Early life

Wayne Jackson Handy was born on May 14, 1935 in what is now Eden, North Carolina

Eden, North Carolina

Eden is a city in Rockingham County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 15,908 at the 2000 census. The city was incorporated in 1967 through the consolidation of three separate towns: Leaksville, Spray, and Draper....

. He grew up in neighboring Reidsville, North Carolina

Reidsville, North Carolina

Reidsville is a city located in Rockingham County, North Carolina. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 14,485.Originally established in the early 19th century as an outpost and stop on the stage line that ran between Salisbury, NC and Danville, VA called Wrights Crossroads,...

, a once thriving tobacco town and home to the American Tobacco Company

American Tobacco Company

The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company...

. Wayne's father was a farmer and letter carrier, and his mother a housewife. The last of five children, Wayne was charismatic, with a melodic, soothing voice and a skilled ear for music and melody. He and his sister Frances enjoyed singing popular church songs together at home, and in 1956 he joined a Reidsville swing dance band called The Blue Flames, for which he provided the vocals.

Music career

In 1957 he was scouted by a local man to come down to Durham, North Carolina

Durham, North Carolina

Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...

 and sing on the local television show Saturday Night Country Style with Jim Thornton. Watching the performance that night was Howard Rambeau, the owner of a small Durham label called Renown Records. Howard called the TV station that night before Wayne left to ask if he wanted to record for Renown. Wayne signed with Renown and released his first single "Say Yeah" in 1957. Authored by Handy, "Say Yeah" was later recorded by rockabilly artist Sammy Salvo, The Southerners, and Ollie Shephard.

Wayne recorded with some moderately well-known musicians at the time such as The Melody Masters, the King Sisters from Danville, Virginia, and the saxophonist Boots Randolph

Boots Randolph

Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit, "Yakety Sax"...

. In 1957 he was asked to appear in Philadelphia on the television show American Bandstand

American Bandstand

American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...

with Dick Clark. After his performance, he was driven back to the airport by a representative from the show who informed Handy that if he wanted Bandstand to keep playing his songs, he or Renown Records would have to enter into a "pay to play

Pay to Play

Pay to play, sometimes pay for play, is a phrase used for a variety of situations in which money is exchanged for services or the privilege to engage in certain activities...

" (also called "payola

Payola

Payola, in the American music industry, is the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast. Under U.S...

") deal with the show. Neither Handy nor Renown Records would cooperate.

Disillusioned by the music industry, Handy joined the US Army in 1958 and was stationed in Alaska. After his Army enlistment, he returned to North Carolina to enroll at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...

 and pursue a degree in Business. Handy continued to record with Howard Rambeau off and on until 1962 when his contract with Renown Records ended. In the 1960s and 1970s he collaborated with a musician friend, Harold Langdon, to entertain with original songs at social events as Handy and Landy.

Wayne Handy currently resides in North Carolina with his wife Marjorie and is retired from mortgage banking. His music is still appreciated by fans of vintage rock n' roll and rockabilly.

Style

Wayne Handy was influenced by Little Richard

Little Richard

Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...

 and Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

, and was part of the original American 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...

 movement. His songs ranged from raucous rockabilly to crooning ballads.

Discography

Wayne Handy recorded six singles with Renown Records, which frequently leased Handy's songs to music distributors and publishers including Trend Records, Parkway Records, and Dial Records. All of his recorded songs, except for "Conscience Let Me Go", were authored by him. His most well-known song was "Say Yeah". Today his songs can be found on multiple compilations of rockabilly and country rock music from the 1950s. The complete list of his published songs:

• "Say Yeah" - 1957, Renown Records
• "Could It Be" - 1957, Renown Records
• "Betcha' Didn't Know" - 1958, Renown Records/Trend Records
  Trend Records
  Trend Records was a post-World War II United States jazz record label.Trend's back catalogue was purchased by Albert Marx, the owner of Discovery Records, and much of its material was reissued in the 1980s. Among those who recorded for Trend are Van Alexander, Robert Conti, Shelly Manne, Clare...
  
  
• "Seminole Rock n' Roll" - 1958, Renown Records/Trend Records
  Trend Records
  Trend Records was a post-World War II United States jazz record label.Trend's back catalogue was purchased by Albert Marx, the owner of Discovery Records, and much of its material was reissued in the 1980s. Among those who recorded for Trend are Van Alexander, Robert Conti, Shelly Manne, Clare...
  
  
• "Don't Be Unfair" - 1958 Renown Records/Trend Records
  Trend Records
  Trend Records was a post-World War II United States jazz record label.Trend's back catalogue was purchased by Albert Marx, the owner of Discovery Records, and much of its material was reissued in the 1980s. Among those who recorded for Trend are Van Alexander, Robert Conti, Shelly Manne, Clare...
  
  
• "I'll Never Be the Same" - 1959, Renown Records
• "I Think You Oughta' Look Again" - 1959, Renown Records/Trend Records
  Trend Records
  Trend Records was a post-World War II United States jazz record label.Trend's back catalogue was purchased by Albert Marx, the owner of Discovery Records, and much of its material was reissued in the 1980s. Among those who recorded for Trend are Van Alexander, Robert Conti, Shelly Manne, Clare...
  
  
• "Problem Child" - 1959, Renown Records
• "So Much to Remember" - 1960, Renown Records/Parkway Records
• "You'll Never Be Mine" - 1960, Renown Records/Parkway Records
• "Pain Reliever" - 1961, Renown Records/Dial Records
  Dial Records (1964)
  A second Dial Records label was a New Orleans soul label formed by Nashville-based song publisher/plugger/producer Buddy Killen in 1964.This label was formed specifically so Killen could record perhaps his best-known discovery, soul singer Joe Tex...
  
  
• "Conscience Let Me Go" - 1961, Renown Records/Dial Records
  Dial Records (1964)
  A second Dial Records label was a New Orleans soul label formed by Nashville-based song publisher/plugger/producer Buddy Killen in 1964.This label was formed specifically so Killen could record perhaps his best-known discovery, soul singer Joe Tex...
  
  

Wayne Handy's name is erroneously printed as "Wayne C. Handy" on some of his singles.