Gene Autry-That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine-cd 1- 9-2006

Orvon Gene Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s. Autry was also owner of the Los Angeles Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997, as well as a television station and several radio stations in southern California.
Although his signature song was "Back in the Saddle Again", Autry is best known today for his Christmas holiday songs, "Here Comes Santa Claus" (which he wrote), "Frosty the Snowman", and his biggest hit, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
He is a member of both the Country Music and Nashville Songwriters halls of fame, and is the only celebrity to have five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Autry, the grandson of a Methodist preacher, was born near Tioga, Texas. His parents, Delbert Autry and Elnora Ozment, moved to Ravia, Oklahoma in the 1920s. After leaving high school in 1925, Autry worked as a telegrapher for the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway.
Talent with the guitar and his voice led to performing at local dances. After an encouraging chance encounter with Will Rogers, he began performing on local radio in 1928 as "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy."

Autry signed a recording deal with Columbia Records in 1929. He worked in Chicago, Illinois, on the WLS-AM radio show National Barn Dance for four years, and with his own show, where he met singer-songwriter Smiley Burnette. In his early recording career, Autry covered various genres, including a labor song, "The Death of Mother Jones" in 1931.
Autry also recorded many "hillbilly"-style records in 1930 and 1931 in New York City, which were certainly different in style and content from his later recordings. These were much closer in style to the Prairie Ramblers or Dick Justice, and included the "Do Right Daddy Blues" and "Black Bottom Blues", both similar to "Deep Elem Blues". These late-Prohibition era songs deal with bootlegging, corrupt police, and women whose occupation was certainly vice. These recordings are generally not heard today, but are available on European import labels, such as JSP Records.
His first hit was in 1932 with "That Silver-Haired Daddy Of Mine", a duet with fellow railroad man, Jimmy Long. Autry also sang the classic Ray Whitley hit "Back In The Saddle Again," as well as many Christmas holiday songs including "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," his own composition "Here Comes Santa Claus", "Frosty the Snowman", and his biggest hit, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
Autry also owned the Challenge Records label. The label's biggest hit was "Tequila" by The Champs in 1958, which started the rock-and-roll instrumental craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Autry made 640 recordings, including more than 300 songs written or co-written by him. His records sold more than 100 million copies and he has more than a dozen gold and platinum records, including the first record ever certified gold.