ROOTS of Country Music

Floyd Tillman 

 The Professional Work of Floyd Tillman

(Dec. 8, 1914 ~ Aug. 22, 2003)

Career Highlights

Barn Dance Affiliate: Louisiana hayride

Grand Ole Opry

Film, Night Club, Radio & TV

• Ed Sullivan Show, 4
• Ernest Tubb’s  Midnight Jamboree, 3
• The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, 4
• The Jimmy Dean Show, 4
• The Johnny Carson Show
• The Johnny Cash Show, 4
• The Porter Wagoner Show, 4 

1-Film, 2-Night Club, 3-Radio, 4-TV 

Billboard Chart Data 

• No. 1 Singles: 1
• Top-20 Singles: 9
• Crossover Singles: 0
• Charted Singles: 10
• Chart Years Active: (1944-1960)

Awards

Country Music Association

• CountryMusic Hallof Fame 1984

Songwriters Hall of Fame

• Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970

Career Labels:

• Decca Records (1944)
• ColumbiaRecords (1946-1949)

Billboard Top-20 Singles

1. They Took the Stars Out of Heaven*# -1944
2. G. I. Blues
3. Each Night at Nine
4. Drivin' Nails in My Coffin -1946
5. I Love You So Much It Hurts -1948
6. Please Don't Pass Me By -1949
7. Slippin' Around
8. I'll Never Slip Around Again
9. I Gotta Have My Baby Back

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Slippin' Around: The Floyd Tillman Story

Born in Ryan, Oklahoma, but raised in Post, Texas (TX), Floyd Tillman was drawn to playing music by the fact that two of his brothers were earning a modest wage playing dances at a local skating rink. Tillman is probably best known for writing It Makes No Difference Now, a country classic that he sold to Jimmie Davis and later, he regained rights to the song. Tillman was a major performer in his own right and one of the creators of honky-tonk country music, repeatedly cited as an influence by Willie Nelson and other Texas performers.

The 1940s and 1950s were boom years which saw a nation come to life after seemingly endless depression and a devastating war. In Texasthe clubs and honky-tonks filled with aspiring musicians and crowds of fans who were only too happy to let down their hair and celebrate the coming of better days.

Singer, songwriter, stylist Floyd Tillmasn was already an established talent by the end of World War II. One of the most important figures in country music history, the enormous influence and scope of Tillman's inventive techniques and style may never be equalled by another writer/performer.

Tillman moved to San Antonio, TX played lead guitar with Adolph Hofner, a western swing bandleader and soon developed into a songwriter and singer. He took a job with Houston pop bandleader Mack Clark in 1938 and played with western swing groups fronted by Leon“Pappy” Selph and Cliff Bruner. Tillman also worked with Ted Daffan and singer and piano player Moon Mullican. Through these varied experiences, Tillman absorbed a whole range of 1930s music and got a good taste of the rhythmic freedom of jazz.

Tillman recorded as a featured vocalist with Selph’s Blue Ridge Playboys in 1938, the same year Tillman scored his first major songwriting hit, It Makes No Difference Now, giving him his own Decca recording contract.

With jukeboxes spreading across the industrializing Southwest and the market for recordings rebounding as the Depression waned, Tillman began a solo recording career of his own on the Decca Records label in the late '30s. Joining the US Army during World War II, he remained in Texas and continued to compose and perform.

It wasn't long before his trademark delivery, sometimes described as a cross between Ernest Tubb and Frank Sinatra, began to emerge. Tillman combined the low-volume vocal inflections of the crooner with tight country voice production. He had his only number one hit in 1944 with They Took the Stars Out of Heaven and his songwriting, inspired by wartime themes of separation, continued to develop along with his vocal style.

Tillman's Each Night At Nine, struck a chord with lonely servicemen during World War II. Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose played it heavily to encourage desertion. Another big hit for Tillman and also for Jimmy Wakely was I Love You So Much It Hurts (No. 5, 1948). His 1949 Slippin' Around, one of the first country western cheating songs, was a hit for Tillman as well as Ernest Tubb, Texas Jim Robertson and the duo of Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely.

Tillman slowed down on his performing in the early 1950s, although he appeared on ABC-TV's Jubilee USA in 1958 and 1959. Tillman continued to find inspiration in current events with such songs as the much-covered This Cold War With You. He enjoyed solo success as late as 1960 with It Just Tears Me Up and he continued to write songs and to appear around Texas occasionally.

