Biography
Born on 7 December 1924 in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, USA, Bennett died on 2 June 2002 in Saratoga, Florida, USA. His family moved to Nashville, where he completed high school and began performing vocals and drums alongside the WSM studio band. Following a short stint in World War II, he assembled the Southlanders, a group specializing in western swing dance music that cut sides for King Records during the early 1950s. Inspired by Bill Haley’s rising profile, Bennett changed the band’s name to the Rockets—echoing Haley’s own shift from the Saddlemen to the Comets—and steered further King sessions toward a younger market. The 1955 release “Seventeen” reached number 5 on the pop chart and ranked among the label’s biggest sellers. Additional pop outings included “My Boy-Flat Top,” which peaked at number 39, and a cover of “Blue Suede Shoes.” Frankie Vaughan scored UK Top 20 hits with both “Seventeen” in 1955 and “My Boy-Flat Top” in 1956. In 1956 Bennett’s group supported Moon Mullican on the rockabilly tracks “Seven Nights To Rock” and “I’m Mad With You.” Bennett exited King in 1959 for a brief spell with Mercury Records. Having prudently invested his earnings from the King era, he concluded that competing with emerging rockabilly artists was no longer viable and stepped away from music. His subsequent focus turned to business ventures that encompassed three nightclubs and, later, a firm producing components for air-conditioning systems. During the 1970s and 1980s he also surmounted serious illnesses, among them lymphoma and pulmonary fibrosis. A Danish compilation, Boyd Bennett And His Rockets: Seventeen, issued in 1988, gathered several of his earlier King recordings. Bennett eventually settled in Dallas, making occasional stage appearances alongside Ray Price.
Albums
