You’re listening to previews of “Opal, You Asked Me”, “You Gotta Have A License”, “Cigarette Milner”, and “Roots Of My Raising”. Tommy Collins was a major influence on Country music in the 1960s and 70s. He helped to pioneer the famous “Bakersfield” sound (named after Bakersfield, California) which Merle Haggard and Buck Owens made famous in the 1960s. Tommy Collins’ birth name was Leonard Raymond Sipes. He was born on September 28, 1930 in Bethany, Oklahoma. When he got into the music business, two early friendships included Wanda Jackson and Ferlin Husky. Husky and Sipes roomed together in college in Bakersfield. It was Ferlin Husky that helped Leonard to get signed to his first record contract in 1953. Husky also came up with the stage name, “Tommy Collins,” styled after the popular “Tom Collins” cocktail. When Tommy Collins assembled his band, it included a lead guitarist named Buck Owens. Collins’ success came quickly. In 1954 he recorded a #2 hit, “You Better Not Do That.” One characteristic of much of Collins’ music is that it tended toward the lighter side of things. Although Tommy Collins recorded songs that charted for 14 years, three of which were Top 10 hits, he will be remembered most for his songwriting. Tommy Collins’ good friend, Merle Haggard, recorded 22 of Collins’ songs. Two of those, “Carolyn” (1971) and “The Roots of My Raising” (1976), were #1 hits. Collins’ song, “If You Ain’t Lovin’ (You Ain’t Livin’),” was a #2 hit for Faron Young in 1955. George Strait also had a #1 hit from the song in 1988. In 1984, Mel Tillis recorded Collins’ song, “New Patches.” It was a Top 10 hit for Tillis. In 1999, Tommy Collins experienced what he referred to as his “proudest moment.” Collins was inducted into the prestigious Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame. Sadly, Tommy Collins, the man who had contributed so much to Country music, died the following year on March 14, 2000. In 1981, Merle Haggard had written a hit song about his good friend, Tommy Collins. One of the heartfelt lines from Haggard’s song, “Leonard,” may say more about Tommy Collins than anything else: “Well, Leonard gave me lots of inspiration, he helped teach me how to write a Country song, and he even brought me a bag of groceries, back before ‘Muskogee’ came along.” |