Pee Wee King
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Pee Wee King, born Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski (February 18, 1914 – March 07, 2000), was an American country music songwriter and recording artist. He was born in Milwaukee to a Polish American family and lived in Abrams, Wisconsin, during his youth.
King learned to play fiddle from his father, who was a professional polka musician. In the 1930s, he toured and made cowboy movies with Gene Autry.[1] King joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1937.
In 1946, while the bandleader of the Golden West Cowboys, King, together with the band's vocalist, Redd Stewart, composed "The Tennessee Waltz", a song inspired by "The Kentucky Waltz" by bluegrass musician Bill Monroe. King and Stewart first recorded "The Tenneesee Waltz" in 1948, and it went on to become a country music standard.[1]
King's other songs included "Slow Poke" and "You Belong to Me". His songs introduced waltzes, polkas, and cowboy songs to country music.
He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1974. He died of a heart attack in Louisville, Kentucky, at age 86.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Miller, James. Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977. Simon & Schuster (1999), pp. 44-45. ISBN 0-684-80873-0.
- Hall, Wade. (1998). "Pee Wee King". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 283-4.
[edit] External links
- Pee Wee King at the Country Music Hall of Fame website
- Pee Wee King at the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame website
- Pee Wee King at the Internet Movie Database
- http://www.geocities.com/shakin_stacks/peeweeking.txt
- http://elvispelvis.com/peeweeking.htm
- http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608002731/Pee-Wee-King.html
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