Sollie Paul "Tex" Williams


 Sollie Paul "Tex" Williams (August 23, 1917 – October 11, 1985)

Williams was a Western swing musician from Ramsey, Illinois. He is best known for his talking blues style; his biggest hit was the novelty song, "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)", which held the number one position on the Billboard charts for sixteen weeks in 1947. "Smoke" was the No. 5 song on Billboard's Top 100 list for 1947, and was No. 1 on the country chart that year. It can be heard during the opening credits of the 2006 movie Thank You for Smoking. Williams started out in the early 1940s as vocalist for the band of Western Swing king Spade Cooley, based in Venice, California. Williams' backing band The Western Caravan numbered about a dozen members. They attained an enviable level of fluid interplay between electric and steel guitars, fiddles, bass, accordion, trumpet, and other instruments (even an occasional harp). At first they recorded polkas for Capitol Records with limited success. That was changed by the success of "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke" written in large part by Merle Travis. In April 1956 Williams appeared on the Chrysler-sponsored CBS TV broadcast "Shower of Stars". He died from pancreatic cancer on October 11, 1985, Williams was 68. He is buried at Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall, California.

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