Cowboy Copas

Cowboy Copas
Cowboy Copas
Background information
Birth name Lloyd Estel Copas
Also known as Cowboy Copas
Born July 15, 1913(1913-07-15)
Origin Adams County, Ohio, USA
Died March 5, 1963(1963-03-05) (aged 49)
Genres country music, honky tonk
Occupations singer, songwriter
Instruments guitar
Years active 1925–1963
Labels King Records
Dot Records
Starday Records
Associated acts Pee Wee King

Lloyd Estel Copas (July 15, 1913 – March 5, 1963), known by his stage name Cowboy Copas, was an American country music singer popular from the 1940s until his death in the 1963 plane crash that also killed country stars Patsy Cline and Hawkshaw Hawkins. He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Contents

Biography

Copas was born in 1913 in Jefferson Township in Adams County, Ohio. He began performing locally at age 14, and appeared on WLW-AM and WKRC-AM in Cincinnati during the 1930s. In 1940 he moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he performed on WNOX-AM with his band, the Gold Star Rangers.

In 1943, Copas achieved national fame when he replaced Eddy Arnold as a vocalist in the Pee Wee King band and began performing on the Grand Ole Opry. His first solo single, "Filipino Baby", released by King Records in 1946, hit No. 4 on the Billboard country chart and sparked the most successful period of his career.

While continuing to appear on the Opry, Copas recorded several other hits during the late 1940s and early 1950s, including "Signed, Sealed and Delivered", "The Tennessee Waltz", "Tennessee Moon", "Breeze", "I'm Waltzing with Tears in My Eyes", "Candy Kisses", "Hangman's Boogie", and "The Strange Little Girl". Copas' 1952 single, "'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered", reached No. 8 on the Billboard country chart, but it was his final top 40 hit for eight years.

Although Copas didn't maintain his stellar popularity of the late 1940s through the next decade, he continued to perform regularly at the Grand Ole Opry and appeared on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee. After a lackluster partnership with Dot Records, Copas surged to the top of the charts again in 1960 with the biggest hit of his career, "Alabam", which remained number one for three months. Other major hits during his successful period with Starday Records in the early 1960s, including "Flat Top" and a remake of "Signed, Sealed And Delivered", held promising implications for the future of his career, but fate intervened.

Aircraft accident

On March 3, 1963, Copas, Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins and others performed at a benefit concert at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas for the family of disc jockey Cactus Jack Call, who had died the previous December in an automobile accident.

On March 5, they left for Nashville in a Piper Comanche piloted by Copas' son-in-law (and Cline's manager), Randy Hughes. After stopping to refuel in Dyersburg, Tennessee, the craft took off at 6:07 p.m. CT. The plane flew into severe weather and crashed at 6:20 p.m. in a forest near Camden, Tennessee, 90 miles from the destination. There were no survivors. A stone marker, dedicated on July 6, 1996, marks the location of the crash.

Copas was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tennessee in "Music Row" with Hawkins and other country music stars.

Discography

Singles

Year Single Chart Positions
US Country US
1946 "Filipino Baby" 4
1948 "Signed Sealed and Delivered" 2
"Tennessee Waltz" 3
"Tennessee Moon" 7
"Breeze" 12
1949 "I'm Waltzing with Tears in My Eyes" 12
"Candy Kisses" 5
"Hangman's Boogie" 14
1951 "The Strange Little Girl" 5
1952 "'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered" 8
1960 "Alabam" 1 63
1961 "Flat Top" 9
"Sunny Tennessee" 12
"Signed Sealed and Delivered" (recording) 10
1963 "Goodbye Kisses" 12

References

  • Bush, John (2003). Edited by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, & Stephen Erlewine. "Cowboy Copas (Lloyd Estel Copas)." All Music Guide to Country, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2003. ISBN 0-87930-760-9
  • Smith, Jonathan Guyot (1998). "Cowboy Copas." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 111.
  • Simon, John Roger (2008) Cowboy Copas and the Golden Age of Country Music. Jesse Stuart Foundation, publisher. 416 pages w/ illustrations.

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Cowboy Copas — Lloyd Estel „Cowboy“ Copas (* 15. Juli 1913 in Blue Creek, Adams County, Ohio; † 5. März 1963) war ein US amerikanischer Country Sänger, der in den 40er und 60er Jahren zahlreiche Hits wie Candy Kisses, Alabam und Flat Top hatte.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Copas — Lloyd Estel „Cowboy“ Copas (* 15. Juli 1913 in Blue Creek, Adams County, Ohio; † 5. März 1963) war ein US amerikanischer Country Sänger, der in den 40er und 60er Jahren zahlreiche Hits wie Candy Kisses, Alabam und Flat Top hatte.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Lloyd Copas — Lloyd Estel „Cowboy“ Copas (* 15. Juli 1913 in Blue Creek, Adams County, Ohio; † 5. März 1963) war ein US amerikanischer Country Sänger, der in den 40er und 60er Jahren zahlreiche Hits wie Candy Kisses, Alabam und Flat Top hatte.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Lloyd Estel Copas — Lloyd Estel „Cowboy“ Copas (* 15. Juli 1913 in Blue Creek, Adams County, Ohio; † 5. März 1963) war ein US amerikanischer Country Sänger, der in den 40er und 60er Jahren zahlreiche Hits wie Candy Kisses, Alabam und Flat Top hatte.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Hawkshaw Hawkins — Harold Franklin „Hawkshaw“ Hawkins (* 22. Dezember 1921 in Huntington, West Virginia; † 5. März 1963 nahe Camden, Tennessee bei einem Flugzeugabsturz) war ein US amerikanischer Country Sänger, der neben Hank Williams als einer der besten Sänger… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • WCHS Old Farm Hour — Old Farm Hour Radiosender WCHS Ort Charleston, West Virginia Sendejahre 1934 Anfang 1940er Jahre …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • WNOX Tennessee Barn Dance — Tennessee Barn Dance …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Patsy Cline — Cline at WSM studios in Nashville, Tenn. in 1963 Background information Birth name Virginia Patterson Hensley …   Wikipedia

  • Crown Records — has been the name of several different record labels. Contents 1 Modern Records subsidiary 1.1 Discography 1.2 Singles 1.3 Album …   Wikipedia

  • 1963 in country music — See also: 1962 in country music, 1963 in music, other events of 1963, 1964 in country music and the List of years in Country MusicEvents*March – The month marks a dark time for country music, as it lost no less than five people in a seemingly… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”