Lawton Williams
| Lawton Williams | |
|---|---|
Between Truck Stops, with Williams depicted in cover art
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lawton Williams |
| Born |
July 24, 1922 Troy, Tennessee, United States |
| Died | July 27, 2007 (aged 85) Fort Worth, Texas, United States |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, musician |
| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1947–2003 |
| Labels | Coral, RCA Victor, Decca |
Lawton Williams (July 24, 1922, Troy, Tennessee – July 27, 2007, Fort Worth, Texas) was an American country music singer and songwriter.
Williams taught himself to play guitar as a teenager but made no steps towards a musical career until, while serving in World War II, he met Floyd Tillman who acted as a mentor to him. After being discharged from the Army, Williams cut several initial singles for small local labels under the name "Slim Williams" from 1947-1950.
His major label debut, in 1951 on Coral, was "Everlastin' Love"/"Lovin' Overtime"; this was also his first release as Lawton Williams. During the 1950s he cut several more singles for various labels, some under the name of "Ed Lawton", without chart success.
Others, however, found greater success with songs written by Williams. In 1957, Bobby Helms recorded Williams' song "Fraulein", allegedly written about a pretty German woman whom Williams had dated during his military service. It reached #1 on the Billboard country charts, remaining there for four weeks and launching Helms on his career as a singer. It also reached #16 in the main Billboard pop chart, and went on to win the Country Song of the Year Award from both Billboard and Cashbox. Bobby Braddock said that "Fraulein" was called "the Texas national anthem" due to its popularity there.
Williams was now in demand as a songwriter. Hank Locklin recorded his "Geisha Girl" and reached #4 in the country charts, while "Color Of The Blues", co-written with George Jones, was a country #10 for Jones and was more recently covered by Elvis Costello. "I'll Always Be Your Fraulein" was an answer song to "Fraulein", co-written with Roy Botkin and Wally Jarvis, reaching #10 on the country charts in 1961 for Kitty Wells. He also wrote "Shame On Me", which in 1962 was the first song by Bobby Bare to reach the country charts.
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