Danny Wolfe

Biography

Danny Wolfe was a singer, pianist and musical entrepreneur, but by far his most important legacy is as a songwriter. During the second half of the 50's he wrote some really good rock 'n' roll songs. Wolfe came from a wealthy background. His family ran the Wolfe Nurseries in Stephenville, Texas, said to be the largest seed business in the South. By day he tended the family business, but when the skies darkened he would descend to the basement of his home and bash out self-penned R&R songs on an...

Danny Wolfe was a singer, pianist and musical entrepreneur, but by far his most important legacy is as a songwriter. During the second half of the 50's he wrote some really good rock 'n' roll songs.

Wolfe came from a wealthy background. His family ran the Wolfe Nurseries in Stephenville, Texas, said to be the largest seed business in the South. By day he tended the family business, but when the skies darkened he would descend to the basement of his home and bash out self-penned R&R songs on an old upright. He had ambitions to perform in public as well, but he was overweight and lacked the rockabilly image.

Gene Vincent recorded three of Danny's songs early in his career : "Gonna Back Up Baby", "Double Talkin' Baby" and "Pretty, Pretty Baby". During the summer of 1957, Wolfe met 17-year old rockabilly Huelyn Duvall, also from Stephenville, and Danny tried to make a star out of him. He persuaded Joe Johnson at the fledgling Challenge label to sign Duvall. This resulted in a first recording session on September 27, 1957, in Nashville, with accompaniment by such top session men as Grady Martin, Floyd Cramer and Buddy Harman. Duvall recorded three Danny Wolfe compositions, "Pucker Paint", "Comin' Or Goin'" (the A-side of his first single), "Teen Queen" (co-written with Johnny Duncan), as well as the Dave Burgess composition "Boom Boom Baby". Wolfe wrote many other songs for Huelyn, including the fantastic "Three Months To Kill". Curiously, it was the other side of this great rocker, "Little Boy Blue" (not written by Wolfe), that became Duvall's only chart entry (# 88), one year after it was released in June 1958. Further, Huelyn made many demos of Danny's compositions, which were sent to various record companies. Examples of these demos are "Life Begins At Four O'Clock" (recorded by Bobby Milano), "Modern Romance" (recorded by Sanford Clark), and "Susie's House" (recorded by John D. Loudermilk). Wolfe continued to manage and accompany Duvall for several years. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.