The year 1951 saw the release of several of his most memorable recordings, including “Always Late (With Your Kisses),” which remains perhaps the definitive example of Frizzell’s revolutionary vocal technique.
The two songs chosen for the first single were “If You’ve Got the Money I’ve Got the Time” and “I Love You a Thousand Ways.” Released near the end of that summer, both sides eventually hit #1 on the charts.įrom that point forward, Frizzell’s star rose with spectacular speed. In June 1950, Frizzell signed with Columbia, and his first session for the label was held at Beck’s studio the following month. Instead, Law took an immediate interest in Frizzell’s voice. Beck recorded Frizzell singing a demo of the lively honky-tonk number and took it to Nashville, hoping to interest Columbia executive Don Law in the song as a vehicle for Little Jimmy Dickens. Beck showed little interest in Frizzell as a singer but was impressed with one of Frizzell’s original songs, “If You’ve Got the Money I’ve Got the Time,” then still only half-written. In early 1950, while working in Big Spring, Frizzell made a trip to Dallas to “audition” at Jim Beck’s recording studio. After a time in El Dorado, Arkansas, he returned to southeastern New Mexico, and from there moved to Big Spring, Texas, where he sang at a honky-tonk called the Ace of Clubs. Several months after his release in 1948, Frizzell traveled to Shreveport, Louisiana, for a failed audition with the Louisiana Hayride. Convicted the following month, he served six months in the county jail, during which time he wrote numerous songs to his wife, including “I Love You a Thousand Ways.” Disaster struck in July 1947, though, when Frizzell was charged with statutory rape. After moving to Roswell, New Mexico, in 1946, Frizzell made regular local appearances on radio station KGFL and with the house band at the Cactus Gardens dancehall. During that time, he met Alice Harper, whom he married in March 1945. Living in Greenville, Texas, during World War II, Frizzell performed on KPLT in nearby Paris. His first public performance was during a school program, and it was also at school that he picked up his lifelong nickname by decking a schoolmate with his left hand.
LEFTY CAPPUCCINO PROFESSIONAL
Captivated by the yodel of Jimmie Rodgers, he decided by the time he was twelve years old that he, too, wanted to be a professional singer.
The son of an oilfield worker, Frizzell grew up in and around the oil towns of Arkansas, East Texas, and Louisiana. Besides Merle Haggard, such major stars as George Jones, Roy Orbison, George Strait, Keith Whitley, and Randy Travis have all paid him homage. A supreme vocal stylist, William Orville “Lefty” Frizzell introduced an intimate, vowel-bending style of singing that has been internalized by countless younger performers in the years since he burst to stardom in 1950.
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