Biography
Malcolm Yelvington occupies a position in the historical record much like the second aviator to cross the Atlantic alone or the second astronaut to circle the planet—present yet overshadowed by the figure ahead of him. He secured a contract with Sun Records during 1954, only to receive the slot immediately following Elvis Presley’s first 45, “That’s All Right.” Among the performers Sun signed, Yelvington never achieved the stature of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, or Carl Perkins, yet his playing and vocal command remained strong enough to sustain steady local work around Memphis even though none of his releases reached the charts. National television and national chart success stayed beyond his reach, but Memphis later came to regard him as a tangible survivor of the city’s pivotal shift in American music.
Born in the rural community of Covington near Memphis, Yelvington began performing on guitar and vocals in the area by age fourteen. His developing baritone attracted audiences and bookings well into his early twenties. Ernest Tubb, another baritone then ascending nationally with “Walkin’ the Floor Over You,” served as one of the few stylistic models available to him; Yelvington absorbed a comparable honky-tonk approach. Despite proximity to Memphis and an acknowledged debt to Tubb, Yelvington’s music remained distant from blues traditions; its roots lay in hillbilly forms, and he remained largely unaware of nearby Memphis musicians such as Furry Lewis or Frank Stokes.
Health issues kept Yelvington out of military service during World War II. After the war he encountered Reece Fleming and Respers Townsend—already veterans of RCA-Victor sessions—during casual appearances at the Gem Theater. Those informal engagements eventually led him into Fleming’s western-swing group, the Tennesseeans, which performed at school dances, honky-tonks, and other venues near Covington. The Tennesseeans disbanded in 1952, after which Yelvington and several core members joined the Star Rhythm Boys, securing a daily radio spot. Most band members, being older and family-oriented, confined themselves to local Covington engagements, while Yelvington, living in Memphis, expanded his city performances on weekdays even as he continued weekend work with the group. Their most prominent venue was the Clover Club, a honky-tonk north of Covington, where they performed for three years, cultivated a substantial following, and earned reliable income solely from door receipts. Yelvington and lead guitarist Gordon Mashburn then began exploring recording opportunities, learning of Sam Phillips and Sun Records, already home to the Ripley Cotton Choppers.
Yelvington first met Phillips late in 1953; the initial encounter proved discouraging. The band specialized in country and western swing, styles Phillips had no interest in documenting. He nevertheless appreciated the musicians and asked them to run through an extensive selection of their material, including a number titled “Yakety-Yak” (unrelated to the later Coasters hit), yet everything remained too country-oriented for the label. Success arrived only with “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee,” originally associated with blues singer Sticks McGee. Phillips responded immediately to the fusion of black and hillbilly elements, emerging from the control room to identify the song and directing the band to record it on the spot. Yelvington had acquired the number from former steel guitarist Carey Busey and had played rhythm behind it repeatedly before claiming the vocal himself; with backing vocals supplied by Reece’s wife and another singer, the track acquired an unrestrained honky-tonk character anchored in country music by the steel guitar yet energized by enough of its black source material to distinguish it from contemporaneous country releases. That same distinctiveness, however, contributed to its commercial difficulties. Shortly afterward Phillips recorded the young Memphis-based, Mississippi-born singer Elvis Presley, whose debut “That’s All Right” overshadowed “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.”
Yelvington and the Star Rhythm Boys handled promotion of their single themselves, a laborious effort that involved approaching individual radio stations and leaving copies of the 45. They discovered that, despite its rhythmic drive and stylistic blend, the record was classified as country because of the steel guitar. It therefore found no lasting audience—too black for country outlets, too country for programmers favoring rhythm-oriented material.
Sun issued no further recordings by Yelvington or the band. They next appeared on Meteor Records, owned by the Bihari Brothers, cutting sides under the name Mac Sales and the Esquire Trio to circumvent Phillips’s continuing contractual hold. Their Meteor version of “Yakety-Yak” failed commercially, prompting a return to Sun in 1955 under their original name with rockabilly-styled material released as “Rockin’ With My Baby.” Neither Yelvington, approaching forty, nor his older bandmates felt entirely at ease with rockabilly and never embraced it with the natural facility of the twenty-year-old Presley. The group finally disbanded in 1958 following six years of regular performances and no recording success. After brief attempts to continue solo, Yelvington set music aside to concentrate on raising five children. In the mid-1980s he unexpectedly reentered the music world, now celebrated as an original rockabilly figure more than twenty-five years after his rockabilly efforts had been dismissed as excessively country.
