Sheb Wooley Biography

Overview

Biography

Songs

CDs

Vinyl

Movie Cast / Crew

Wild and Wooley, Big Unruly Me

Rawhide / How the West Was Won

The Purple People Eater [Bear Family]

That's My Pa

The Purple People Eater [Bear Family]

Wild and Wooley, Big Unruly Me

Rawhide / How the West Was Won

That's My Pa

Shelby F. Wooley, 10 April 1921, near Erick, Oklahoma, USA, d. 16 September 2003, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Wooley, was born part Cherokee Indian, grew up on the family farm, learned to ride as a child and rode in rodeos as a teenager. His father traded a shotgun for Sheb’s first guitar and while still at high school, he formed a country band that played at dances and on local radio. After leaving school, he found work on an oilfield as a welder, but soon tired of this work and moved to Nashville. He appeared on the WLAC and WSM radio stations and recorded for the Bullet label. In 1946, Wooley relocated to Fort Worth, where until 1949, he became the frontman for a major show on WBAP, sponsored by Calumet Baking Powder.

The singer then moved to Los Angeles, where he signed with MGM Records and with thoughts of a film career, he also attended the Jack Koslyn School of Acting. In 1950, he had his first screen role (as a heavy) in the Errol Flynn movieRocky Mountain. In 1952, he made a memorable appearance as Ben Miller, the killer plotting to gun down Gary Cooper in the classic westernHigh Noon. During the 50s, he appeared in several other movies including Distant Drums and Little Big Horn (both 1951), Man Without A Star (1955) and Giant (1956). He is also well remembered for his performances as Pete Nolan in the television seriesRawhide, which ran from 1959-66 (he also wrote some scripts for the series). During his career he appeared in over 30 movies.

Other artists began to record songs Wooley had written and in 1953, Hank Snow had a big hit with ‘When Mexican Joe Met Jole Blon’ - a parody of two hit songs. In 1958, his novelty number, ‘The Purple People Eater’, became a chart-topping million-seller and even reached number 12 in the UK pop charts. He based the song on a schoolboy joke that he had heard from Don Robertson’s son and initially, MGM did not consider it to be worth releasing. Further US pop successes included ‘Are You Satisfied?’ and ‘Sweet Chile’. Wooley first appeared in the US country charts in 1962, when another novelty number, ‘That’s My Pa’, became a number 1. It was intended that Wooley should record ‘Don’t Go Near The Indians’ but owing to film commitments Rex Allen’s version was released before he could record it. Wooley jokingly told MGM that he would write a sequel and came up with the comedy parody ‘Don’t Go Near The Eskimos’.

Wooley developed an alter-ego drunken character, whom he called Ben Colder, and in this guise, he recorded and charted other humorous parodies of pop/country hits, including ‘Almost Persuaded No. 2’, ‘Harper Valley P.T.A. (Later That Same Day)’ and ‘Fifteen Beers (Years) Ago’. (The name Ben Colder was the selection made by MGM from the three alternatives that Wooley offered. The other two were Ben Freezin and Klon Dyke.) He had some further minor hits with serious recordings, including ‘Blue Guitar’ and ‘Tie A Tiger Down’.

In 1969 Wooley joined the CBS network Hee Haw country show, remaining with it for several years, and also wrote the theme music. Throughout the 60s and 70s, he maintained a busy touring schedule, appearing all over the USA and overseas. In 1968, Ben Colder was voted Comedian of the Year by the Country Music Association. Wooley cut back his work during the 80s and although he remained a popular entertainer, had no chart entries following 1971. He was diagnosed with leukaemia in 1996, and finally succumbed to the disease in September 2003. Over the years, the parodies by the drunken Ben Colder proved more popular than Wooley’s serious recordings and certainly accounted for the majority of his record sales.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.