Moon Mullican
Encyclopedia
Aubrey Wilson Mullican (March 29, 1909 – January 1, 1967), known as Moon Mullican, was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. However, he also sang and played jazz
, rock 'n' roll and the blues
. He was associated with the hillbilly boogie style which greatly influenced rockabilly
; Jerry Lee Lewis
cited him as a major influence on his own singing and piano playing.
Mullican once stated, "We gotta play music that'll make them goddamn beer bottles bounce on the table".
. They were a farming family of Scottish, Irish and Eastern European descent. Moon was a descendant of the Mullikins of Maryland
. His Scots-Irish immigrant ancestor, James Mullikin, was born in Scotland, arriving in Maryland in 1630–1640 via Northern Ireland. His paternal grandfather was Pvt. Wilson G. Mullican, who fought with the 6th Mississippi Infantry, CSA, at the Battle of Shiloh. Moon's parents, stepmother and grandparents are all buried in Stryker Cemetery, Polk County, Texas
.
Mullican's mother died when he was six years old. His father soon married Callie.
As a child, Mullican began playing the organ, which his religious father had purchased in order to better sing hymns at church. However, Moon had befriended one of the black sharecroppers on the farm, a guitarist named Joe Jones, who introduced him to the country blues. His religious family did not always approve, and he was torn between religion and secular music. After making his mark as a local piano player, he left home at 16, and headed to Houston, where he began playing piano and singing in local clubs. His career choice was to be a singer or a preacher, and he chose the former.
" or from his all-night performances (sources differ). His earliest influences were popular blues artists of the day such as Bessie Smith
, Blind Lemon Jefferson
and Leroy Carr
, together with country musicians including Jimmie Rodgers
and Bob Wills
. In 1936, he covered Cab Calloway
's "Georgia Pine" and also sung his own compositions "Ain't You Kinda Sorry" and "Swing Baby Swing" for Leon Selph's Western swing
band, The Blue Ridge Playboys. He also played and recorded with Cliff Bruner
's Texas Wanderers, the Sunshine Boys, and Jimmie Davis
. By the end of the 1930s, he had also become a popular vocalist with a warm, deep, vocal delivery.
In the early 1940s, he returned to the Texas Wanderers as lead singer and pianist, sang on the hits "Truck Driver's Blues" and "I'll Keep On Loving You". However, he also made records with others including an excellent rendition of Irving Berlin
's "Blue Skies", the blues ballad "Sundown Blues", an excellent jazz/blues/gospel hybrid "Lay me down beside my darling" and "Pipeliner Blues" (a song that he would return to many a time). His style at this time was very similar to rock 'n' roll. Many would not have recognised him as a country artist.
As well as writing his own original blues songs, Moon also covered many of the African American blues of his time. These included the Leroy Carr
/Tampa Red
blues "Mean mistreater", Papa Charlie McCoy
's "Too long", Ollie Shepard's "Kangaroo blues" and Georgia South's "New falling rain blues".
In 1945, he put together his own band, the Showboys, who quickly became one of the most popular outfits in the Texas/Louisiana area with a mix of country music, Western swing, and Mullican's wild piano playing and singing. Although their style was highly eclectic and included country ballads, some of their music clearly foreshadowed what would later be called rock and roll. In 1946, Mullican made his first recordings as band leader, for King Records
in Cincinnati. His first hit was "New Jole Blon" in 1947 (later recorded by Doug Kershaw
), followed by the ballad "Sweeter Than the Flowers" in 1948. As well as the hits, he recorded many memorable and excellent songs in many styles showing a versatility that would not be seen until Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley
would surface. A typical Mullican session would see him sing a country ballad one minute and then a saxophone driven blues the next. Record labels often did not know what to do with this side of his music and what he was doing would one day be called rock 'n' roll.
During the late 1940s, Mullican influenced many other country artists. He had defined a style of country balladeering not hinted at in his 1930s work. This style of music influenced Jim Reeves
(a band member for a while), Hank Williams (who named Moon as a favorite artist), Hank Snow
, Bill Haley
, Elvis Presley, and especially Jerry Lee Lewis, who covered many of Mullican's songs. It was in the realm of hillbilly boogie, however, that Mullican had his greatest influence. Many of his songs, such as "Pipeliners Blues", "Hey! Mister Cotton-Picker" and "Cherokee Boogie" (his biggest hit, in 1951) directly foreshadowed the style adopted by Haley and later rock'n'rollers
. Moon also influenced [Irish] country singer Patrick Wall, and also US band Cornell Hurd, who both did tribute CDs to mark Mullican's 100th birthday in 2009.
