- Born
- Died
- Country-western singer Sanford Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, when he was nine years old. He began performing in the Phoenix area in the early 1950s. He enlisted in the Air Force and during his hitch he formed a band, which played in the South Pacific and Hawaii. After his discharge, he returned to Phoenix to pursue a singing career full-time. He met singer/songwriter/producer Lee Hazlewood, then a DJ on a Phoenix radio station. Hazelwood wrote a song for Clark, "The Fool", which Clark recorded in 1956 and which was released on MCI Records. The song began to gain in popularity, and when a Philadelphia DJ mentioned it to executives at Dot Records and they played it, the label picked up the song to distribute nationally. It didn't take long for it to become a hit, reaching #14 on the Country Singles chart, #5 on the Black Singles chart and #7 on the Billboard Top 100 chart. Clark went on tour to give the song more exposure, and opened for such major acts as Ray Price and Roy Orbison.
His follow-up record, 1957's "The Cheat", was also a hit, though on a smaller scale than "The Fool". Clark left Dot Records after a fight with the owner and signed with the smaller Jamie Records in 1958. For that label he recorded "Son of a Gun", which was also a hit (and which The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards credits as the first song he ever performed with the Stones).
Clark eventually left the music business and worked in construction, although he did start his own record label, Desert Sun Records, and recorded some songs on it.
- SpouseMasha(? - July 4, 2021) (his death, 3 children)
- Returning to Phoenix, he and his friend Al Casey met Lee Hazlewood, then a local DJ. Clark, with Casey on guitar, recorded one of Hazlewood's songs, "The Fool", in Floyd Ramsey's Audio Recorders studio on MCI Records in 1956. Dot Records picked the song up for national distribution after a Philadelphia deejay tipped them off to it. The song became a hit in the U.S., peaking at No. 14 on the Country Singles chart, No. 5 on the R&B Singles chart, and No. 7 on the Billboard Top 100.
- Clark left the music business in the 70's and worked in construction, though he occasionally recorded in later decades on his own label, Desert Sun Records.
- Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was raised in Phoenix, Arizona, from the age of 9.
- He spent time in the Air Force in the South Pacific; he formed a band there which won a talent show in Hawaii.
- In 1959 Clark recorded a song, "Son of a Gun", about the son of a western gunslinger. This song is also referenced in Keith Richards' book "Life", published in October 2010. He credits the song as being one of the first songs he learned and performed on stage prior to forming the Rolling Stones.
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