Sun Records histories began citing him and the Star Rhythm Boys, drawing renewed attention from collectors who regarded him as one of the label’s early rockabilly roster members. European concert promoters, serving a large and committed audience for American music, approached him first and arranged a series of overseas performances. The following year he returned to Sun to record once more, resulting in his debut album, issued in 1997 when he was sixty-nine. By then he stood as a living embodiment of Memphis musical history and a respected elder statesman of both country music and rockabilly, though he continued to regard himself principally as a country musician.
Born in the rural community of Covington near Memphis, Yelvington began performing on guitar and vocals in the area by age fourteen. His developing baritone attracted audiences and bookings well into his early twenties. Ernest Tubb, another baritone then ascending nationally with “Walkin’ the Floor Over You,” served as one of the few stylistic models available to him; Yelvington absorbed a comparable honky-tonk approach. Despite proximity to Memphis and an acknowledged debt to Tubb, Yelvington’s music remained distant from blues traditions; its roots lay in hillbilly forms, and he remained largely unaware of nearby Memphis musicians such as Furry Lewis or Frank Stokes.
Health issues kept Yelvington out of military service during World War II. After the war he encountered Reece Fleming and Respers Townsend—already veterans of RCA-Victor sessions—during casual appearances at the Gem Theater. Those informal engagements eventually led him into Fleming’s western-swing group, the Tennesseeans, which performed at school dances, honky-tonks, and other venues near Covington. The Tennesseeans disbanded in 1952, after which Yelvington and several core members joined the Star Rhythm Boys, securing a daily radio spot. Most band members, being older and family-oriented, confined themselves to local Covington engagements, while Yelvington, living in Memphis, expanded his city performances on weekdays even as he continued weekend work with the group. Their most prominent venue was the Clover Club, a honky-tonk north of Covington, where they performed for three years, cultivated a substantial following, and earned reliable income solely from door receipts. Yelvington and lead guitarist Gordon Mashburn then began exploring recording opportunities, learning of Sam Phillips and Sun Records, already home to the Ripley Cotton Choppers.
Yelvington first met Phillips late in 1953; the initial encounter proved discouraging. The band specialized in country and western swing, styles Phillips had no interest in documenting. He nevertheless appreciated the musicians and asked them to run through an extensive selection of their material, including a number titled “Yakety-Yak” (unrelated to the later Coasters hit), yet everything remained too country-oriented for the label. Success arrived only with “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee,” originally associated with blues singer Sticks McGee. Phillips responded immediately to the fusion of black and hillbilly elements, emerging from the control room to identify the song and directing the band to record it on the spot. Yelvington had acquired the number from former steel guitarist Carey Busey and had played rhythm behind it repeatedly before claiming the vocal himself; with backing vocals supplied by Reece’s wife and another singer, the track acquired an unrestrained honky-tonk character anchored in country music by the steel guitar yet energized by enough of its black source material to distinguish it from contemporaneous country releases. That same distinctiveness, however, contributed to its commercial difficulties. Shortly afterward Phillips recorded the young Memphis-based, Mississippi-born singer Elvis Presley, whose debut “That’s All Right” overshadowed “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.”
Yelvington and the Star Rhythm Boys handled promotion of their single themselves, a laborious effort that involved approaching individual radio stations and leaving copies of the 45. They discovered that, despite its rhythmic drive and stylistic blend, the record was classified as country because of the steel guitar. It therefore found no lasting audience—too black for country outlets, too country for programmers favoring rhythm-oriented material.
Sun issued no further recordings by Yelvington or the band. They next appeared on Meteor Records, owned by the Bihari Brothers, cutting sides under the name Mac Sales and the Esquire Trio to circumvent Phillips’s continuing contractual hold. Their Meteor version of “Yakety-Yak” failed commercially, prompting a return to Sun in 1955 under their original name with rockabilly-styled material released as “Rockin’ With My Baby.” Neither Yelvington, approaching forty, nor his older bandmates felt entirely at ease with rockabilly and never embraced it with the natural facility of the twenty-year-old Presley. The group finally disbanded in 1958 following six years of regular performances and no recording success. After brief attempts to continue solo, Yelvington set music aside to concentrate on raising five children. In the mid-1980s he unexpectedly reentered the music world, now celebrated as an original rockabilly figure more than twenty-five years after his rockabilly efforts had been dismissed as excessively country.
Sun Records histories began citing him and the Star Rhythm Boys, drawing renewed attention from collectors who regarded him as one of the label’s early rockabilly roster members. European concert promoters, serving a large and committed audience for American music, approached him first and arranged a series of overseas performances. The following year he returned to Sun to record once more, resulting in his debut album, issued in 1997 when he was sixty-nine. By then he stood as a living embodiment of Memphis musical history and a respected elder statesman of both country music and rockabilly, though he continued to regard himself principally as a country musician.
Albums
