Rex Allen

Genres:	Action & Adventure • Classic Exploitation • Country & Bluegrass • Documentaries • Drama • Kids & Family • Television • Westerns
Descriptive "tags":	country • cowboy • traditional country • rockabilly • 60s • country roots • shake the shack fucker • under 2000 listeners
Decades Active:	1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	IMDb • Wikipedia

Biography

Rex Elvie Allen, 31 December 1920, Willcox, Arizona, USA, d. 17 December 1999, Tucson, Arizona, USA. Country singer Allen was no imitation cowboy - his family were homesteaders: a mountain lion was killed close to his home, his brother died from a rattlesnake bite, and the family lost everything in the drought of 1934. As Allen had ridden on the farm, he thought he could transfer to rodeos, but a fall from a Brahman bull directed his thoughts towards music. In 1945, he hosted the National Barn Dance for a radio station in Chicago and was able to afford an operation to correct his congenital squint. His first local hit was ‘Take It Back And Change It For A Boy’, and his early recordings found him yodelling, although he subsequently kept his tone and pitch the same. Allen later hosted his own show for CBS from 1950-52.

Country singer Red Foley was not interested when he was asked to replace the popular singing cowboy, Roy Rogers, at...

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