From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Apr 29, 2003  1:18 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Billy Mize
 
BILLY MIZE (By Shaun Mather)

Born William Robert Mize, 29 April 1929, Arkansas City, Kansas

Billy Mize and his equally gifted/famous brother Buddy were raised in
the San Joaquin Valley of California, an area steeped in country music
thanks to relocated Okies and other southerners headed for the gold in
them there hills out west. He originally learnt to play guitar as a child, 
but fell in love with the steel guitar he received for his 18th birthday. 

He moved to Bakersfield, and formed his own band playing local gigs 
and also working as a disc jockey on KPMC. In 1953, he joined The
Cousin Herb Trading Post Show on KERO-TV Bakersfield, where he
became affectionately known as Billy The Kid. He stayed with the show 
for thirteen years. In 1955 he began to appear on the Hank Penny Show
on Los Angeles television and by 1957 he was working on seven different
weekly shows in the LA area, including the Hank Penny Show, Cal 
Worthington Show, Country Music Time and the legendary Town Hall
Party. 
He recorded for Decca (Solid Sender/It Could happen - 1957), Challenge 
and Liberty, finally hitting the country charts in 1966 with You Can't Stop Me
for Columbia. That year he began hosting and performing on Gene Autry's
Melody Ranch network show on KTLA as well as starting his own syndicated
Billy Mize Show from Bakersfield. During the next decade he managed eleven
chart hits as well as writing hits for others such as Who Will Buy The Wine
(Charlie Walker), My Baby Walks All Over Me (Johnny Sea) and Don't Let 
The Blues Make You Bad (Dean Martin). Dean Martin cut three of his songs
in one day in June 1966, including "Terrible Tangled Web." 

He won the Academy of Country Music's "TV Personality of the Year" award
three years in a row between 1965 and 1967. In 1972 he taped two pilots of
the "Billy Mize Music Hall," which he hoped to sell into national syndication. 
With Merle Haggard on the one show and Marty Robbins on the other it 
seemed a sure fire bet, but it wasn't picked up. 

Shakers will no doubt know and love other versions of these, for instance
Jerry Lee Lewis' great version of Who Will Buy The Wine and Bob Luman's
wonderfully moody reading of My Baby Walks All Over Me. He was pretty
much a mainstay of Merle Haggards band, playing steel and rhythm on 
many of Merle's classics. In the early '80s, Buddy hooked up with brother
Buddy for various television projects. In recent times he's been heading Billy
Mize Productions, making television spectaculars with Merle Haggard. He 
suffered a stroke during the mid-90's and although he now speaks a little 
slowly he has recovered well enough to play guitar again. 

Representative recordings: This Time and Place (Imperial, 1969, out of print),
You're All Right With Me (United Artists, 1971, out of print).