By JENNIFER MOONSONG
Glasgow News 1
When Billy Vaughn was a youngster growing up in Glasgow, Ky. in the 1920s and ’30s, he fostered his love of music in his Dad’s, Alvis, barber shop.
Orchestra leader Billy Vaughn had 42 hit singles in his lifetime, and performed on 6 of seven continents.
National Archive Photo
His father passed his love of song along to Billy at a very early age. When he was just 3, suffering from measles, when most children would be convalescing, little Billy was learning the intricate strings of a mandolin.
Billy Vaughn went on to learn to play myriad instruments, to be among the most successful instrumental artists of the golden age of music — the 1950s.
In the early ’50s, he was the keys man and fourth voice in a quartet known as the Hilltoppers. That’s when he penned and composed his first known chart-topper “Trying.” However, even with flourishing success, Billy struck out on his own in 1954 to become the music director at Dot Records in Gallatin, Tenn. That same year he formed an orchestra and had his first hit single, “The Melody of Love.” It sold more than a million copies.
Over the next 15 years, Vaughn amassed more than 40 hits and became the most successful orchestra leader of the rock-n-roll era.
In 1965, the Billy Vaughn Orchestra toured the globe, making his a globally recognized success.
From the hills of Kentucky, Vaughn moved to the hills of California. He died at the age of 72 in Escondido.
His music is still recognized, loved and listened to today on modern platforms like YouTube, Spotify and Pandora where it’s catalogued for generations to come.
Billy Vaughn was born in Glasgow in 1919 and went on to make a name for himself as a nationally known band leader.
Historic Archive Photo
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