| Hank Thompson | |
| Background: | solo_singer |
| Birth Name: | Henry William Thompson |
| Birth Date: | 3 September 1925 |
| Birth Place: | Waco, Texas, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Keller, Texas, U.S. |
| Genre: | Country, western swing |
| Years Active: | 1946 - 2007 |
| Associated Acts: | Tex Ritter, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Billy Walker, Ken Nelson, George Jones, Wanda Jackson, Junior Brown, TEF, George Strait |
Henry William Thompson (September 3, 1925 – November 6, 2007)[1] was an American country music singer-songwriter and musician whose career spanned seven decades.
Thompson's musical style, characterized as honky-tonk Western swing, was a mixture of fiddles, electric guitar, and steel guitar that featured his distinctive, smooth baritone vocals.
His backing band, The Brazos Valley Boys, was voted the top Country Western Band for 14 years in a row by Billboard. Thompson pursued a "light" version of the Western swing sound that Bob Wills and others played; the primary difference between his music and that of Bob Wills was that Thompson, who used the swing beat and instrumentation to enhance his vocals, discouraged the intense instrumental soloing from his musicians that Wills encouraged; however, the "Hank Thompson sound" exceeded Bob Wills in top-40 country hits.
Although not as prominent on the top country charts in later decades, Thompson remained a recording artist and concert draw well into his 80s.
The 2013 game Grand Theft Auto V featured his version of the song "I Don't Hurt Anymore" in the fictional radio show Rebel Radio.
The 1987 novel Crazy Heart by Thomas Cobb was inspired by Thompson's life, specifically by his practice of picking up a local band to back him when he toured. In 2009, Cobb's novel was turned into a successful film directed by Scott Cooper and starring Jeff Bridges in an Academy Award-winning performance.[2] [3]
Born in Waco, Texas, United States,[4] Thompson was interested in music from an early age, and won several amateur harmonica contests. He decided to pursue his musical talent after serving in the United States Navy in World War II as a radioman and studying electrical engineering at Princeton University before his discharge. He had intended to continue those studies on the GI Bill following his 1946 discharge, and return to Waco.[4] Later that year, after having regional hits with his first single "Whoa Sailor" for Globe Records, Dallas (Globe 124) and almost simultaneously "California Women" for another Dallas label (Blue Bonnet 123), he chose to pursue a full-time musical career.[4]
1952 brought his first number-one single, "The Wild Side of Life", which contained the memorable line, "I didn't know God made honky-tonk angels".[4] (This line inspired songwriter J. D. "Jay" Miller to write the 1952 answer song "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", which became the first hit single for pioneer female country vocalist Kitty Wells.) Other hits for Thompson followed in quick succession in the 1950s and 1960s.[4]
Thompson began singing in a plaintive honky-tonk style similar to that of Ernest Tubb, but, desiring to secure more engagements in the dance halls of the Southwest, he reconfigured his band, the Brazos Valley Boys, to play a "light" version of the Western swing sound that Bob Wills and others made famous, emphasizing the dance beat and meticulous arrangements.[4]
From 1947 to 1964, he recorded for Capitol Records,[5] then joined Warner Bros. Records, where he remained from 1966 through 1967. From 1968 through 1980, he recorded for Dot Records and its successors, ABC Dot and MCA Records. In 1997, Thompson released Hank Thompson and Friends, a collection of solo tracks and duets with some of country music's most popular performers. In 2000, he released a new album, Seven Decades, on the Hightone label. The title reflected his recording history from the 1940s to 2000s.
Thompson was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989,[5] and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1997. He continued touring throughout the U.S. until shortly before he became ill. Often, he worked with a reconstituted version of the Brazos Valley Boys that included a few original members.
