From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Fri Dec 13, 2002  6:17 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Wayne Walker
 
WAYNE WALKER (By Shauin Mather)

Born 13 December 1925, Quapaw, Oklahoma
Died 2 January 1979, Nashville, Tennessee

Wayne Walker was a former rockabilly who made his biggest impression
on the music world as a songwriter, winning no less than 23 BMI awards.

He got involved in the music business as a teenager in Shreveport, Louisiana
where he befriended country singer Webb Pierce at the Louisiana Hayride.
They started writing songs together and had an early success with How Do
You Think I Feel? by Jimmie Rodgers Snow and Red Sovine, and enjoyed
even greater royalties when Elvis cut it for his second RCA album in 1956.

Walker's own career was a complicated one, recording as a solo artist and
with Jimmie Lee Fautheree as Jimmy Lee & Wayne Walker. It was the last
of these that was credited with the rocking, Love Me on Chess in 1955.

His solo work for ABC, Columbia and Brunswick included some great
rockabilly. All I Can Do Is Cry for ABC Paramount came out in late '56 and
is probably only just surpassed by his fabulous late '57 rocker Bo-Bo Ska
Diddle Daddle on Columbia (co-written with Webb Pierce and featuring
blistering work from the great Hank Garland).

He wrote a couple of rockabilly burners for others including Ain't I'm A Dog
for fellow singer/songwriter Ronnie Self and Sweet Love On My Mind.
Highlights of his country songwriting are Are You Sincere (Andy Williams,
Elvis Presley, Brook Benton, Mel Tillis), I've Got a New Heartache (Ray
Price), Cut Across Shorty (Carl Smith, Eddie Cochran, Nat Stuckey),
Thoughts Of A Fool (Ernest Tubb, George Strait), Leaving On Your Mind
(Patsy Cline), Memory No.1 (Webb Pierce) and Burning Memories (Ray
Price and Jerry Lee Lewis).

Recommended listening:
I don't think there's a collection of his stuff, but he always crops up on
rockabilly compilations. See also Terry Gordon's website:
http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/w/walk7600.htm