From:  "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Aug 17, 2004  1:32 am 
Subject:  This Is My Story : Whitey Pullen
 
WHITEY "DWIGHT" PULLEN (By Klaus Kettner with Tony Wilkinson)

Born Dwight A. Pullen, 5 March 1931, Blountsville, Alabama

Died 24 November 1961, Los Angeles, California

Popular with teenagers in the fifties were songs about clothing they wore or
fashion accessories. Indeed many became hits such as 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Penny
Loafers & Bobby Socks', 'Black Slacks', 'Sack Dress, 'White Bucks And Saddle
Shoes', 'Pink Shoelaces', 'Leather Jacket' and 'Black Denim Trousers'. Another
similar title was 'Sunglasses After Dark' which sadly failed to ignite the
charts but is revered today, long after many of the aforementioned hits mean
nothing but fond memories. Indeed, 'Sunglasses' has passed into that select
group of discs that are now rightly regarded as rock 'n' roll classics. It is
sad that the singer on this disc, 'Whitey' Dwight Pullen, passed away at a young
age and thus was unable to observe that he had made a record that stood the test
of time. Undoubtedly he would have had the call to appear at the European
rockin' festivals.

Dwight Pullen was born in the poor neighbourhood of Blountsville, Alabama on
March 5, 1931 and started playing guitar and singing whilst still in school.
Country music was close by as Red Foley broadcast his famous 'Ozark Jubilee'
from Springfield, Missouri and the Pullen family were regular listeners. Dwight
had four brothers and four sisters, all of whom were into making music but, as
his cousin Reuben L. Pullen recalls, Dwight was the one who took it real
seriously. Two sisters, Polly and Sarah, were a popular country duo in the
thirties and forties who performed under the name of Polly & Dolly and
occasionally co-starred alongside Eddy Arnold. From Blountsville, the family
moved to Birmingham, Alabama as Dwight´s father was in the steel construction
business and work was available there. When Dwight was 10 years old, his family
moved to California for work reasons but older sister Sarah stayed behind in
Alabama. They based themselves in Pittsburg, CA. and another sister, Betty,
still resides there. Around two years later, the Pullens temporarily relocated
to Florida where Dwight worked as a delivery boy and helped out in a restaurant
after school. However they all soon returned to California. Back in the
Promised Land, and whilst in high school, Dwight formed his first band along
with Cotton Brown, Larry Murphy and Jimmy Webb. The last mentioned, until
recently, ran a record shop. They had their own radio show in the Pittsburg CA.
area. His sister Betty recalled that Dwight was very ambitious and was always
coming up with ideas as to how to make some dollars. His cousin Jim Nobles
recalls that he was a strong businessman and a go getter: 'He could charm birds
out of a tree'. He was always generous to his family and other loved ones.

The Pullen family had moved back to Alabama in 1951 and it was in the early
fifties that Dwight was drafted into the army and ended up based in Anchorage,
Alaska. Whilst performing in the local clubs, he met Margaret, a young girl from
nearby Palmer whom he married. In 1956, Dwight and his wife were appointed as
the managers for the Red Barn club in Anchorage, Alaska and in addition he also
became the manager of the resident band. Margaret's father had a car dealership
in town and Dwight also took up a day job there before setting up his own
franchised car dealership. At this time, he was about the only booking agent in
Alaska and so he soon became involved in booking acts into various entertainment
spots in the Anchorage area as well as his 'own' club. Many big country stars
of the day made their first trip to Alaska on the strength of a booking from
Whitey. Pullens also had a local popular television show. It was no wonder then
that whitey formed lasting friendships with the likes of Ray Price, Patsy Cline,
Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. Indeed the last mentioned used to stay at
Dwight's house when in Anchorage. His nephew James Noble helped him during 1955
and 1956 playing bass whilst brother Brack Pullen, who stayed with Dwight in
Alaska, was an occasional band member for a few years playing rhythm guitar,
handling some of the vocal work and acting as a roadie. Brack, who is now 80
years old, remembers that they went on several tours with Ray Price and one with
Johnny Cash and The Collins Kids.

