Leon Payne
Wikimp3 information about the music of Leon Payne. On our website we have 2 albums and 44 collections of artist Leon Payne. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist. We also know that Leon Payne represents Country genres.
Biography
[Edit]A popular singer and multi-instrumentalist of the postwar era, Leon Payne achieved his lasting fame as a songwriter whose most successful works — among them "Lost Highway" and "I Love You Because" — remain among the country music canon's most enduring compositions. Payne was born blind on June 15, 1917, in Alba, TX, and until the age of 18 he attended the Texas School for the Blind in Austin. There, he was encouraged by teachers to begin learning music as a method of supporting himself and became adept on guitar, piano, organ, drums, and trombone. In the mid-'30s he began performing with a number of area groups and began playing on radio in 1935.
Payne joined Bob Wills' Texas Playboys in 1938, and he remained affiliated with the group to some degree for the majority of his career. At about the same time, he began writing the first of the several thousand songs he would compose over the course his lifetime. In 1939, he cut his first solo recordings, including "You Don't Love Me but I'll Always Care" and "Down Where the Violets Grow," which evidenced his smooth, subtle vocal technique. After spending the large part of the next decade drifting through Texas performing under the moniker "The Texas Blind Hitchhiker," he hooked up with Jack Rhodes & the Rhythm Boys in 1948. He also played frequently with Wills.
In 1949, Payne formed his own band, the Lone Star Buddies, which guested on programs like the Grand Ole Opry, the Louisiana Hayride, and the Big D Jamboree. Two of his songs also reached the charts in cover versions: George Morgan scored a big hit with "Cry-Baby Heart," and more significantly, Hank Williams cut "Lost Highway," one of his most popular efforts. Payne's own recording of his "I Love You Because," penned for his wife Myrtle, became his biggest hit in 1950; in the same year, both Ernest Tubb and Clyde Moody cut their own versions of the song. Williams also had another hit with Payne's "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me." As the decade wore on, his songs grew even more popular among his contemporaries; among the most successful were Hank Snow's 1953 "For Now and Always" as well as a pair of hits for Carl Smith, 1954's "More Than Anything Else in the World" and 1956's "Doorstep to Heaven."
Payne continued to record through 1964; in 1963, he issued two LPs, Leon Payne: A Living Legend of Country Music and Americana, and at one point even cut a rockabilly single, "That Ain't It," under the alias Rock Rogers. Still, he never repeated the success of "I Love You Because," which was later resurrected by Johnny Cash in 1960 and as a huge 1963 pop hit for Al Martino. A year later, it was also covered by Jim Reeves, who earned posthumous success with Payne's "Blue Side of Lonesome" in 1966 and "I Heard a Heart Break Last Night" in 1968. Also charting with renditions of "I Love You Because" were Smith in 1969, Don Gibson in 1978, and Roger Whittaker in 1983; most importantly, it was one of the songs recorded by Elvis Presley during his legendary Sun Records sessions of 1954.
In 1965, Payne suffered a heart attack which forced him to curtail his touring; that same year, his "Things Have Gone to Pieces" was a hit for George Jones. In 1967, Gibson covered "Lost Highway," and Johnny Darrell was successful with "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me." On September 11, 1969, Payne died following another heart attack.
Collections
Title: Inspiring Elvis
Genre: Country
Title: Southern Style: Country Music, Vol. 2
Genre: Country
Title: An Alternative Guide to Country
Genre: Country
Title: You Are My Lucky Star
Genre: Pop
Title: The Bullet Records Story - The First Americana Label
Genre: Blues
Title: Vintage Country Vol 2
Genre: Country
Title: Rare Country Classics, Vol.7
Title: A Dozen Number 1's (Re-Recorded Versions)
Genre: Country
Title: Classic Country Hits!
Genre: Country
Title: Room Full of Roses
Genre: Country
Title: Country Hits, Vol. 2
Genre: Country
Title: Country & Western Music Hit Parade, Vol. 4
Genre: Country
Title: Country & Western Music Hit Parade, Vol. 3
Genre: Country
Title: Classic Country Love Songs for Valentine's Day
Genre: Country
Title: Country Hits of the 40s
Genre: Country
Title: American Country Radio Sessions
Genre: Country
Title: American Country Legends - 50 Hits
Genre: Country
Title: Big Hits & Highlights of 1949, Vol. 7
Genre: Pop
Title: The Greatest Country Songs
Genre: Country
Title: Called to the Foreign Field
Genre: Country
Title: I Can Dream, Can't I
Genre: Pop
Title: Time Was, Vol. 4
Genre: Pop
Title: Somewhere Down Below
Genre: Country
Title: Country Classics, Vol. 2
Genre: Country
Title: Bluegrass Country Christmas
Genre: Country
Title: A Time To Remember - 1949
Genre: Pop
Title: Big D Jamboree (CD2)
Genre: Country
Title: Big D Jamboree (CD3)
Genre: Country
Title: Big D Jamboree (CD6)
Genre: Country
Title: The History Of Country & Western Music (CD17)
Genre: Country
Title: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Hillbilly Music 1949
Genre: Country
Title: I Love Country (100 Legendary Recordings) (CD2)
Genre: World Music, Country, Folk
Title: 100 Club Hits Vol. 1 (Mixed By DJ Deep) (CD2)
Genre: Rock & Roll
Title: Elvis Inspiration Vol. 1 (CD1)
Genre: Rock & Roll
Title: All-Time Great Country & Western Songs
Genre: Country
Title: Golden Years The Hits From A To Z. (Vol. 28)
Genre: Pop