Among the other songs, he recorded were the Hank Williams-style "It's a Sin to Love You Like I Do", the clever anti-war "When a Soldier Knocks and Finds Nobody Home", the bluesy ballad "There's a Chill on the Hill Tonight", the Piedmont-style blues
"Triflin' Woman Blues" and the gospel
anthem "Bye and Bye". He also ventured into pop with "Mona Lisa" and covered blues standards like Leadbelly
's "Goodnight Irene", and Memphis Minnie
's "What's the Matter With the Mill". Some songs, like "The Leaves Mustn't Fall" and "A Crushed Red Rose", were semi-autobiographical. He had many top 10 hits in this time including the No. 1 "I'll Sail My Ship Alone
" as well as "Sweeter than the Flowers", "Cherokee Boogie" and many "Jole Blon" derivatives. He is also believed to have co-written "Jambalaya
", made famous by Hank Williams, but which could not be credited to him because of his contract with King Records.
By the end of the 1940s, he was a member of the Grand Ole Opry
and found a national audience from its radio broadcasts. With the advent of rock 'n' roll, Mullican's style of music came to the fore. He responded with his famous classic "7 Nights to Rock" as well as "Moon's Rock" and many more.
In 1958, he was signed by Owen Bradley
to Coral Records
, and recorded an album called "Moon Over Mullican" which showed he could also do swing akin to Sinatra
well. He is also believed to have jammed on-stage with Buddy Holly
around this time.
In the early 1960s, Mullican was a largely forgotten figure nationally, but based himself in Texas and carried on gigging and recording for the Starday and Spar labels. The decade saw him record country songs like "I'll Pour the Wine" and "Love Don't Have a Guarantee", together with less notable oddities including "I Ain't No Beatle, But I Wanna Hold Your Hand". One of his last records, "Love That Might Have Been", was excellent and should have been the start of what might have been. However, Moon had a heart condition, although he continued to perform regularly. On New Year's Eve 1966, he suffered a heart attack
in Beaumont, Texas
, and died early in the morning on January 1, 1967. He and his wife, Eunice, who survived him (she died in 1973), had no children.
Moon's epitaph is the name of one of his many hits, "I'll Sail My Ship Alone".
In 1976, he was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
. There have been many posthumous compilations of his music, on various labels including Ace and Bear Family.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rock 'n' roll and the blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
. He was associated with the hillbilly boogie style which greatly influenced rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
; Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
cited him as a major influence on his own singing and piano playing.
Mullican once stated, "We gotta play music that'll make them goddamn beer bottles bounce on the table".
Family
Moon was born to Oscar Luther Mullican (1876–1961) and his first wife, Virginia Jordan Mullican (1880–1915), near Corrigan, Polk County, TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. They were a farming family of Scottish, Irish and Eastern European descent. Moon was a descendant of the Mullikins of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. His Scots-Irish immigrant ancestor, James Mullikin, was born in Scotland, arriving in Maryland in 1630–1640 via Northern Ireland. His paternal grandfather was Pvt. Wilson G. Mullican, who fought with the 6th Mississippi Infantry, CSA, at the Battle of Shiloh. Moon's parents, stepmother and grandparents are all buried in Stryker Cemetery, Polk County, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Mullican's mother died when he was six years old. His father soon married Callie.
As a child, Mullican began playing the organ, which his religious father had purchased in order to better sing hymns at church. However, Moon had befriended one of the black sharecroppers on the farm, a guitarist named Joe Jones, who introduced him to the country blues. His religious family did not always approve, and he was torn between religion and secular music. After making his mark as a local piano player, he left home at 16, and headed to Houston, where he began playing piano and singing in local clubs. His career choice was to be a singer or a preacher, and he chose the former.
Career
By the 1930s, Mullican had earned the nickname "Moon", either short for "moonshineMoonshine
Moonshine is an illegally produced distilled beverage...
" or from his all-night performances (sources differ). His earliest influences were popular blues artists of the day such as Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
, Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Lemon Jefferson
"Blind" Lemon Jefferson was an American blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues"....
and Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist, who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. He first became famous for "How Long, How Long Blues" on Vocalion Records in 1928.-Life and...
, together with country musicians including Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)
James Charles Rodgers , known as Jimmie Rodgers, was an American country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
and Bob Wills
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...
