By MICHAEL CORCORAN
Austin
American Statesman
He wrote Bing
Crosby's 1939 smash hit It Makes No
Difference Now, recorded his first
No. 1 single in 1944 with They Took
the Stars Out of Heaven and was one
of country music's first great electric
guitarists.
But Country Music
Hall of Famer Floyd Tillman, who died
Friday morning at his home near Houston
at 88, will best be remembered for a
1949 song that helped usher in the
social realism era of country
songwriting.
Slipping Around may not have been the first ''cheating
song,'' but it was the first one to top
the charts.The title of the
album Mr. Tillman finished recording
just a couple of months ago says it all.
He was, simply, The Influence,
and such admirers as Dolly Parton, Merle
Haggard, George Jones and Willie Nelson
sang duets with him on the album, which
is slated for release in November.A longtime
resident of Marble Falls, Texas, Mr.
Tillman moved to the Houston suburb of
Bacliff recently, after his leukemia was
diagnosed, to be near his doctors.''He was a great,
great writer,'' Willie Nelson said in a
telephone interview. ''But he was also a
great, great friend. Floyd always had a
big smile, and you knew it was real.''Mr. Tillman was a
1930s honky-tonk pioneer, and his unique
sound fused Ernest Tubb's homespun
plaintiveness with uptown sprinkles of
jazz and swing. His unique,
behind-the-beat vocal phrasing, not to
mention his jazzy guitar stylings, made
an impression on a young Nelson, who
employs both techniques himself.''You could tell,
right away, that his music wasn't the
typical country music of the time,''
Nelson said.Mr. Tillman's
songwriting was another influence on
younger musicians, including some who
would become major propellants of rock
'n' roll's first waves.''You can't
underestimate the influence Floyd
Tillman had on rock 'n' rollers like
Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and Buddy
Knox,'' musician Monte Warden said.
''With their self-contained combos, the
honky-tonk guys like Tillman and Hank
Thompson showed that you didn't have to
look to New York or Nashville for your
songs. You could just play your own.''Among Mr.
Tillman's hits were Driving Nails In
My Coffin (1946), I Love You So
Much It Hurts (1946), I Gotta
Have My Baby Back (1949) and his
last hit, 1960's It Just Tears Me Up.Among the artists
who have recorded his songs are Gene
Autry, Tex Ritter, the Supremes and Ray
Charles.
Tillman was in a
Texas diner when he overheard a woman
sweet-talking on the phone with a man he
assumed was her husband. When she asked
the man to call her at home, but to hang
up if her husband answered, Tillman had
a song idea:
Seems we always
have to slip around to be together,
dear. Slipping around ? afraid we might
be found. I know I can't forget you, and
I've gotta have you near. But we just
have to slip around and live in constant
fear.
Adultery was a
taboo subject at the time, and because Slipping Around didn't moralize
that cheating was wrong, the song was
traveling untested territory. But
Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely had a
huge hit with it in early 1949, topping
the charts for 17 straight weeks.Months later, Mr.
Tillman's version peaked at No. 5.Texas disc jockey
Tracy Pitcox, who produced The
Influence, said Tillman was ''very
excited about making his first record in
more than 20 years.'' He was honored
that so many country music greats had
done duets with him.Pitcox said,
''Floyd didn't get much out of
accolades. To him the biggest thrill was
having the respect of his peers.''
Tillman, who was
inducted into the Country Music Hall of
Fame in 1984, is survived by his sons
Larry and Don Tillman. |