ROCKABILLY
Merle Kilgore - Everybody Needs A Little Lovin'
Merle Kilgore was born in Chikaska, Oklahoma but very young moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he gave his first musical steps as musician and DJ of the Louisiana Hayride. From his earliest years Merle stood out as a composer, writing with only 18 years the Webb Pierce's big hit More And More. Over the years Merle would pen a never-ending chain of big hits like Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire, Johnny Horton's Johnny Reb, Tommy Roe's The Folk Singer or the crossover Wolverton Mountain, but also great rockabillies as Bob Luman's Loretta.
In 1954 Merle would sign up for Imperial Records, company with whom he would release his first singles under his own name. Although country & western is the main ingredient at the begginig, soon the rockabilly bug would bite strong into Merle's music and stinky guitars and slappin' doublebass would become familiar in his singles, 'Everybody Needs A Little Lovin''and 'Ernie' , both included here are good examples of it. Interestingly, although Merle would succeed as a composer, these songs are signed by his wife Dorothy Lee Salley, who would also write for him the ballad Trying To Find (Some One Like You). Years later, in his stage with Mercury Records, Merle would record Everybody Needs A Little Lovin' in a much more pop style and re-titled as The Love Bug.
One of his sessions for Imperial took place in New Orleans, backed by Dave Bartolomew's orchestra, with Earl Palmer on drums and Lee Allen on saxophone. Of those sessions the Merle's sound would switch to pure jump blues, with songs like Please, Please, Please, Teenager's Hollyday and Hang Doll.
After his time at Imperial Merle continued recording and composing during the 60's and 70's for companies such as Starday, Mercury, MGM, Epic, reaching the 80's to become the manager of Hank Williams Jr. being by then a very popular name in country music. He is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Merle passed away on February 6, 2005 at age of 70.
