Performer Information

In 1930, Fred Howard and Nat Vincent were in the cast of a “live” radio show in California when the show’s producer received a wire from a man in Texas with a challenge: if Howard & Vincent could write a song and sing it on the air before the show ended that night, he would award them $250. The two men got to work immediately and started developing an idea, based on recollections of having visited a ranch in Texas, remembering the beauty of the sage in bloom and the experience of sitting around the campfire in the evening, drinking coffee from a can. Before the show ended, they completed the song, performed it on the air and claimed their prize! The very popular Beverly Hill Billies recorded the song almost immediately!

That wasn’t the first song the duo, also known as “The Happy Chappies,” had written, but it became one of the best-known. They aren’t always listed in the credits, but they wrote the chorus to Curly Fletcher’s “Strawberry Roan,” another Western classic, and they collaborated with noted songwriter Billy Hill on “Rock Me to Sleep in My Rocky Mountain Home,” a song recorded by the Sons of the Pioneers in the 1930s and by The Jimmy Wakely Trio and Rex Allen, among others, in the 1940s. Rex Allen also recorded their “My Arizona Home” and “Mellow Mountain Moon,” and Gene Autry liked to sing the latter on his Melody Ranch radio show.

“Me and My Burro” was another of their better-known, frequently recorded compositions, and their very popular “My Pretty Quadroon” was recorded by the Pioneers as well as The Beverly Hill Billies in the mid-30’s. In later years, the Sons of the Pioneers, Andy Parker & the Plainsmen and others enjoyed singing “By a Window at the End of the Lane” on their radio shows. And Gene Autry & the Ranch Boys recorded and/or broadcast their composition, “Wonder Valley.” While their career in Western music began nearly 100 years ago, their songs are still being sung and recorded today.
O.J. Sikes