Dwight appreciated the fact that if he was to make the big time as a singer,
then he should not stay in Anchorage all the time. Accordingly, in 1955, he and
nephew James visited Connecticut and the next year Dwight tried his luck in
Nashville, Tennessee. He fully appreciated that he would make better money by
issuing a record to promote himself. After auditioning for some bigger labels
and getting turned down, he got lucky and secured a recording deal with the new
Delta Record Company. There have been at least five companies by that name but
this particular one was run by F.L. "Red" Wortham out of Nashville in the years
1956 through 1959. Despite this relatively long period for a small independent
label, it only had handful of releases. Dwight's first single was 'I'm Beggin´
Your Pardon' c/w 'Broke Waiting For A Break' and was cut in late 1956 and issued
in December of that year. Both sides were composed by Pullen and was issued, as
were most of his subsequent releases, under the name of Whitey Pullen. He got
the nickname 'Whitey' from some musical friends because of his light blond
hair. The record was commercially stillborn and, at this time, the only regular
band member he used was Bob Saxton from Laurel, Mississippi who played the lead
guitar.

In late 1957 James Noble, who was born on 12th December 1936, was walking down
Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles at night when he spotted a black guy driving
his Cadillac convertible wearing sunglasses. Jim thought 'Wow, sunglasses after
dark, that's cool' with the result that he had the opening line for a new song.
With the influence from his musical family, he already considered taking up a
musical career and so offered the completed song to several record companies.
Noble finally got an interest from Joe Carlton who wanted to record the song for
his own Carlton Label. However for unknown reasons, it was Dwight and not Jim
who was called upon by Joe Carlton to record the song. There have been rumours
that this was a split session along with Kenneth (Kenny ) Rogers, the subsequent
country superstar, who was supposed to be backed by Dwight. James remembers the
session and states there were only studio musicians used for the two songs and
no other artists. As Dwight already built himself a name in Country music as
Whitey Pullen, he used his birth name of Dwight Pullen for this classic rock 'n'
roll release. Both he and Joe Carlton thought that Dwight had a better
commercial ring to it for the teenage record buying public. With the ultra
cool 'Sunglasses After Dark' and 'Teen Age Bug', Pullens succeeded in laying
down two of the all time greats of rock 'n' roll recordings, tunes which have
now been re-issued around the world on numerous occasions on various releases.
The record received a good review in Billboard magazine on 3rd March 1958.
Despite all this, the disc failed to become a hit record.

From this one shot deal with Carlton, Dwight went to Sage & Sand Records and
Publishing and signed a several years long contract with co owner Pat Nelson.
The Los Angeles based company kept their name for their publishing department
but, from 1957 onwards, only used the name of Sage for record releases. The
first release by Dwight on his new label was in October 1958 with 'Walk My Way
Back Home/Don´t Make Me Cry', two self composed songs. His next release, 'By You
By The Bayou/It's Over With" quickly followed in December 1958 and secured a
nice review in the Billboard pop section on 5th January 1959.

This was gathering reasonable local success when in January 1959, Sage issued
his next record 'You'll Get Yours Someday/I Lived A Lifetime Last Night'. To
this day, the logic behind these three releases in a matter of four months
remains unclear. Certainly, there was insufficient time to promote each
release properly. It is also interesting to note that a person by the name of
Friedman co-wrote with Dwight the majority of the titles recorded by Pullens for
the company.

Unfortunately the cupboard is bare as to who were the studio musicians used on
Dwight's Sage sessions. It is quite conceivable that it was the regular bunch
of guys used for other recordings on the label and therefore would have included
guitar genius Roy Lanham. Lanham was born in Corbin, Kentucky on 16th January
1923 and passed away from cancer in California on 14th February 1991' Roy had
cuts sides with The Delmore Brothers and, later, some fine rockabilly. It has
also been suggested that James Burton, who worked with Bob Luman, Ricky Nelson
and Elvis Presley amongst many, also played lead guitar on some of the sessions.