Floyd Tillman was inducted into the CountryMusic Hallof Fame in 1984.

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11 Original Recordings

Drivin' Nails In My Coffin

HCO 1694

Recorded Feb 11, 1946,Hollywood,California

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman (vocal, rhythm guitar), Darold Raley, Randall Raley (fiddle), Leo Raley(mandolin), Ralph Smith (piano), Lowell Frisby (string bass)

Each Night At Nine

Columbia20771

Recorded ACA Studios,Houston,Texas, Nov. 14, 1950

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman (vocal), Clyde Brewer, Buddy Ray (fiddle), Herb Remington (steel guitar), Dickie McBride (rhythm guitar), Buck Henson (string bass), unknown (piano)

Sentenced to a Life (Without You)

CCO 4762

Recorded Mar. 25, 1947,Chicago,IllinoisUSA

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman (vocal, rhythm guitar), Darold Raley (fiddle), Leo Raley(mandolin), Clyde Yandell (lead guitar), Ben McHell (piano), Lowell Frisby (string bass)

Westphalla Waltz

Columbia38086

Recorded Dec. 29, 1947

Castle Studio,Nashville,TennesseeUSA

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman (vocal, rhythm guitar), Darold Raley, Woodrow Carter (fiddle), Leo Raley(mandolin), Ralph Smith (piano), Lowell Frisby (string bass)

The Stars Fell Out of Heaven

HCO 1703

Recorded Feb 12, 1946,Hollywood,California 

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman (vocal, rhythm guitar), Darold Raley, Randall Raley (fiddle), Leo Raley(mandolin), Ralph Smith (piano), Lowell Frisby (string bass)

I Love You So Much It Hurts

Columbia20430

Recorded Dec. 29, 1947

Castle Studio,Nashville,TennesseeUSA

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman ( rhythm guitar), Darold Raley, Woodrow Carter (fiddle), Leo Raley(mandolin), Ralph Smith (piano), Lowell Frisby (string bass)

Slipping Around

Columbia20581

Recorded Holford Studios (ACA ),Houston,Texas, Early Spring 1949

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman (vocal,  rhythm guitar), Darold Raley, Woodrow Carter (fiddle), Leo Raley(mandolin), J. D. Standlee (steel guitar), Ralph Smith (piano), Lowell Frisby (string bass)

I'm Checkin' Out On You

COO 4763

Recorded Mar. 25, 1947,Chicago,IllinoisUSA

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman (vocal, rhythm guitar), Darold Raley (fiddle), Leo Raley(mandolin), Clyde Yandell (lead guitar), Ben McHell (piano), Lowell Frisby (string bass)

There's Blood On the Moon Tonight

CCO 4764

Recorded Mar. 25, 1947,Chicago,IllinoisUSA

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman (vocal, rhythm guitar), Darold Raley (fiddle), Leo Raley (mandolin), Clyde Yandell (lead guitar), Ben McHell (piano), Lowell Frisby (string bass)

Go Out and Find Somebody New

HCO 1695

Recorded Feb 11, 1946,Hollywood,California

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman (vocal, rhythm guitar), Darold Raley, Randall Raley (fiddle), Leo Raley(mandolin), Ralph Smith (piano), Lowell Frisby (string bass)

I Almost Lost My Mind 

Columbia20673

Recorded ACA Studios,Houston,Texas, January 1950 

Session Personnel: Floyd Tillman (vocal, lead acoustic, rhythm guitar), Darold Raley, Woodrow Carter (fiddle), Leo Raley(mandolin), Herb Remington (steel guitar), Ralph Smith (piano), Lowell Frisby (string bass)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Musicians Who Worked With Floyd Tillman

The following are musicians who worked in Tillman's road band or on his recording sessions or both:

1. Ben McHell
2. Buck Henson
3. Buddy Ray
4. Clyde Brewer
5. Clyde Yandell
6. Darold Raley
7. Dickie McBride
8. Herb Remington
9. J. D. Standlee
10. Leo Raley
11. Lowell Frisby
12. Ralph Smith
13. Randall Raley
14. Woodrow Carter  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Researched, written and compiled by Richard Bell. Roots of Country Music. Jan. 29, 2012.