From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Sep 1, 2003  1:19 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Sonny Deckelman
 
SONNY DECKELMAN

Born 1 September 1933, Harrisburg, Arkansas

Rockabilly / country singer.
Sonny Deckelman joined the US Air Force on December 11, 1950 
at the age of seventeen, for a four year hitch. He began singing and
playing the guitar with a band while serving a three year tour overseas
in France. Sonny came back to the States in 1954. After his discharge, 
he returned home and started singing with Memphis based bands.

He moved to California in 1958 to try his luck, but after three months
he became homesick and returned to the South to start his own band,
The Blue Notes.

In 1959 Sonny recorded his first record, "I've Got Love" at the Stan Kesler
Studio in Memphis. The next year saw the release, on the small Reka label, 
of "Born to Lose", probably his best known record, which has been reissued
on six different compilations. In 1961 Sonny recorded "Just One More Time" 
and "It's a Lonely World" at a new studio in Memphis owned by Slim Wallace.

Although Sonny has his own studio and record company, VAN-DECK, in 
Arkansas, he kept recording his own records in Memphis. He had a surge
of popularity in 1964, with the release of his recording of "Lonely Street." 
He kept recording during the 60's, using Sonic Studios in Memphis. He 
appeared on WHBQ Channel 13, Dance Party, many times to promote his 
records. Sonny got into producing in the early 70's with the help of his
friend, 
Bill Justis. He worked out of Monument Studios in Nashville.
Though he never had any hits, he made some worthwhile records.
You can find Sonny now at Harrisburg, Arkansas, at the VFW Post, where 
he is Commander, with his 1960 ES 335 Gibson ready to some rockabilly.

(Adapted from the RABHAF page about Deckelman).

See also Terry Gordon's entry for Sonny Deckelman:
http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/d/deck1000.htm