Billy Vaughn

Billy Vaughn (April 12, 1919-September 26, 1991) was a singer, pianist, and orchestra leader. He was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, where his father was a barber who loved music and inspired Billy to teach himself to play the mandolin at age 3, while suffering a case of the measles. He went on to learn a number of other instruments. In 1941 Vaughn joined the United States National Guard for what had been planned as a one-year assignment, but when World War II broke out, he was sent abroad till the war ended in 1945. He desided to make music a career when he was discharged from the army at the end of the war, and attended Western Kentucky State College, now known as Western Kentucky University, majoring in music composition. He had apparently learned barbering from his father, because he did some while studying at Western Kentucky to support himself financially, when he was not able to get jobs playing the piano at local night clubs and lounges. While he was a student there, three other students, Jimmy Sacca, Donald McGuire, and Seymour Spiegelman, who had formed a vocal trio, The Hilltoppers, recruited Vaughn to play the piano with them. He soon added his voice to theirs, converting the trio to a quartet. As a member of the group, he also wrote their first hit song, Trying, which charted in 1952. In 1954 he left the group to join Dot Records in Gallatin, Tennessee as music director. He subsequently formed his own orchestra, which had a big hit in that same year with Melody of Love. Vaughn died in Escondido, California.

Hit songs

(For hit songs charted by Billy Vaughn as a member of The Hilltoppers, see the article on that group.)
  • A Theme From The Three Penny Opera 'Moritat' (1956)
  • A Swingin' Safari (1962)
  • Berlin Melody (1961)
  • Blue Hawaii (1958)
  • Blue Tomorrow (1961)
  • Chapel By The Sea (1962)
  • Cimarron (Roll On) (1958)
  • Come September (1961)
  • Hawaiian War Chant (1959)
  • La Paloma (1958)
  • Little Boy Blue (1956)
  • Look For A Star (1960)
  • Melody Of Love (1954)
  • Mexican Pearls (1965)
  • Michelle (1966)
  • Orange Blossom Special (1961)
  • Petticoats Of Portugal (1956)
  • Raunchy (1957)
  • Sail Along Silvery Moon (1957)
  • Singing Hills (1958)
  • The Shifting Whispering Sands (Part 1 & 2) (1955)
  • The Ship That Never Sailed (1957)
  • The Sundowners (1960)
  • Trying (1958)
  • Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1958)
  • Wheels (1961)
  • When The White Lilacs Bloom Again (1956)
  • Your Cheatin' Heart (1959)

External links

Vaughn, Billy Vaughn, Billy Vaughn, Billy Vaughn, Billy

 

<< PreviousWord BrowserNext >>
alan thornett
north caledonian football league
number theoretic transform
boystown, chicago
scottish junior football association
biograph theater
richard verrall
the pied pipers
uss archerfish (ssn 678)
beleg
timeline of hacker history
colorblind james experience
david gascoyne
kings of arnor
chieftains of the dnedain
kappa (letter)
rho (letter)
list of romanian language poets
psi (letter)
david strickland
british surrealist group
oak cliff, texas
an infinitely differentiable function that is not analytic
caryopsis
sheffield winter gardens
fair deal
papandreou
the mists of avalon
andni
codex runicus
virtualdub
lords of andni
virtualdubmod
james p. cannon
inverted swan
jzsef mindszenty
jerald and sandra tanner
dobsonian
linksruck
elmira, ontario
michael hicks beach, 1st earl st aldwyn
arantar
slime morimori dragon quest
tarcil