. In 1936, he covered Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
's "Georgia Pine" and also sung his own compositions "Ain't You Kinda Sorry" and "Swing Baby Swing" for Leon Selph's Western swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
band, The Blue Ridge Playboys. He also played and recorded with Cliff Bruner
Cliff Bruner
Cliff Bruner was a fiddler and bandleader of the western swing era of the 1930s. Bruner's music combined elements of traditional string band music, improvisation, blues, folk, and popular melodies of the times....
's Texas Wanderers, the Sunshine Boys, and Jimmie Davis
Jimmie Davis
James Houston Davis , better known as Jimmie Davis, was a noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 47th Governor of Louisiana...
. By the end of the 1930s, he had also become a popular vocalist with a warm, deep, vocal delivery.
In the early 1940s, he returned to the Texas Wanderers as lead singer and pianist, sang on the hits "Truck Driver's Blues" and "I'll Keep On Loving You". However, he also made records with others including an excellent rendition of Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
's "Blue Skies", the blues ballad "Sundown Blues", an excellent jazz/blues/gospel hybrid "Lay me down beside my darling" and "Pipeliner Blues" (a song that he would return to many a time). His style at this time was very similar to rock 'n' roll. Many would not have recognised him as a country artist.
As well as writing his own original blues songs, Moon also covered many of the African American blues of his time. These included the Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist, who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. He first became famous for "How Long, How Long Blues" on Vocalion Records in 1928.-Life and...
/Tampa Red
Tampa Red
Tampa Red , born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an American Chicago blues musician....
blues "Mean mistreater", Papa Charlie McCoy
Papa Charlie McCoy
Charles "Papa Charlie" McCoy was an African American delta blues musician and songwriter.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, McCoy was best known by the nickname 'Papa Charlie'. He became one of the major blues accompanists of his time...
's "Too long", Ollie Shepard's "Kangaroo blues" and Georgia South's "New falling rain blues".
In 1945, he put together his own band, the Showboys, who quickly became one of the most popular outfits in the Texas/Louisiana area with a mix of country music, Western swing, and Mullican's wild piano playing and singing. Although their style was highly eclectic and included country ballads, some of their music clearly foreshadowed what would later be called rock and roll. In 1946, Mullican made his first recordings as band leader, for King Records
King Records (USA)
King Records is an American record label, started in 1943 by Syd Nathan and originally headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.-History:At first it specialized in country music, at the time still known as "hillbilly music." King advertised, "If it's a King, It's a Hillbilly -- If it's a Hillbilly, it's a...
in Cincinnati. His first hit was "New Jole Blon" in 1947 (later recorded by Doug Kershaw
Doug Kershaw
Doug Kershaw, born January 24, 1936, is an American fiddle player, singer and songwriter from Louisiana. Active since 1949, Kershaw has recorded fifteen albums and charted on the Hot Country Songs charts.- Early life :...
), followed by the ballad "Sweeter Than the Flowers" in 1948. As well as the hits, he recorded many memorable and excellent songs in many styles showing a versatility that would not be seen until Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
would surface. A typical Mullican session would see him sing a country ballad one minute and then a saxophone driven blues the next. Record labels often did not know what to do with this side of his music and what he was doing would one day be called rock 'n' roll.
During the late 1940s, Mullican influenced many other country artists. He had defined a style of country balladeering not hinted at in his 1930s work. This style of music influenced Jim Reeves
Jim Reeves
James Travis Reeves , better known as Jim Reeves, was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well-known for being a practitioner of the Nashville sound...
(a band member for a while), Hank Williams (who named Moon as a favorite artist), Hank Snow
Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...
, Bill Haley
Bill Haley
Bill Haley was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".-Early life and career:...
, Elvis Presley, and especially Jerry Lee Lewis, who covered many of Mullican's songs. It was in the realm of hillbilly boogie, however, that Mullican had his greatest influence. Many of his songs, such as "Pipeliners Blues", "Hey! Mister Cotton-Picker" and "Cherokee Boogie" (his biggest hit, in 1951) directly foreshadowed the style adopted by Haley and later rock'n'rollers
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. Moon also influenced [Irish] country singer Patrick Wall, and also US band Cornell Hurd, who both did tribute CDs to mark Mullican's 100th birthday in 2009.
