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Slim Willet
started off as a songwriter as he related to Cowboy Songs
magazine in a March 1953 article. His first song recorded was
a tune called “Pinball Millionaire” by Hank Locklin in 1950,
who at the time was on the 4 Star label. That tune got
recorded a few months later on Capitol by Gene O’Quin. He said
his tunes were usually novelty tunes that he sang for the
entertainment of his audiences.
Then in 1950,
during the midst of the big oil boom in Snyder, Texas, he
wrote another tune. And that turned into his first record on
the Star Talent label – “Toolpusher From Snyder.” That tune
sold like wildfire in Texas. He then recorded a few other
tunes after that hit, “Nobody Loves A Fat Man,” “A Cold Can of
Beer,” “My Story’s Sadder Than Yourn.” (Wouldn’t you love to
hear those songs just by the title of those tunes?)
He then moved
to the 4 Star label and his first release with them was “Let
Me Know” along with “Love’s Prison.” Slim said his recording
band was Shorty Underwood and The Brushcutters.
When this
article was written in 1953, he was working as a disc jockey
for radio station KRBC out of Abilene, Texas. And was also
hosting the “KRBC Big State Jamboree” that was held down in
Abilene every Saturday night. He was spinning records six days
a week there until he wrote a song that caught on like crazy –
“Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes.” Behind every song like
that there is usually a story of how it came to be. Slim told
the readers how it came about.
He got a letter from a soldier stationed
in Korea along about September of 1951. It was one of those
long letters, but wanted a song played for his sweetheart that
lived near Abilene. He wrote poetically that his darling had
stars in her eyes on moonlit nights. He told Slim, play her a
tune, tell her to wait for me and to not let the stars get in
her eyes.
He said it
didn’t come to him right then, but about a week later, he was
strumming around on his guitar and singing. His style was a
bit different than most hillbilly singers then. He had a
Spanish influence he said that he had picked up years before.
He wrote that
tune, “Don’t Let the Stars Get In Your Eyes” and wrote many
verses he said. Sang it for hours. It grew on him. It wouldn’t
leave him alone. Finally, one night after the Big State
Jamboree show, they set up the recording equipment and cut the
record for the 4 Star label.
But did the 4
Star folks think it was a hit? Slim said he kept the letter
they wrote him. “Here’s a song that is off beat, off meter,
off everything.” ... “..it wouldn’t sell.” Well, the legend
goes, ten months later, they put it on the back side of
another oil song called “Hadacol Corners.” Have you ever heard
“Hadacol Corners” he asks?
Courtesy of
Dave Sichak
Hillbilly-Music.com
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