From: "Dik de Heer" 
Date: Fri Jul 1, 2005 1:36am 
Subject: This Is My Story : Tom Tall  

TOM TALL

Born Tommie Lee Guthrie, 27 December 1937, Amarillo, Texas

Had he shown a preference for pop rather than country music and more
ambition, Tom Tall might have made it as a teen idol on his looks alone.
Born Tommie Guthrie, he grew up with a passion for hunting and fishing
and a prodigious talent for singing. By the time he was twelve, he was
listening closely to his major influences, Hank Williams and Hank Thompson,
and had his own radio show over KSNY in Snyder, Texas. The next year
his family moved to California, where in 1953 Tom was spotted by Fabor 
Robison at a talent contest. Tom recalls how he met Robison:
"I won the talent show , and he was there and saw me. He asked me to
come out to his place and make a demonstration record. We made the 
demo at Western Recorders on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood ; it was a
major studio then. Fabor liked the demo, offered me a contract, and about
six months later we did our first session, at the same studio. We did four
songs, the ones that were on my first two releases : "I Gave My Heart To
Two People", a sort of gospel-flavoured song I had written, "Please Be
Careful", another original called "I Want To Walk With You", and a slow
number of mine called "You Loved Another One Better Than Me". To back
me on these, Fabor brought in the Louisiana Hayride Band, who were on
tour in California. Jimmy Day played steel, Floyd Cramer piano and D.J.
Fontana was on drums ; then Fabor brought in a guy he knew in Los
Angeles, named Gene Davis, and he played lead guitar."

The first release (Fabor 108) came out on May 15, 1954, the second in
late September (Fabor 115). Meanwhile, Fabor Robison had got the idea
of partnering Tom with one of the label's more attractive girl singers,
Ginny Wright (born August 1, 1933, Twin Cities, Georgia), who the year before had 
a national hit with Jim Reeves, "I Love You" (# 3 country). By late 1954,
Fabor and Reeves had reached a parting of the ways (Reeves would soon
sign for RCA), and Fabor was doubtless looking for a replacement.

He thought he had found the next duet song in "Are You Mine", which he
had already recorded and released on the Abbott label, by two Canadian
singers, Myrna Lorrie (the song's composer) and Buddy Deval. He wanted,
however, to cover the song on his own Fabor label, which he totally owned
(he only owned 50% of Abbott), and one evening called Ginny Wright in
Shreveport, asking her to take the next plane out to cut "Are You Mine"
with Tom. She agreed and in November 1954, she and Tom did their first
session together. "Are You Mine" (Fabor 117) went to # 2 on Billboard's 
country chart in 1955 and was followed by another duet, "Boom Boom 
Boomerang", which was only a regional hit. One problem was that Tom
and Ginny didn't get much chance to tour and promote the records.

When Ginny quit the business abruptly in 1955, Tom went back to doing
solo work. In spite of the fact that some of his Fabor recordings bear the
legend "accompanied by the Louisiana Hayride Band", they were all cut
in California with a battery of studio musicians rounded up by Fabor. "Most
of them were Hollywood musicians that I didn't even know", says Tom.
"Fabor had a recording studio set up at the time in his house in Malibu,
and we'd all go out there and spend a week at a time, rehearsing and
practicing and writing songs.". Tom found two other duet partners this
way at the Fabor studio. One was Ruckus Tyler, a Louisiana singer.
Tom met him at Malibu, and the pair worked up a pair of nice rockabilly 
tunes, "Don't You Know" and "If You Know What I Know" (Fabor 139),
somewhat reminiscent of the Buddy Holly and Bob Montgomery duets
before Buddy became famous. They actually became Tom's last recordings 
for the label, being issued in July 1956. Tom and Ruckus never worked 
together outside of the studio, and Tyler had at least one solo release 
on Fabor 135, "Rockin' and Rollin'" and "Rock Town Rock". A similar 
situation existed with the Creel Sisters, who backed Tom on two cuts,
"Hot Rod Is Her Name" and "Whose Little Pigeon Are You". Tom recalls
"Fabor had recorded them on some pop song. I just met them out at his
house, and they started singing background with me on this song I had,
"Hot Rod", and Fabor said, ´Yeah, let's record that'. I don't know where 
they were from, and never saw them again after that record."

The two cuts with the Creel Sisters came close to straightforward rock 'n'
roll and in fact "Whose Little Pigeon Are You" was issued in Abbott's pop
series, on the flip of the Creels' "Stop the Clock Rock" (Abbott 3022).

Tom left Fabor in mid-1956, moving to the Sage label, a small Hollywood
outfit which already had Tall's sister Myrna Jay under contract. Next he
signed with the Los Angeles-based Crest Records, where he befriended 
Eddie Cochran. The first of Tom's two Crest singles, "Stack-A-Records"
(Crest 1038, 1958), is his most rocking recording (even to the extent that
an SAO feature was named after the song!). In a bid to replicate Eddie
Cochran's guitar sound, Tall played the guitar licks (which are a bit too
close to those on Buddy Knox's "Party Doll" for comfort) himself on a 
Gretsch bought shortly before the session. 

Tom went on to record for Chart, Sundown, Petal (a # 25 country hit 
with "Bad Bad Tuesday" in 1964), Decca, Columbia, Blue Book and 
Scorpion. From 1955 to 1959 he appeared on the "Big D Jamboree" in
Dallas, as well as on Town Hall Party, Ozark Jubilee and the Grand Ole 
Opry.

By 1979 Tom had decided to retire from music and work as a business
executive in Las Vegas, but was lured back into the studio for a 1985
session.

Bear Family has just reissued the complete Fabor recordings by Tom 
Tall and Ginny Wright ("Are You Mine", BCD 16741):
http://www.bear-family.de/mailorder/showoneproduct.html?lang=de&p=BCD+16741

Much of the above was adapted from the liner notes (by Charles K. Wolfe)
of an earlier Bear Family release, now out of print:
Tom Tall, Hot Rod Is Her Name (BFX 15189, vinyl).

More info on Ginny Wright: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginny_Wright

UK discography of Tom and Ginny:
- London HL 8119 Ginny Wright, Indian Moonn / Your Eyes Feasted
Upon Her (February 1955)
- London HL 8150 Tom Tall and Ginny Wrightt, Are You Mine / Boom 
Boom Boomerang (July 1955)
- London HL 8216 Tom Tall, Give Me A Chancce / Remembering You 
(December 1955)
- London HLU 8231 Tom Tall, Underway / Golldie Jo Malone (January 1956)
- London HLU 8429 Tom Tall & Ruckus Tyler,, Don't You Know / If You 
Know What I Know (May 1957)

Dik