Joe Allison
| Joe Allison | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Joe Marion Allison October 3, 1924 McKinney, Texas, United States |
| Died | August 2, 2002 (aged 77) Nashville, Tennessee, United States |
| Cause of death | Respiratory failure from lung disease |
| Occupation | Songwriter, radio and television personality, record producer, country music business executive |
Joe Marion Allison (October 3, 1924 – August 2, 2002) was an American songwriter, radio and television personality, record producer, and country music business executive.
Allison was born in McKinney, Texas. He worked as a commercial artist before embarking on a career in the entertainment industry, first as a disc jockey on a Paris, Texas radio station. In 1945, after a few years on radio, Allison took a job as the emcee for the North American tour of country music singing star Tex Ritter. While working on tour, he offered Ritter a song he had written called "When You Leave, Don't Slam the Door", which the singer turned into a No. 1 hit on the country music charts. This success ultimately led to Allison moving to a radio station in Nashville, Tennessee where he remained until accepting an offer from a station in Pasadena, California.
While working on radio and television on the West Coast, Allison continued writing music, many of which were co-authored with his first wife, Audrey. He scored a success with a song recorded by country singer Faron Young and a major hit when teen idol Tommy Sands recorded his song, "Teen Age Crush'". In 1959, Joe and Audrey Allison wrote their most famous song, "He'll Have to Go", which was initially recorded by Billy Brown. A subsequent version by Jim Reeves become a platinum record, and the song would be recorded successfully by more than one hundred other artists including Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Tom Jones, Eddy Arnold and even big band leader Guy Lombardo. That same year, Allison was hired by Liberty Records to create their country music department. At Liberty he signed Willie Nelson to his first recording contract.
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