Cindy Walker
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Cindy Walker (July 20, 1918 - March 23, 2006) was an American singer/songwriter and dancer.
Born in Mart, Texas, Walker wrote a great many hit songs for a number of country music stars such as Bob Wills, Eddy Arnold, and Carl Smith. Walker wrote songs for Bing Crosby and the 1962 rock song "Dream Baby" for Roy Orbison. She also authored "Distant Drums" for Jim Reeves, a song that stayed at No.1 on the British charts for five weeks in 1966.
Other popular songs she wrote include "You Don't Know Me" co-written with Eddy Arnold and subsequently recorded by Ray Charles, Jerry Vale, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Van Morrison, and Mickey Gilley; and "In The Misty Moonlight" that was a hit for both Jerry Wallace and Dean Martin, plus the Western song made popular by Gene Autry, "Blue Canadian Rockies".
The Los Angeles Times described her first sale:
In late 1940, the 22-year-old Walker accompanied her parents on a business trip to Los Angeles. They were driving down Sunset Boulevard, when she spotted the Crosby Building and asked her father to stop the car. "I had decided that if I ever got to Hollywood, I was going to try to show Bing Crosby a song I had written for him called 'Lone Star Trail,' " she recalled in a 1988 interview with the Chicago Tribune. "My father said, 'You're crazy, girl,' but he stopped the car."
Walker grabbed her song-filled briefcase and went inside. A few minutes later, she ran back to the car to get her mother to play the piano for her: Crosby's brother, Larry, had agreed to listen to the song. With her mother accompanying her, Walker sang "Lone Star Trail." Larry Crosby told her that Bing was looking for a Western song to record and might like it. The next day, she accompanied herself on the guitar and sang it for Bing at Paramount Studios, where he was making a movie.
Bing Crosby, who called her "Sis," liked the song, and the unknown songwriter from Texas made her first sale.
She also wrote many hit songs for Bob Wills and they co-wrote "Sugar Moon" which, years after being a considerable success for him, was included by K.D. Lang on her Shadowland album. All told, she wrote more than 500 recorded songs for an array of artists.
In addition to her song writing, Walker also sang on stage and recorded a number of albums. Some of her best recording work was produced by Fred Foster at his Monument Records.
In 1970, she became a charter inductee to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1997 she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and in 1998 into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. Her induction to the Nashville Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997 by singer Barbara Mandrell featured Walker accepting the award in an old evening gown. She then read a poem she'd written for the show: "In the 1980's my mother bought me a dress...for a BMI affair... and she said, "When they put you in The Hall Of Fame...that's the dress...I want you to wear"...and, I said, "Oh, mama...The Hall Of Fame...Why, that will never be"...and the years went by...but my mother's words...remained in my memory...and I know...tonight...she'd be happy...Tho she's gone now...to her rest...but I think of all...that she did for me...and, tonight... I'm wearing that dress!.." The speech was followed by a thunderous standing ovation and Walker left the stage after softly blowing a kiss in tears.
Walker was ranked #32 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music in 2002.
In 2006 American music icon Willie Nelson released a CD album featuring 13 of Walker's well-known songs. The album title is You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker.
Walker died in her hometown of Mexia, Texas, on March 23, 2006, of natural causes, just one week after the above-mentioned album was released.
[edit] References
- Oermann, Robert K. (1998). "Cindy Walker". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kinsgbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 567-568.
