| Born De Armand Noack, Jnr., 29 April 1930, Houston, Texas Died 5 February 1978, Houston, Texas Aka Tommy Wood. Noack who gained degrees in English and Journalism at the University of Houston made his radio debut in 1947 and made his first record for the Gold Star label in 1949, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". In 1951, he cut several songs for Four Star including "Too Hot To Handle". Leased to the TNT label, it drew attention to his songwriting and was recorded by several artists, most recently by Deke Dickerson, who also included "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" on his new (excellent) CD, "Deke Dickerson In 3 Dimensions". Noack joined Starday in 1953 (beginning a long association with 'Pappy' Daily), where his immediate success came as a writer when several of his songs were recorded by top artists including Hank Snow who scored a # 5 country hit with "These Hands" in 1956. Noack moved with Daily to his D label where in 1958, after recording rockabilly tracks as Tommy Wood, he had a country hit with "Have Blues Will Travel" (# 14). During the '60s, Noack quit recording to concentrate on songwriting and publishing and had many of his songs including Flowers For Mama, Barbara Joy, The Poor Chinee, A Day In The Life Of A Fool and No Blues Is Good News successfully recorded by George Jones as album cuts. In 1968, Eddie recorded "Psycho" for the K-Ark label. This bizarre song, about a serial killer, was virtually unknown then since the original fifties version by its composer, Leon ... |