Thompson's last public performance was on October 8, 2007, in Waco, Texas, his birthplace. A smoker for most of his adult life, Thompson was admitted into a Texas hospital in mid-October for shortness of breath. He was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of lung cancer. On November 1, 2007, two days after being released, Thompson cancelled the rest of his 2007 "Sunset Tour" and retired from singing. He went into hospice care at his home in Keller, Texas, and died five days later, on November 6, 2007, aged 82.[1]
According to Thompson's spokesman, Tracy Pitcox, president of Heart of Texas Records, Thompson requested that no funeral be held. On November 14, a "celebration of life", open to both fans and friends, took place at Billy Bob's Texas, a Ft. Worth country and western nightclub that bills itself as the World's Largest Honky-Tonk.[6]
| Year | Album | US Country | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Hank Thompson Favorites | — | Capitol | |
| 1955 | Songs of the Brazos Valley | — | ||
| North of the Rio Grande | — | |||
| 1956 | New Recordings of Hank Thompson's All-Time Hits | — | ||
| 1957 | Hank! | — | ||
| 1958 | Hank Thompson's Dance Ranch | — | ||
| 1959 | Favorite Waltzes by Hank Thompson | — | ||
| Songs for Rounders | — | |||
| 1960 | Most of All | — | ||
| This Broken Heart of Mine | — | |||
| 1961 | An Old Love Affair | — | ||
| At the Golden Nugget | — | |||
| 1962 | The No. 1 Country & Western Band | — | ||
| Cheyenne Frontier Days | — | |||
| 1963 | The Best of Hank Thompson | — | ||
| At the State Fair of Texas | — | |||
| 1964 | Golden Country Hits | 6 | ||
| It's Christmas Time with Hank Thompson | — | |||
| 1965 | Breakin' in Another Heart | 18 | ||
| Luckiest Heartache in Town | 17 | |||
| 1966 | A Six Pack to Go | 19 | ||
| Breakin' the Rules | 22 | |||
| Where Is the Circus | 6 | Warner Bros. | ||
| 1967 | The Best of Hank Thompson Vol. 2 | 34 | Capitol | |
| The Countrypolitan Sound | — | Warner Bros. | ||
| The Gold Standard Collection of Hank Thompson | 42 | |||
| Just an Old Flame | — | Capitol | ||
| 1968 | Hank Thompson Sings the Gold Standards | — | Dot | |
| On Tap, in the Can, or in the Bottle | 42 | |||
| 1969 | Smoky the Bar | 16 | ||
| Hank Thompson Salutes Oklahoma | 38 | |||
| 1971 | Next Time I Fall in Love (I Won't) | 22 | ||
| Hank Thompson's 25th Anniversary Album | 24 | |||
| 1972 | Cab Driver (A Salute to the Mills Brothers) | 10 | ||
| Hank Thompson's Greatest Hits Vol. 1 | 34 | |||
| 1973 | Kindly Keep It Country | 22 | ||
| 1974 | Moving On | 37 | ||
| 1975 | Sings Nat King Cole | — | ||
| 1976 | Back in the Swing of Things | 48 | ||
| 1977 | The Thompson Touch | — | ||
| Doin' My Things | — | |||
| 1978 | Brand New Hank | — | ABC | |
| 1980 | Take Me Back to Tulsa | — | MCA | |
| 1982 | One Thousand and One Nighters | — | Churchill | |
| 1986 | Hank Thompspn | — | Dot/MCA | |
| 1988 | Here's to Country Music | — | Step One | |
| 1997 | Real Thing: Hank Thompson and Friends | — | Curb | |
| 2000 | Seven Decades | — | Hightone | |
| 2013 | Pathway of My Life | — | Bear Family |
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US [7] | CAN Country | ||||
| 1948 | "Humpty Dumpty Heart" | 2 | — | — | singles only | |
| "Yesterday's Mail" | 12 | — | — | |||
| "Green Light" | 7 | — | — | |||
| 1949 | "What Are We Gonna Do About the Moonlight" | 10 | — | — | ||
| "I Find You Cheatin' on Me" | 14 | — | — | |||
| "You Broke My Heart (In Little Bitty Pieces)" | 15 | — | — | |||
| "Whoa Sailor" | 6 | — | — | |||
| "Soft Lips" | 10 | — | — | |||
| "The Grass Looks Greener Over Yonder" | 15 | — | — | |||
| 1952 | "The Wild Side of Life" | 1 | 27 | — | Hank Thompson Favorites | |
| "Waiting in the Lobby of Your Heart" | 3 | — | — | |||
| "The New Wears Off Too Fast" | 10 | — | — | singles only | ||
| 1953 | "You're Walking On My Heart" | — | 21 | — | ||
| "No Help Wanted" | 9 | — | — | |||
| "Rub-a-Dub-Dub" | 1 | — | — | Songs of the Brazos Valley | ||
| "Yesterday's Girl" | 8 | — | — | |||
| "Wake Up, Irene" | 1 | — | — | singles only | ||
| 1954 | "Breakin' the Rules" | 10 | — | — | ||
| "A Fooler, a Faker" | 9 | — | — | |||
