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William "Bill" Patton Black, Jr. (September 17, 1926 – October 21, 1965) was an American musician. September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). ...
Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ...
October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 71 days remaining. ...
1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ...
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Bill Black played bass ('slapped/rockabilly' upright double) with guitarist Scotty Moore while Elvis Presley played rhythm guitar and sang "That's All Right (Mama)" in a Sun Studios session in Memphis that is considered a seminal event in the history of Rock and Roll. For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ...
Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French bow. ...
Winfield Scott Scotty Moore III (born December 27, 1931 near Gadsden, Tennessee) is a legendary American guitarist and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ...
Elvis Aron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often known simply as Elvis and also called The King of Rock n Roll or simply The King, was an American singer, musician and actor. ...
Thats All Right (Mama) is the name of the first song released by Elvis Presley. ...
The Sun Sessions is a compilation of Elvis Presley recordings at Sun Studios in 1954 and 1955. ...
Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ...
Black went on to play double bass on early Presley recordings including "Good Rockin' Tonight", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Baby Let's Play House", "Mystery Train", "That's All Right", "Hound Dog",and eventually became one of the first bass players to utilize the electric Fender Precision Bass guitar in popular music on "Jailhouse Rock" in the late 1950's. Heartbreak Hotel is a rock and roll song by Elvis Presley, with Bill Black (bass) and Scotty Moore (guitar) as the main supporting musicians. ...
Hound Dog is a twelve-bar blues recorded in of two versions that demonstrate the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll. ...
The Fender Precision Bass, known as P-bass for short, is the first model of the electric bass designed by Clarence Leonidas Fender and brought to market in 1951. ...
Jailhouse Rock is a song written by Leiber and Stoller that first became a hit for the American singer Elvis Presley. ...
Black continued to work with Presley until 1958, leaving his band in large part due to disputes over financial terms. He and guitarist Scotty Moore had taken one-quarter of the royalties at the outset of Presley's career, but even after Presley had rocketed to stardom with RCA starting in 1956, Colonel Tom Parker had them on a mere 200 dollars/week wage. Colonel Tom Parker (born Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk on June 26, 1909 in Breda, Netherlands – died on January 21, 1997 in Las Vegas, Nevada), was an American/Dutch entertainment impresario known best as the manager of Elvis Presley. ...
Although guitarist Scotty Moore would eventually work with Presley again, Black never did, joining a Memphis group that evolved into Bill Black's Combo in 1959. Their instrumental "Smokie," released late that year, made the Top Ten.
Bill Black's Combo stuck to the formula of "Smokie" for many of their subsequent singles: a basic shuffle beat, simple bluesy R&B riffs, and some rinky-dink organ and smoky saxophone lines on top. They weren't too imaginative, but they were quite successful, placing eight singles in the Top 40 between 1959 and 1962, including "White Silver Sands," "Josephine," "Don't Be Cruel," "Blue Tango," and "Hearts of Stone." Their sales were greatly boosted by the suitability of their instrumental rock for background music at bars, clubs, and diners, with many of their discs placed in jukeboxes.
Black died of a brain tumor in 1965 at the age of thirty-nine and is buried in "Forest Hill Cemetery" in Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis received critisism for not attending his funeral, however Elvis believed that his presence would turn the funeral into a media frenzy. He decided instead to visit the family privately after the service to express his condolences. A brain tumor is any intracranial tumor created by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division, normally either found in the brain itself (neurons, glial cells (astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells), lymphatic tissue, blood vessels), in the cranial nerves (myelin-producing Schwann cells), in the brain envelopes (meninges), skull, pituitary and pineal gland...
See also
United States Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania (right) is a long-term brain tumor survivor who continues to serve in public office . ...
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