60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
10/21/65 – Bill Black, Elvis’ original bassist (who also had
quite a few hits under his own name) dies of a brain tumor. He was 39.
Black first teamed up with Elvis during those early sessions held at Sam Phillips' Sun Records Studio down in Memphis.
He played the stand-up slap bass (that bass is now owned by Paul McCartney) and, along with Scotty Moore on guitar and (eventually) DJ Fontana on drums, they formed the backbone of Elvis Presley's band. (Add in The Jordanaires on background vocals and you captured "The Elvis Sound" of the 1950's.)
Black proved to be quite the showman ... a big man who literally spun around and danced with his oversized bass fiddle on stage to the delight of the crowd ... the "comic relief" if you will to their stage show. He personified the new rockabilly sound that was capturing our teenagers at the time.
Once Elvis started raking in the dough (his sales at RCA were thru the roof!), Black felt that he should be entitled to a larger share of the pie. When Colonel Tom Parker said no, Black left to form his own combo ...
And soon The Bill Black Combo were charting right alongside his former boss.
Their first Top 20 chart hit was a version of the tune "Smokie (Part 2)." Other Top 20 hits followed, including "White Silver Sands" (#4, 1960), "Josephine" (#8, 1960), an instrumental reworking of Elvis' biggest hit to that point, "Don't Be Cruel" (#7, 1960), "Blue Tango" (#11, 1960), "Hearts Of Stone" (#15, 1961) and "Ole Buttermilk Sky" (#17, 1961).
In 2009, he was posthumously inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
