SONNY FISHER & THE ROCKING BOYS

They called him "The Wild Man from Texas," rockabilly cat Sonny Fisher. Born Therman Fisher on a farm outside Chandler, (Tyler), TX, on Nov. 13, 1931. 

The family moved to California when Sonny was very young, they lived in CA a short while before they finally moved to Tacoma, WA where he grew up , but Sonny missed Texas and decided to move back there, he moved back to Houston TX shortly after his 18th birthday. He recorded a series of little-heard but super explosive rockabilly styled singles for the Starday label during the mid-'50s, finally winning acclaim from European audiences close to a quarter century later.

First drawn to music by his father, an amateur singer and guitarist, the adolescent Fisher also favored Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, and Ernest Tubb. Fisher formed his own country band in 1951, assembling fiddler Paul Vaughan, steel guitarist Red Leonie, bassist Leonard Curry, and drummer Darrell Newsome. 

With the (lucky) addition of electric guitarist Joey Long, the group began incorporating R&B covers into its repertoire, and after Fisher witnessed Elvis Presley's wild and intense late 1954 appearance at Houston's Texas Korral, he steered his music fully in the direction of die hard rockabilly, sacking Vaughan and Leonie while dubbing the remaining trio the Rocking Boys. 

Joey Long was a tremendous, awesome lead guitarist, he created his very special guitar licks by playing a mixture from the blues and country, and of course even from his own very technical style, Joey created an unique guitar sound on Sonny Fisher & The Rockin' Boy's Starday recordings. Sonny's wild act on stage coupled with Joey's raw powerful rockin' guitarstyle makes The Rocking Boys to the most wild and popular acts around east TX in the mid 50's. 

Following an appearance at Houston's Cosy Corner, Fisher signed with the local Starday imprint, cutting his debut single, "Rockin' Daddy," in early 1955. Though earning little notice outside the local market, the record remains a classic example of rockabilly at its most primal, galvanized by Fisher's impassioned vocal and Long's ferocious guitar soloing. "Sneaky Pete" followed in the spring, and while it too failed commercially.

Presley was so impressed that he borrowed drummer Newsome for a series of Houston performances. Fisher and the Rocking Boys closed out the year with "Rockin' and a-Rollin'" and in mid-1956 resurfaced with the here shown in vid. blistering top-rockabilly "Pink and Black." flipped with "Little Red Wagon" 

These cuts as all other Starday issues w. Sonny are recorded at The Goldstar Studios in Houston Texas. When all four singles netted Fisher a royalty check amounting to only 126 dollars, he refused to renew his Starday deal, instead co-founding Columbus Records with Newsome. Fisher produced sides for singer/guitarist Eddie Eddings and saxophonist Hub Sutter, but never recorded for Columbus himself, eventually selling his share of the company to Newsome. 

After the Rocking Boys split, he led his own R&B group for a time before returning to country, working the Houston nightclub circuit until 1965, when he retired to mount his own flooring business.