Sid King & The Five Strings

For roughly five years, Sid King & the Five Strings stood among the most popular rock & roll groups active in Texas, even though the band had never set out to perform in that style, a form of music that lacked any established label during their formative period. The musicians first assembled in 1953 while attending junior high school in Denton, TX, calling themselves the Western Melody Makers and concentrating on country boogie along with Western swing. Sid King, born Sid Erwin, handled guitar and vocals, Melvin Robinson covered both steel guitar and saxophone, Sid’s brother Billy King played lead guitar, and Ken Massey and David White took care of bass and drums. Under that earlier name the group recorded six tracks for Starday in 1954.

The rapid musical shifts of the era soon pulled them beyond country & western material. Frequent exposure to R&B recordings began reshaping both their song choices and their overall approach, much as fellow Texans the Four Mints moved from gospel roots toward the sound of acts such as the Treniers. When the ensemble entered the studio again later that year for Columbia Records, now operating as Sid King & the Five Strings, they cut tracks including the rockabilly standouts “Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight” and “Sag, Drag and Fall.” Those releases generated enough notice to support extensive tours across the United States and into Canada, and Billboard designated the band one of the best show bands of 1956. They shared bills with Elvis Presley on the Louisiana Hayride and released their own version of “Ooby Dooby,” which vied for attention with Roy Orbison’s Sun Records single. Lasting success beyond Texas proved elusive, however, and the group dissolved in 1958.

Melvin Robinson stayed involved in the Dallas music scene at least through the 1960s, yet Sid King maintained the longest professional run of the five members, remaining active in music until the mid-1960s. He later received renewed attention during the rockabilly revival of the 1980s, alongside later artists such as Robert Gordon and the Stray Cats.