Among the other songs, he recorded were the Hank Williams-style "It's a Sin to Love You Like I Do", the clever anti-war "When a Soldier Knocks and Finds Nobody Home", the bluesy ballad "There's a Chill on the Hill Tonight", the Piedmont-style blues
Piedmont blues
Piedmont blues refers primarily to a guitar style, the Piedmont fingerstyle, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melody using the treble strings generally picked with the fore-finger,...
"Triflin' Woman Blues" and the gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
anthem "Bye and Bye". He also ventured into pop with "Mona Lisa" and covered blues standards like Leadbelly
Leadbelly
Huddie William Ledbetter was an iconic American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....
's "Goodnight Irene", and Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist considered a match to male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.-Career:...
's "What's the Matter With the Mill". Some songs, like "The Leaves Mustn't Fall" and "A Crushed Red Rose", were semi-autobiographical. He had many top 10 hits in this time including the No. 1 "I'll Sail My Ship Alone
I'll Sail My Ship Alone
"I'll Sail My Ship Alone" is a 1950 song written by Moon Mullican , Henry Bernard , Lois Mann and Henry Thurston, and popularized by Moon Mullican...
" as well as "Sweeter than the Flowers", "Cherokee Boogie" and many "Jole Blon" derivatives. He is also believed to have co-written "Jambalaya
Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
"Jambalaya " is the title of a song written and recorded by American country music singer Hank Williams that was first released in July 1952...
", made famous by Hank Williams, but which could not be credited to him because of his contract with King Records.
By the end of the 1940s, he was a member of the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
and found a national audience from its radio broadcasts. With the advent of rock 'n' roll, Mullican's style of music came to the fore. He responded with his famous classic "7 Nights to Rock" as well as "Moon's Rock" and many more.
In 1958, he was signed by Owen Bradley
Owen Bradley
Owen Bradley was an American record producer who, along with Chet Atkins and Bob Ferguson, was one of the chief architects of the 1950s and 1960s Nashville sound in country music and rockabilly.-Before the fame:...
to Coral Records
Coral Records
Coral Records was a Decca Records subsidiary formed in 1949. It recorded pop artists McGuire Sisters and Teresa Brewer, as well as rock and roller Buddy Holly....
, and recorded an album called "Moon Over Mullican" which showed he could also do swing akin to Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
well. He is also believed to have jammed on-stage with Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...
around this time.
In the early 1960s, Mullican was a largely forgotten figure nationally, but based himself in Texas and carried on gigging and recording for the Starday and Spar labels. The decade saw him record country songs like "I'll Pour the Wine" and "Love Don't Have a Guarantee", together with less notable oddities including "I Ain't No Beatle, But I Wanna Hold Your Hand". One of his last records, "Love That Might Have Been", was excellent and should have been the start of what might have been. However, Moon had a heart condition, although he continued to perform regularly. On New Year's Eve 1966, he suffered a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...
, and died early in the morning on January 1, 1967. He and his wife, Eunice, who survived him (she died in 1973), had no children.
Moon's epitaph is the name of one of his many hits, "I'll Sail My Ship Alone".
In 1976, he was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame was established by the Nashville Songwriters Foundation, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. A non-profit organization, its objective is to honor and preserve the songwriting legacy that is uniquely associated with music community in the city of...
. There have been many posthumous compilations of his music, on various labels including Ace and Bear Family.
Discography
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Country Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales... |
US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
||
| 1936 | "Swing Baby Swing" | 5 | — |
| 1938 | "I'll Keep On Loving You" | — | — |
| 1939 | "Truck Driver's Blues" | — | — |
| 1947 | "New Pretty Blonde (Jole Blon)" | 2 | — |
| "Jole Blon's Sister" | 4 | — | |
| 1948 | "Sweeter Than the Flowers" | 3 | — |
| 1950 | "I'll Sail My Ship Alone I'll Sail My Ship Alone "I'll Sail My Ship Alone" is a 1950 song written by Moon Mullican , Henry Bernard , Lois Mann and Henry Thurston, and popularized by Moon Mullican... " |
1 | 17 |
| "Mona Lisa Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole song) "Mona Lisa" is a song written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston for the Paramount Pictures film Captain Carey, U.S.A. . It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 1950. The arrangement was by Nelson Riddle and the orchestral backing was played by Les Baxter and his Orchestra... " |
4 | — | |
| "Goodnight Irene" | 5 | — | |
| 1951 | "Cherokee Boogie (Eh-Oh-Aleena)" | 7 | — |
| 1961 | "Ragged but Right" | 15 | — |