| "Honky-Tonk Girl" | 9 | — | — | |||
| "We've Gone Too Far" | 10 | — | — | |||
| "The New Green Light" (re-recording) | 3 | — | — | |||
| 1955 | "If Lovin' You Is Wrong" | 12 | — | — | ||
| "Annie Over" | 13 | — | — | |||
| "Wildwood Flower" (with Merle Travis) | 5 | — | — | |||
| "Breakin' In Another Heart" | 7 | — | — | |||
| "Most of All" | 6 | — | — | |||
| "Don't Take It Out on Me" | 5 | — | — | |||
| "Honey, Honey Bee Ball" | flip | — | — | |||
| 1956 | "The Blackboard of My Heart" | 4 | — | — | ||
| "I'm Not Mad, Just Hurt" | 14 | — | — | |||
| 1957 | "Rockin' in the Congo" | 13 | — | — | ||
| "I Was the First One" | flip | — | — | |||
| "Tears Are Only Rain" | 14 | — | — | |||
| 1958 | "How Do You Hold a Memory" | 11 | — | — | ||
| "Squaws Along the Yukon" | 2 | — | — | |||
| "I've Run Out of Tomorrows" | 7 | — | — | |||
| 1959 | "You're Going Back to Your Old Ways Again" | 26 | — | — | ||
| "Anybody's Girl" | 13 | — | — | |||
| "Total Strangers" | 25 | — | — | |||
| "I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love" | 22 | — | — | At the Golden Nugget | ||
| 1960 | "A Six Pack to Go" | 10 | 102 | — | ||
| "She's Just a Whole Lot Like You" | 14 | 99 | — | |||
| 1961 | "Oklahoma Hills" | 7 | — | — | Cheyenne Frontier Days | |
| "Teach Me How to Lie" | 25 | — | — | |||
| "Hangover Tavern" | 12 | — | — | |||
| 1962 | "I Cast a Lonesome Shadow" | — | — | single only | ||
| 1963 | "I Wasn't Even in the Running" | 23 | — | — | Luckiest Heartache in Town | |
| "Too in Love" | 22 | — | — | single only | ||
| 1964 | "Twice as Much" | 45 | — | — | Luckiest Heartache in Town | |
| 1965 | "Then I'll Start Believing in You" | 42 | — | — | ||
| 1966 | "Pick Me Up on Your Way Down" | — | 134 | — | Golden Country Hits | |
| "Where Is the Circus" | 15 | — | — | Where Is the Circus | ||
| 1967 | "He's Got a Way with Women" | 16 | — | — | On Tap, in the Can, Or in the Bottle | |
| 1968 | "On Tap, in the Can, Or in the Bottle" | 7 | — | 12 | ||
| "Smoky the Bar" | 5 | — | 9 | Smoky the Bar | ||
| 1969 | "I See Them Everywhere" | 47 | — | — | ||
| "The Pathway of My Life" | 46 | — | — | Next Time I Fall in Love (I Won't) | ||
| "Oklahoma Home Brew" | 60 | — | — | Hank Thompson Salutes Oklahoma | ||
| 1970 | "But That's All Right" | 54 | — | — | Next Time I Fall in Love (I Won't) | |
| "One of the Fortunate Few" | 69 | — | — | |||
| 1971 | "Next Time I Fall in Love (I Won't)" | 15 | — | 36 | ||
| "The Mark of a Heel" | 18 | — | 18 | |||
| "I've Come Awful Close" | 11 | — | 19 | Hank Thompson's 25th Anniversary Album | ||
| 1972 | "Cab Driver" | 16 | — | 13 | Cab Driver (A Salute to the Mills Brothers) | |
| "Glow Worm" | 53 | — | — | |||
| 1973 | "Roses in the Wine" | 70 | — | — | single only | |
| "Kindly Keep It Country" | 48 | — | 45 | Kindly Keep It Country | ||
| 1974 | "The Older the Violin, The Sweeter the Music" | 8 | — | 4 | ||
| "Who Left the Door to Heaven Open" | 10 | — | 12 | Moving On | ||
| 1975 | "Mama Don't 'Low" | 29 | — | — | ||
| "That's Just My Truckin' Luck" | 70 | — | — | single only | ||
| "Mona Lisa" | — | — | — | Sings Nat King Cole | ||
| 1976 | "Asphalt Cowboy" | 72 | — | — | single only | |
| "Big Band Days" | 86 | — | — | Back in the Swing of Things | ||
| 1977 | "Honky Tonk Girl" (re-recording) | 91 | — | — | ||
| "Just an Old Flame" | 92 | — | — | The Thompson Touch | ||
| 1978 | "I'm Just Gettin' By" | 92 | — | — | Brand New Hank | |
| 1979 | "Dance with Me Molly" | 88 | — | — | ||
| "I Hear the South Callin' Me" | 29 | — | 47 | |||
| 1980 | "Tony's Tank-Up, Drive-In Cafe" | 32 | — | 42 | ||
| "You're Poppin' Tops" | — | — | — | Take Me Back to Tulsa | ||
| "King of Western Swing" | — | — | — | |||
| 1981 | "Rockin' in the Congo" (re-recording) | 82 | — | — | One Thousand and One Nighters | |
| 1982 | "Cocaine Blues" | — | — | — | ||
| "Driving Nails in My Coffin" | — | — | — | |||
| 1983 | "Once in a Blue Moon" | 82 | — | — | single only | |
| 1988 | "Here's to Country Music" | — | — | — | Here's to Country Music | |
| "Cowgirl Cutie" | — | — | — | |||
| 1997 | "Gotta Sell Them Chickens" (with Junior Brown) | — | — | — | Hank Thompson and Friends | |