the Top 25 hit "Sawmill".

Rise to fame

Although Tillis charted on his own Billboard’s Hot Country Songs list, he had more success as a songwriter. He continued to be Webb Pierce’s songwriter. He wrote the hits "I Ain’t Never" (Tillis’s own future hit) and "Crazy, Wild Desire". Bobby Bare, Tom Jones ("Detroit City"), Wanda Jackson, and Stonewall Jackson also covered his songs. Tillis continued to record on his own. Some well-known songs from his Columbia years include "The Brooklyn Bridge", "Loco Weed", and "Walk on, Boy". However, he didn’t achieve major success on the country charts on his own.

In the mid ’60s, Tillis switched over to Kapp Records, and in 1965 he had his first Top 15 hit with "Wine". Other hits continued to follow, such as "Stateside" and "Life Turned Her That Way" (which was later covered by Ricky Van Shelton in 1988, going to No. 1). He wrote for Charley Pride ("The Snakes Crawl At Night") and wrote a big hit for Kenny Rogers & the First Edition called "Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town". He also wrote the hit "Mental Revenge" for Outlaw superstar Waylon Jennings (it has also been covered by the Hacienda Brothers, Linda Ronstadt, Gram Parsons, Barbara Mandrell, and Jamey Johnson). In 1968, Tillis achieved his first Top 10 hit with "Who’s Julie". He also was a regular featured singer on The Porter Wagoner Show.

The height of his career

Things turned around in 1969 for Tillis. He finally achieved the success he always wanted with two Top 10 country hits, "These Lonely Hands of Mine" and "She’ll Be Hanging Around Somewhere". In 1970, he reached the Top 5 with "Heart Over Mind", which peaked at No. 3 on the Hot Country Songs list. After this, Tillis’s career as a country singer went into full swing. Hits soon came quite easily, such as "Heaven Everyday" (1970), "Commercial Affection" (1970), "Arms of a Fool" (1970), "Take My Hand" (a duet with Sherry Bryce in 1971), and "Brand New Mister Me" (1971). In 1972, Tillis achieved his first chart-topper with his version of his song "I Ain’t Never". Even though the song was previously a hit by Webb Pierce, Tillis’s version is the better-known version of the two. Most of the above-mentioned song hits were recorded on MGM Records, Tillis’s record company in the early part of the decade.