Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty was born Harold Lloyd Jenkins in Friars Point, Mississippi on September
1, 1933. His father was in charge of a Mississippi ferryboat on which
he taught his son to play guitar. He proved an eager student and by
the age of 10 was appearing on local radio. Two years later he formed
his own band - The Phillips Country Ramblers.
His great love as a boy was baseball and he was on the verge of
being signed up by the Philadelphia baseball team when he was summoned
for National Service with the Army. Two years in uniform saw him
playing with another group (of fellow serviceman) called The Cimmarons,
who regularly performed on radio in Tokyo (the city to which he was
posted).
Demobilized and back home in America, he formed yet another band
and toured the States singing Rock & Roll, and soon became a big
radio star. His manager, Don Seat (who he met in the Army) helped to
organize a recording contract with Mercury in 1957, and his first
record success was I Need Your Loving. A year later he
signed to MGM with whom he recorded his multi-million-selling
international chart-topper It's Only Make Believe - which
legend has it, he wrote in five minutes flat.
Conway Twitty was now an emerging star, busy with radio, television
and film appearances (in such movies as Sexpot Goes To College and
College Confidential. He recorded more singles, including Story
Of My Love, Mona Lisa, Is A Blue Bird Blue?, C'est Si Bon and Lonely
Boy Blue (his second million-seller).
But as his Rock & Roll audiences faded in the early 60s, Conway
turned to his first love - Country music. He moved to Oklahoma City in
1965 and appeared with the group The Lonely Blue Boys (named after his
hit single) and later appeared on his own TV series, The Conway
Twitty Show.
Not long afterwards he settled in Nashville and started recording
country songs. In a ten-year period from 1968 to 1978 he scored with
no less than 33 Number 1 hits on the US country charts. And his
country metamorphosis was complete during the 1970s when, after
teaming up with Loretta Lynn as a duo to make many singles and albums
together, the twosome received the coveted CMA Vocal Duo Of The Year
award on several occasions starting in 1972.
TRIVIA NOTE
Conway Twitty's stage name was chosen by his agent - with 'Conway'
being found on a road map in Arkansas and 'Twitty' coming from the
Texan town.
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