From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sun Feb 10, 2002  2:27 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : T.V. Slim
 
T.V. SLIM

Born Oscar Wills, 10 February, 1916, Houston, Texas
Died 21 October, 1969, Kingman, Arizona

A musician since the late 30s, Wills was resident in Louisiana in
the fifties, singing blues and playing guitar. His brief moment in the
spotlight came in 1957, with his own composition "Flat Foot Sam".
This humorous song was first issued on the small Clif label from
Shreveport and then, after making some local noise, picked up for
national distribution by Checker. But Leonard Chess wanted Wills
to rerecord the song in New Orleans, using Fats Domino's band.
The new version was rushed out under Slim's real name, Oscar
Wills, on the Argo label, produced by Paul Gayten. However, it was
the other side, "Nervous Boogie" by Paul Gayten, that made the
Billboard charts (# 68 pop). Nevertheless, "Flat Foot Sam" is regarded
as something of a classic, spawning a few sequels ("Flat Foot Sam
Meets Jim Dandy", "Flat Foot Sam Made A Bet") and several cover versions.
Wills moved to California in 1959, and did some touring and recording
(mostly for his own tiny Speed label), but was chiefly occupied running
the television repair shop that gave him his nickname. He died in a car
crash while returning from a gig.

CD: T.V. Slim, Flat Foot Sam (Official 5660). Released in 1999, this
contains most of his recorded output, 31 tracks.