In May 1959, Dwight's pure rockabilly magic of 'Let's All Go Wild" was
released. It was around this time that rockabilly music was having a
significant impact on Dwight as during the summer, he also became the road
manager for Gene Vincent. Pullen was working for agent Pat Mason in Seaside,
Oregon who had become Gene Vincent's manager. In August 1959, Gene recorded
two of Pullen's songs for his "Crazy Times" album (Capitol T 1342). These were
'Everybody's Got A Date But Me' and 'She She Little Sheila', the latter being
listed as a co-write with Blue Cap Jerry Lee Merritt. 'Sheila' saw several cover
versions around the world such as those from The Spotnicks (Sweden), Flash
Cadillac (USA), Idoles 60 (France) and Les Chaussettes Noires (France) who also
recorded the aforementioned 'Everybody's Got A Date But Me'. Jerry Merritt
also recorded a version of 'Sheila' in 1959.

Jerry Merrit recalls the story of 'Sheila' as follows: 'I gave half of the
songwriters credits of "She She Little Sheila" to one of our managers, Whitey
Pullen. He and Pat Mason booked Gene and I on the 1959 tour of Japan. Gene got
madder than a hornet at me for giving half of the song away, but I was young and
foolish. Whitey was a rockabilly singer on Carlton Records and I felt he was a
rhythm singer like me. I still don´t regret giving the song away. His widow got
the money from the royalties after his early death, so I still feel I did the
right thing'.

This may or may not be true as Whitey was a songwriter in his own right. It is
quite possible that he added some ideas to the tune. Whatever, it is a very
tasty composition. The aforementioned Japanese tour was the one where Gene
Vincent got homesick for his wife Darlene and left leaving Jerry Lee Merritt had
to finish it under Gene´s name. Pat Mason remembered: 'Gene Vincent was a good
attraction and entertainer, but I had problems controlling him. When he got back
from Japan I decided, I was gonna have to give up with this. I moved Gene and
Darlene back to Hollywood'. After this ill-fated tour, Vincent and Merritt went
on to record a new album for Capitol. Jerry Lee Merritt has been quoted that he
used Whitey Pullen's Fender Stratocaster Guitar on that session. Whilst Pullen
is not listed on the files for this batch of sessions, rumour has it that Dwight
played rhythm guitar on some songs. This does make sense he was at the session
acting as manager, songwriter and guitar rental.

James Noble, who wrote 'Why Don't You People Learn How To Drive' for the same
Gene Vincent album was Dwight's nephew who had previously written his signature
song 'Sunglasses After Dark'. James's mother was Pauline 'Polly' Pullens, an
older sister of Dwight. Whitey and James were opening the shows for Gene
Vincent singing such as 'Blue Suede Shoes' and 'Johnny B. Good' during three
tours in 1959 that made their way through the North West and Mid West USA..
After the intermission they came back on stage as backing band for Gene Vincent.
James remembers 'I played bass for Gene , while Whitey played guitar as part of
his backing band. That didn't make us real Blue Caps but we had a good time
anyway'. The last gig that they played with Gene was the day before he left for
the first English tour - the one involving the horrific road accident that left
Gene seriously injured and Eddie Cochran dead. As a farewell present, Gene left
James the Fender Bass which had been owned by him. Jim still uses the same
instrument to this very day. When Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps toured or
performed on television shows in the San Francisco Bay area, they occasionally
stayed at the house of their road manager's sister, Betty Pullen who is two
years younger than Dwight.

Manager Pat Mason mentioned that Pullen made the contacts for Gene´s European
tour in 1959 by going to England, France and Germany playing army bases. Then
they did Alaska and Japan, where they played for $2,000 per day. October 1959
saw the release of a slightly upbeat re-recording of his first recording "I´m
Beggin´ Your Pardon".

In November 1959, Sage Records had released the last disc by Whitey Pullen
during his brief but eventful life. This was the great rocker 'Tuscaloosa
Lucy' c/w 'Waltz Of The Steel Guitar'. The "Tuscaloosanews" from Alabama had a
story in April 2002 about songs based on their city and of course included
Whitey Pullen with 'Tuscaloosa Lucy'.

Another of Pat Nelson's artists was Cincinnati rocker Rusty York who already
had hit with 'Sugaree'. Nelson placed York with Starday Records where he
recorded mainly instrumentals. However, during 1959 Rusty and Whitey got
together and wrote the song "Margaret Ann". Rusty recorded the song in the
autumn of 1959 for King Records at the Chess studio but it was not released and
now it appears that the tapes have been lost. York then re-recorded the song
with the help of Bill Lanham (bass),Jim Lundy (drums), John Bower (piano), and
Jimmy Risch (sax) in 1960 as The Cajuns for Sage Records. It is unclear whether
Whitey was involved in either of these two sessions.

