ROY HALL

   Según comentan expertos biógrafos , es muy probable que nadie se muestre capaz de explicar la biografía de ROY HALL , con verosimilitud total, sobre todo porque usó un nombre prestado durante gran parte de su carrera y su leyenda  así quedó según afirmaciones de historiador Martin Hawkins . Según se cuenta en los círculos de rock & roll - nacido James Faye Hall en Big Stone Gap, VA, en 1922, aprendió el piano de un bluesman local  bebedor declarado , poco a poco se fué convirtiendo en una especie de mago del piano  mientras su afición por la bebida también crecía desmesuradamente , prácticamente saliendo  de su adolescencia. La verdad , como le explicó a Hawkins en un par de reuniones a mediados de los años setenta. De hecho, nació James Faye Hall en Big Stone Gap en 1922, siendo  presentado al piano por su madre, que fúe su primer maestro . Descubrió desde el principio que era un pianista con una capacidad natural para tocar de oído ya cuando era niño, y las lecciones que pretendieron inculcarle le resultaban más bien superfluas. Estuvo tocando durante algún tiempo por  Tennessee y Kentucky pero siempre regresando a  Detroit como base, donde finalmente Hall montó un nuevo grupo, llamado Eagles, con Flash Griner en la voz principal. Ninguno de estos - ni siquiera el estimable "Skinny Minny de Texas City" - hizo el que su música la resultara un modus vivendi necesario para sostener un grupo,A principios de los cincuenta , Hall había vuelto a Nashville , se puso a dirigir un club, conocido en diferentes ámbitos  como la THE BOX MUSIC que servía de refugio a los músicos que deambulaban por los ambientes de Nashville, más tarde como podéis ver más abajo cambiaría su sino , adoptó el pseudónimo de SUNNY DAVID, llegando a colaborar en la concepción del tema Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, grabado por él mismo , aunque nunca fué reconocido como coautor en la popularización del tema a cargo de Jerry Lee Lewis .Sin embargo en fuentes consultadas  se hace justicia y se adjudica la autoría a  DAVID CURLEE WILLIAMS / SUNNY DAVID

                  

                  

                     

                    

                 

                

James Faye "Roy" Hall (May 7, 1922 - March 3, 1984), also known by his pseudonym "Sunny David", was an American rockabilly pianist and songwriter. Hall was an uncredited co-writer of the rockabilly classic "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", a song recorded by Hall himself and later popularized by Jerry Lee Lewis. Although his writing claim was initially disputed, later reissues of the song credit Hall for his role in its conception.

Hall was born in Big Stone Gap, Virginia in 1922. Although he is often stated to have learned the piano from a local blues player who also turned Hall into a drunkard by his early teens, he was actually first introduced to the instrument by his mother. Hall cited Piano Red as his primary influence in his playing style. After performing in his home town, Hall accompanied Uncle Dave Macon in 1933 in a traveling broadcast for the Grand Ole Opry.

While working for a sibling group called the Hall Brothers, the third brother, Roy Hall, died in a car accident in 1943. Hall adopted the brother's name for his stage moniker, and formed his own band, the Cohutta Mountain Boys. It was a five-piece band, with Tommy Odum (lead guitar), Bud White (rhythm guitar), Flash Griner (bass guitar), and Frankie Brumbalough (fiddle). In 1949, the band cut their first record, which included a hillbilly boogie-woogie song called "Dirty Boogie", with two different B-sides released on the independent record label, Fortune Records, in Detroit, Michigan.The single became a jukebox favorite in the Midwest; however, its followups, which delved more into traditional country music, failed to match the initial success produced by "Dirty Boogie".The Cohutta Mountain Boys' popularity earned them, briefly, a supporting role for singer Tennessee Ernie Ford in Nashville. Afterwards, the band continued a journeymen existence, eventually returning to Detroit where Hall assembled a new group, the Eagles, and recorded material for Citation Records.

However, the group could not sustain itself, and in 1950 Hall moved to Nashville to record two solo singles for Bullet Records and another for Tennessee Records in 1951; the releases were commercially unsuccessful. He then opened a music and gambling club called the Music Box, later renamed the Musicians' Hideaway, where he was a regular performer. Hall claimed that Elvis Presley performed there one night in 1954, but Hall fired him because "he weren't no damn good." He also claimed that, in the same year, Jerry Lee Lewis played there for several weeks.

Between 1954 and 1955, Hall recorded with Webb Pierce, Marty Robbins, and Hawkshaw Hawkins. In 1954, Hall met black musician Dave "Curlee" Williams and while on vacation in the Everglades Hall co-wrote, under the pseudonym "Sunny David", the song "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On". Hall said:

We was down in Pahokee, on Lake Okeechobee.. out on a damn pond, fishin' and milkin' snakes .. drinkin' wine, mostly.. This guy down there had a big bell that he's ring to get us all to come in to dinner, an' I'd call over [and] say, 'What's goin' on?' Colored guy said, 'We got twen'y-one drums, we got an old bass horn, an' they even keepin' time on a ding-dong.' See, that was the big bell they'd ring to git us t'come in.

Pierce arranged a recording session for Hall at Decca Records, and on September 15, 1955 he recorded three songs, including "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On". By this time Big Maybelle had already recorded her own variation of the song for OKeh Records, which resulted in a moderate national hit.

Hall's recording contract with Decca concluded in 1956 with no sizable hit, as a consequence of ineffective promoting. Jerry Lee Lewis achieved a number 3 hit in 1957 with "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", instantly launching him into national prominence. Although Hall was in line for royalties, his ex-wife successfully sued for his share, and on early issues of Lewis' single Hall is not credited.

On March 3, 1984, Hall died at the age of 61 in Nashville, not long after releasing his debut album Diggin' the Boogie. In 2005, Bear Family Records released the compilation album Roy Rocks, which compiles all of Hall's released material.