T. Texas Tyler, billed as “The man with a million friends”, born David Luke Myrick one hundred years ago today - 20th June, 1916 outside Mena, Arkansas [died 28th January, 1972]
Best known for writing / adapting and first recording ‘Deck of Cards’ (1948) later a UK hit for Wink Martindale in 1959, 1960, 1963, and 1973. Anyone less than fond of ‘Deck of Cards’ is probably best advised to avoid T. Texas Tyler’s musically similar follow up hit ‘Dad Gave My Dog Away’
‘Black Jack David’ (1946) - the first post-WWII recording of the song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMU1bjG9oHE
Stanley Walker - lead guitar; Carl Mosher - steel guitar
‘My Bucket’s got a Hole in it’ (1949) - his version was released one week prior to Hank Williams’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tudB1RM-ETA
with some nice lead guitar, possibly played by Jimmy Pruett who (together with steel guitarist Joaquin Murphey) received a name-check on ‘Guitar Boogie Woogie’ by T.Texas Tyler & the his Oklahoma Melody Boys (1946)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owk2mFB7cPM
http://www.hillbilly-music.com/artists/ ... p?id=13263
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Murphey
Clarence Williams copyrighted ‘My Bucket’s Got a Hole in it’ in 1933 but an earlier version exists by Tom Gates & his Orchestra (1927); and earlier that year, ‘To-Wa-Bac-a-Wa’ being an instrumental by Louis Dumaine’s Jazzola Eight (1927)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAmHShcKVww
Lil Johnson's version (1937) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luHdqy6ahz4
Others who sang about holes in their bucket included Washboard Sam, Louis Armstrong, Ricky Nelson and many more including of course Harry Belafonte
‘Deck of Cards’ had an 18th/19th century British origin. The Rev. J.C. Burnett had the earliest recorded version on the theme as ‘The Gambler’s Doom’ (1927)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv3yexWNZy8
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/rev-jc-b ... 0000469923
‘Black Jack David’ also goes back a long way to Scotland ca. 1600 - the Carlisles recorded a version in 1939 but T.Texas Tyler was first to copyright his arrangement. The Carter Family also had an early version (1940)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m_9aqwrj3I
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Texas_Tyler