After this, Whitey became less active and one significant reason has to be that
prostate cancer was taking a toll on his health and he so returned with his wife
and son to Alaska for a while. Fighting cancer he returned California for
radiation treatment. This pushed the cancer into remission and so he moved on
to Madford, Oregon where he had a television show. In late 1961 he went to Los
Angeles, still planning for his future, when on 24th November 1961 he passed
away at the young age of 31. - a sad loss. His remains were shipped to
Blountsville, Alabama, for burial where his parents and older sister, who passed
away in 1978, are also buried. Whitey has started to write his biography but it
was not finished. His son, who lived in Washington, was killed in a hunting
accident by a friend. He was only 21 years of age. Whitey's wife is still
living in Alaska and has remarried. Several members of the Pullen family still
reside in Alabama and California.

Crown Records from Los Angeles, California was searching for cheap material to
release as budget records and so they leased ten songs of Whitey's recordings
from Sage to put out on the album "Country Music Star" (332). Besides some
released songs, it included the five then unreleased recordings 'Tight Slacks',
'What Are We Going To Do', 'So Much To Remember', 'Moonshine Liquor' and 'Waltz
Of The Blues'. Crown also leased material for other albums by Doye O´Dell and
Whitey Knight from Sage Records. (Incidentally, Whitey Knight does not have any
connection with Whitey Pullen). . The Whitey Pullen album, which had a nice
painting of Dwight on the cover sold in reasonable quantities and is today a
collectors item amongst country and rockabilly fans.

The last Sage single by Whitey Pullen was 'Crazy In Love' c/w 'I Won The Day I
Lost You' and was released in 1963 to cash in on the success of the Crown album.

Family member James Noble had become hooked on music and set about carving out
his own career as a recording artist. In 1957 he got together with George Rod
Wilson, who later went under the name George Weston. They played the local West
Coast scene and came up with a song called "Didn't It Rock". James shopped the
song around and received expressions o interest from both Imperial records and
Challenge Records. The latter's A&R man was Joe Johnson and James had played
the song to him over the telephone. Accordingly the duo went into a Los Angeles
recording studio on 9th September 1958 and recorded 'Didn't It Rock' along with
another composition penned by the duo 'My Baby's Got Dreamy Eyes' and this was
released on Challenge 59034 under the name of Jim and Rod - The Noble Brothers
in November 1958. The backing band on the session was another Challenge group
who became known as The Champs of 'Tequila' fame. The duo performed some shows
and appeared on local television, all backed by The Champs. Whilst regional
airplay was obtained, the record was not a commercial success - perhaps because
it was somewhat similar to the sound of the Everly Brothers. After that, James
and Rod went their separate ways. Rod recorded several records for Challenge
and their subsidiary label Jackpot before disappearing from view. James tried
several other record companies in an effort to get a solo career going but this
unfortunately did not get too far. James has played in several bands over the
years and at one time worked in a group together with ex Blue Cap Johnny Meeks.
He left his last band, 'Rennegade' in 1996 as his day job did not permit him
enough time to take care of his musical needs. Nowadays James plays every once
in while at the local church or for friends but he is still writing songs.

Going back to the recordings of Whitey Pullen, During the rockabilly revival in
the late 70´s Dial Records issued the previously unreleased 'Drinkin' Wine (Spoo
Dee O Dee)' during the rockabilly revival of the late seventies whilst the
California based Rollin´ Rock label put out two singles by Pullen, namely
'Drinkin' Wine/Everybody's Rockin' (005) and 'Tuscaloosa Lucy/Tight Slacks'
(017). Following on from this, various of his recordings have appeared on
several mixed artists compilations, all of which have served to keep the name
and talent of Dwight 'Whitey' Pullen justifiably in the spotlight.

Suggested Listening:

(German) Hydra BCK 27127 - 'Sunglasses After Dark' (going to pressing factory as
this is being written)