Billy Lee Riley › Similar Artists

Warren Smith - 100% match to Billy Lee Riley

Sonny Burgess - 92% match to Billy Lee Riley

Albert Burgess, 28 May 1931, Newport, Arkansas, USA. As a child Burgess earned the name ‘Sonny’ as a result of his father also being called Albert. Inspired by the Grand Ole Opry show transmitted over WSM’s airwaves, he set about learning to play a catalogue-purchased guitar. He joined his first country band while at high school, eventually moving from the rol Read more

Ronnie Self - 74% match to Billy Lee Riley

Carl Mann - 73% match to Billy Lee Riley

24 August 1942, Huntingdon, Tennessee, USA. Mann was a rockabilly artist who recorded his only two chart singles for the Phillips International label, owned by Sam Phillips, proprietor of the legendary Sun Records. Mann was a singer and pianist whose group, the Kool Kats, was based in Jackson, Tennessee, when they recorded their first tracks for the small Jaxon label, owned Read more

Johnny Carroll - 71% match to Billy Lee Riley

John Lewis Carrell, 23 October 1937, Cleburne, Texas, USA, d. 18 February 1995, Godley, Texas, USA. Carroll was brought up on a farm near Fort Worth, Texas, though farming held no attraction for him. By the age of 10 he was singing country music and Carroll was an early performer of rockabilly. He flew to Nashville in 1956 and recorded ‘Crazy Crazy Lovin’’, &# Read more

Johnny Burnette - 68% match to Billy Lee Riley

28 March 1934, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, d. 1 August 1964, Clear Lake, California, USA. Having attended the same high school as Elvis Presley, Johnny moved into the rockabilly genre by forming a trio with his brother Dorsey Burnette on string bass and schoolfriend Paul Burlison (b. 4 February 1929, Brownsville, Tennessee, USA, d. 27 September 2003, Horn Lake, Mississippi, US Read more

Glen Glenn - 67% match to Billy Lee Riley

Orin Glenn Troutman, 24 October 1934, Joplin, Missouri, USA. From 1948 Glenn was raised in San Dimas, California, and began performing music professionally from the end of 1952. This early music making was as a country singer and guitarist and he met and played with another guitarist, Gary Lambert, the pair naming themselves the Missouri Mountain Boys. They made a few record Read more

Bob Luman - 66% match to Billy Lee Riley

Robert Glynn Luman, 15 April 1937, Blackjack, near Nacogdoches, Texas, USA, d. 27 December 1978, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Luman’s father, Joe, a school caretaker, bus driver and gifted musician, taught his son country music, but Luman’s first love was baseball, which he played on a semi-professional basis until 1959. He was influenced by seeing Elvis Presley in c Read more

Joe Clay - 61% match to Billy Lee Riley

Claiborne Joseph Cheramie, 8 September 1938, Harvey, Louisiana, USA. Clay was a rockabilly singer and guitarist who recorded two singles in the late 50s and entered a 30-year period of obscurity before being rediscovered by fans of that music. Clay fronted the C.J. Cheramie Trio in Louisiana in the early 50s, playing the Louisiana Hayride in 1955 on a bill with Elvis Presley Read more

Buddy Knox - 55% match to Billy Lee Riley

Buddy Wayne Knox, 20 July 1933, Happy, Texas, USA, d. 14 February 1999, Bremerton, Washington, USA. Knox was one of the first ‘pop-abilly’ hit-makers in the 50s. In 1955, while at West Texas State University, he formed the Serenaders with bass player Jimmy Bowen and Don Lanier (guitar), later adding Don Mills (drums) and changing their name to the Rhythm Orchids. T Read more

Ray Smith - 53% match to Billy Lee Riley

Eddie Bond - 51% match to Billy Lee Riley

Edward James Bond, 1 July 1933, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Bond first sang on local Memphis radio and television in 1955 and released his first single, ‘Double Duty Lovin’’/‘Talking Off The Wall’, on Ekko that year. He worked with Elvis Presley and Johnny Horton on Shreveport’s Louisiana Hayride and in 1957/8, he recorded six tracks in Memphis for Read more

The Collins Kids - 51% match to Billy Lee Riley

A brother and sister rockabilly act, Larry Collins (4 October 1944, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA) and Lorrie Collins (b. Lawrencine Collins, 7 May 1942, Tahlequah, Oklahoma, USA) recorded numerous singles for Columbia Records in the 50s and early 60s that are revered by fans and collectors of early rock ‘n’ roll but never dented the charts. The duo gained what little recog Read more

Onie Wheeler - 49% match to Billy Lee Riley

Onie Daniel Wheeler, 10 November 1921, Senath, Missouri, USA, d. 26 May 1984, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Wheeler was a country singer whose career lasted for nearly 40 years, although only one single charted in the USA. Wheeler won a talent contest while serving in the armed forces during World War II and, upon leaving the service in 1945, he chose to pursue a singing career Read more

Tommy Blake - 49% match to Billy Lee Riley