Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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RILEY, Billy Lee

(b 5 October 1933, Pocahontas AR; d 2 August 2009, Jonesboro AR) Rockabilly singer and multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, bass, harmonica, drums. His first release on Sun, 'Rock With Me Baby', was recorded by Jack Clement at WMPS Radio in Memphis, Riley's guitar, bass and drums overdubbed, one of the few Sun discs of the era that had so much production in it; it was Clement's entrée to Sun as well as Riley's. His 'Red Hot' '57 should have been a hit, many said, but Sam Phillips spent his promotion budget on Jerry Lee Lewis's 'Great Ball Of Fire'. (Among those infuenced by 'Red Hot' was Bob Dylan.) Riley never hit the big time despite good looks and powerful rock'n'roll, he said, because Sun put out too many records in those years: '...when there was a Perkins release, a Cash release and later Jerry Lee Lewis, the disc jockeys didn't want to be bothered with the rest ... The public could only afford so many at one time, anyway.' His influence on the Sun sound was great: Lewis played piano on his regional hit 'Flying Saucers Rock'n'Roll' '57; his band The Little Green Men included guitarist Roland Janes and drummer Jimmy Van Eaton; they had become a Sun house band and in fact played on 'Great Balls Of Fire'.

Riley added sax to rockabilly (Martin Willis, then Ace Cannon, who both also worked for Bill Black); he also recorded pop, soul, funky country, and had his own labels, but his only Hot 100 hit was 'I Got A Thing About You Baby' '72 on Entrance. The music biz knew who he was; an album Hot Damn! on Capricorn was nominated for a Grammy not long before he died.