Floyd Tillman - Biography
by Charles Reece
Although not as well remembered these days as his honky-tonk contemporary, Ernest Tubb, Floyd Tillman is just as important for laying down the rules for the subgenre’s thematic vices and sound. From the vocal styles of Lefty Frizzell to Willie Nelson, one can hear Tillman’s signature bending of a syllable for emotional effect and his jazz-inspired phrasing of lyrics around the beat. It was his style of honky-tonk that would help define a counterinsurgent movement in the sixties against the lush pop arrangements that had dominated Nashville since the fifties. As his apostle, Willie Nelson, put it, he was the original Outlaw.
Tillman was born on December 8, 1914 in Ryan, Oklahoma, to a sharecropper’s family, but he was raised in the cotton mill town of Post, Texas. Inspired by his brothers’ ability to make money by playing music, Tillman picked up the mandolin and joined them while maintaining his day job as a Western Union telegraph operator. After switching to the electric guitar at age 19, he found his way to San Antonio where he played lead in Adolph Hofner’s Western Swing house band at Gus's Palm Garden from 1933 to 1935. Learning about music within the diverse Texan tradition at a time before popular music had ossified into the oppositional genres we have today, Tillman developed a style that was as much a mixture of pop, blues and jazz as it was country. From 1935 to 1936 his wide-ranging abilities as a multi-instrumentalist and singer landed him gigs in Houston playing with Leon "Pappy" Selph’s Blue Ridge Playboys, a Western Swing group, and the big band ensemble Mack Clark Orchestra, where he played alongside such noteworthy musicians as steel guitarist Ted Daffan and singer-piano player Moon Mullican. His first recordings as a featured singer was with Pappy Selph’s group in 1936 (“Blue Monday”, “Rhythm in the Air,” and “Take Me Back to West Texas” Vocalion Records).
It was with Selph that he composed his first hit single, “It Makes No Difference Now,” which was sold to singer Jimmie Davis for $300 in 1938. As was all too common back then, Davis purchased the songwriting credit along with the song, which Tillman wouldn’t get back until 28 years later. However, due to the success Cliff Bruner had with his version of the song (1938 Decca), Tillman received a solo recording contract with Decca. In 1939, he had a minor hit performing his own rendition of “It Makes No Difference Now” but Bing Crosby released such a successful version that the song continues to be identified with the crooner. Tillman then had his biggest success as a singer with his only #1 single, “They Took The Stars Out Of Heaven” (1942 Decca), followed by the crossover hit, “Each Night At Nine” (1944 Decca), a song that so perfectly captured the plight of the lonely G.I. off at war that it was reportedly played on Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally’s propaganda broadcasts to encourage desertion.
He and his band were regular performers on the Houston radio station KTRH from 1945 to 1950. It was during this period that he signed with Columbia (1945) and recorded his signature classic, “Slippin’ Around” (1949), the first country hit about a subject that would become one of the standard themes of the genre: cheating. Ernest Tubb’s hit version of the song is probably best remembered, but there was another recording at the time by the duet Jimmy Wakely and Margaret Whiting that was also a hit on the pop charts. “Slippin’ Around” was considered significant enough to the history of country music that it was included on the 8-record collection, The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music (1991 Smithsonian). Tillman also had a hit follow-up called “I'll Never Slip Around Again.” His Columbia years proved to be his most successful, including the hits “Driving Nails In My Coffin” (1946), “I Love You So Much It Hurts” (1946), “I Gotta Have My Baby Back” (1949) and his final major hit “It Just Tears Me Up” (1960).
When the tolls of the road became too much, Tillman quit touring in the early fifties, choosing to live off the royalty checks coming from his catalog. Although he continued to play music for the rest of his life, he did little recording past the 1940s. His achievements in songwriting were celebrated by his induction into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 1970. In 1984, his protégé and longtime friend, Willie Nelson, inducted him into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He made one last record in his twilight years, The Influence (2004, Heart of Texas Records), where he performed duets with a list of country music luminaries – Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Ray Price, Hank Thompson, and George Jones among many others – all of whom, as the title suggests, considered Tillman a major influence. Not long after the album was finished, Floyd Tillman lost his battle with leukemia on August 22, 2003.