Tex Williams

Sollie Paul "Tex" Williams (August 23, 1917 – October 11, 1985) was an American Western swing singer and musician. He is best known for his talking blues style; his biggest hit was the novelty song, "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)", which held the number-one position on the Hot Country Songs chart for 16 weeks in 1947. "Smoke" was the number-five song on Billboard's Top 100 list for 1947, and was number one on the country chart that year.

Life and career

He was born in Ramsey, Illinois, United States. Williams started out in the early 1940s as vocalist for the band of Western swing king Spade Cooley, based in Venice, California.

Williams' backing band, the Western Caravan, numbered about a dozen members. They originally played polkas for Capitol Records, and later had success with "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke", written in large part by Merle Travis.

In April 1956, Williams appeared on the Chrysler-sponsored CBS TV broadcast, Shower of Stars.

Williams died of pancreatic cancer on October 11, 1985.

Filmography

Williams and the Western Caravan appeared in these films:

• Tex Williams and His Western Caravan (1947)
• Tex Williams and Orchestra in Western Whoopee (1948)
• The Pecos Pistol (1949)
• Tex Williams' Western Varieties (1951)

Discography

Albums

Singles

• "The Night Miss Nancy Ann's Hotel for Single Girls Burned Down" peaked at No. 27 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada.

References

Further reading

• Kienzle, Rich. Southwest Shuffle: Pioneers of Honky Tonk, Western Swing, and Country Jazz. New York: Routledge, 2003.
• Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits. Billboard Books, 2006.

External links

• [ Tex Williams at Allmusic]