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Tex Williams
Tex Williams
	Williams in 1967
Background information
Birth name	Sollie Paul Williams
Born	August 23, 1917
Origin	Ramsey, Illinois, United States
Died	October 11, 1985 (aged 68); Newhall, California, United States
Genres	Western swing; country;
Occupation	Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)	guitar, Harmonica
Years active	1946–1978

Sollie Paul "Tex" Williams (August 23, 1917 – October 11, 1985)^[1] was an American Western swing 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 Billboard chart for sixteen weeks in 1947. "Smoke" was the No. 5 song on Billboard's Top 100 list for 1947, and was No. 1 on the country chart that year.^[2]

Life and career

He was born in Ramsey, Illinois, United States.^[1] Williams started out in the early 1940s as vocalist for the band of Western swing king Spade Cooley, based in Venice, California.^[1]

Williams' backing band, The Western Caravan, numbered about a dozen members. They originally played polkas for Capitol Records, and later saw success with "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke" written in large part by Merle Travis.^[3]

In April 1956, Williams appeared on the Chrysler-sponsored CBS TV broadcast, Shower of Stars.^[4]

Williams died of pancreatic cancer on October 11, 1985.^[1]^[5]

Filmography

Williams and the Western Caravan appeared in the following films:

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

Discography

Albums

Tex Williams collection album cover — Williams collection album cover

Year	Album	US Country	Label
1955	Country and Western Dance-O-Rama No. 5		Decca
1960	Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!		Capitol
1962	Country Music Time		Decca
1963	Voice of Authority		Imperial
1963	Tex Williams in Las Vegas		Liberty
1966	Two Sides of Tex Williams	26	Boone
1971	A Man Called Tex	38	Monument
1974	Those Lazy, Hazy Days		Granite
1977	The Legendary Tex Williams: Then... Now		Corral
1996	Vintage Collections: Tex Williams & His Western Caravan		Capitol

Singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions		Album
Year	Single	US Country	US	Album
1946	"The California Polka"	4		singles only
1947	"Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)"	1	1
	"That's What I Like About the West"	4
	"Never Trust a Woman"	8
1948	"Don't Telephone – Don't Telegraph (Tell a Woman)"	2
	"Suspicion"	4
	"Banjo Polka"	5
	"Who? Me?"	6
	"Foolish Tears"	15
	"Talking Boogie"	6
	"Just a Pair of Blue Eyes"	13
	"Life Gits Tee-Jus, Don't It?"	5	27
1949	"(There's a) Bluebird On Your Windowsill"	11
1965	"Too Many Tigers"	26		Two Sides of Tex Williams
1965	"Big Tennessee"	30
1966	"Bottom of a Mountain"	18
	"First Step Down"			singles only
	"Another Day, Another Dollar in the Hole"	44
1967	"Crazy Life"
	"Black Jack County"	57
	"She's Somebody Else's Heartache Now"
1968	"Smoke, Smoke, Smoke – '68"	32
	"Here's to You and Me"	45
	"Tail's Been Waggin' the Dog"
1970	"Big Oscar"			A Man Called Tex
1970	"It Ain't No Big Thing"	50
1971	"The Night Miss Nancy Ann's Hotel for Single Girls Burned Down"^A	29
1972	"Everywhere I Go (He's Already Been There)"	67
	"Glamour of the Night Life (Is Calling Me Again)"			singles only
	"Tennessee Travelin'"
	"Cynthia Ann"
1974	"Is This All You Hear (When a Heart Breaks)"			Those Lazy, Hazy Days
	"Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer"	70
	"Bum Bum Bum"
1978	"Make It Pretty for Me Baby"			single only

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

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Colin Larkin, ed. (1993). The Guinness Who's Who of Country Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 454. ISBN 0-85112-726-6.
^ "Tex Williams | Billboard". Billboard. Archived from the original on August 11, 2021. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
^ "Tex Williams : Biography". CMT. Archived from the original on April 17, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2012.
^ Disk Talent Feature of 'Stars' Show. Billboard, April 14, 1956. p. 36
^ Kienzle, Southwest Shuffle, p. 99: "In 1985, he died of pancreatic cancer (not lung cancer, as was widely reported)."

References

Kienzle, Rich. Southwest Shuffle: Pioneers of Honky Tonk, Western Swing, and Country Jazz. New York: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-94102-4
Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits. Billboard Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8230-8291-1