Tommy Spurlin

Thomas M. "Tommy" Spurlin (January 12, 1928 – July 27, 2005) was an American country and rockabilly musician. He is best remembered for the 1956 rockabilly single "Hang Loose (I've Gotta Rock)" with his band, the Southern Boys.^[1][2][3]

Early life

Spurlin was born in Elba, Alabama, in 1928.^[3][4] A Find a Grave memorial names him Thomas Monroe "Tom" Spurlin and links him to his parents, Henry J. Spurlin (1899–1928) and Annie Mae Vaughn Spurlin Dumas (1902–1968).^[5] His father's memorial, at Evergreen Cemetery in Elba, records that Henry Spurlin died in May 1928, when his son was about four months old.^[6] Tommy grew up in Jackson, Alabama, with his half-brother George "Benny" Dumas (1931–2014), and the two moved with the family to Glenmora, Louisiana, in their early teens.^[3][4][7] Spurlin's grandfather retired to Miami in 1948, and the rest of the family followed a year later.^[3][4] According to the German Wikipedia, Spurlin served in the Air Force after the Second World War and worked there alongside Charlie Louvin, later of the Louvin Brothers.^[1]

Birth date

Dik de Heer's biography, the Discogs and MusicBrainz artist profiles, the German Wikipedia and the Find a Grave memorials for Spurlin and his father all give January 12, 1928.^{[3][2][8][1][5][6]} Praguefrank's country discography writes the date as "12-01-1928", which can be misread as December 1. That site uses day-month-year order (it writes his death date as "27-07-2005"), so it also means January 12.^[9] De Heer took the July 27, 2005, death date from the Social Security Death Index.^[3] Terry Gordon's older RCS rockabilly discography instead said Spurlin died in 2003.^[10]

Music career

In 1952 in Miami, Spurlin and Dumas formed Tommy Spurlin and his Southern Boys, a semi-professional hillbilly band. Spurlin sang and played rhythm guitar, Dumas played bass, Virgil Powell played fiddle, Jimmy Slade played lead guitar and Bill Johnson played steel guitar.^[3][4][9] The band first recorded in 1954 for Jiffy Records, a small label in West Monroe, Louisiana, near Shreveport, where the group had found work.^[3][4] It then signed with Harold Doane's new Perfect label in Miami. Cash Box reviewed its first Perfect single, "Danger!" / "Ain't Had No Lovin'" (Perfect 107), in October 1955, and praised Spurlin's vocal on this debut for the label.^[11][3] In 1956 the group was a regular act on the Gold Coast Jamboree, a Miami radio show on WMIE.^[10][1]

As rock and roll took over in 1956, the band dropped the fiddle and steel guitar and began playing rockabilly.^[3] "Hang Loose (I've Gotta Rock)" / "One-Eyed Sam" came out on Perfect (45-109) in the summer of 1956. Later that year it was reissued on Doane's second label, Art (45-C-109), with drums overdubbed.^[3][12][9] Cash Box reviewed "Hang Loose" in July 1956, calling it a hard-driving rock and roll record in the Presley style, and credited the song to Spurlin and Frost.^[13] Billboard also praised it in August 1956.^[1] The record did not become a national hit.^[1] During the same Perfect sessions the Southern Boys backed another Doane artist, Wesley Hardin.^[4][1]

Songwriting

Spurlin registered several songs with the U.S. Copyright Office. They include "Country Cousin" (July 1956) and "Heart Throb", written with Jack Frost (September 1956).^[14] "Hang Loose I Gotta Rock", also credited to Spurlin and Jack Frost, was registered in November 1957.^[15]

Doane mailed some of Spurlin's songs to the Atlanta music publisher Bill Lowery. Lowery took the publishing rights to "Heart Throb", and his staff writer Jerry Reed changed a few lines of the lyric in return for a co-writing credit.^[3][4] In February 1957 Lowery Music registered the song with words by Tommy Spurlin and words and music by Jerry Reed.^[16] Lowery gave the song to Ric Cartey, who recorded it for RCA Victor in January 1957; the single (RCA Victor 47-6828) credits Reed and Spurlin as writers.^[3][17] According to Rob Finnis's liner notes and de Heer's biography, Cartey's "Heart Throb" was later used in the 1982 film Porky's.^[4][3] IMDb's soundtrack list for Porky's does not include it.^[18] According to de Heer, Spurlin's own 1956 recording of "Heart Throb" was first issued on the 1979 LP Miami Rockabilly (AFS 1001), where it is marked as previously unreleased.^[3][19] Praguefrank's discography also lists an undated Art single of "Heart Throb" / "No Time For Heartaches" (Art 45-131) and queries whether it is a bootleg from around 1975.^[9] In 2005 the Carl Sonny Leyland Trio recorded Spurlin's "One Eyed Sam" on the album Dang Good Boogie.^[20]

Later life and legacy

By 1957 Spurlin had lost interest in rock and roll. He left the band, or was fired from it, in late 1957. After that, Dumas performed under Spurlin's name, which kept the band going for a few more years.^[3][4] Dumas later ran a furniture-manufacturing business in Jackson, Alabama.^[4][7] Spurlin moved to Mississippi; Rob Finnis's liner notes, dated 1997, say he was then living in Gulfport.^[4] He died in Gulfport in 2005.^[3][5] De Heer notes that his death went unreported in the music press.^[3] He is buried at Trinity Memorial Gardens in Jackson, Alabama, according to Find a Grave. Benny Dumas's 2014 obituary, transcribed there, lists "Thomas Spurlin" among the siblings who died before him.^[5][7]

"Hang Loose" became popular during the British rockabilly revival of the late 1970s, when the specialist RM label reissued the Art version with overdubbed drums in the UK.^[3][4] The British revival band Whirlwind covered it on Chiswick Records in 1978.^[21] His recordings have since appeared on many rockabilly reissue compilations.^[9][2]

Tommy Spurlin has a Wikidata item, Q2441076, which describes him as an "American singer (1928–2005)".^[22] The Library of Congress name authority file has a heading for him ("Spurlin, Tommy", no2006077836), established from the label of a Miami Rockabilly sound recording.^[23] His recordings are on Spotify, where his artist profile showed 134 monthly listeners on September 24, 2026.^[24]

Discography and collecting

Tommy Spurlin's 1950s singles are collected by rockabilly and country record buyers. Discogs lists the Jiffy single "Been Livin' Wrong" / "My Address Is The Same" (Jiffy 205)^[25] and the Perfect country singles 45-C-107 ("Danger!" / "Ain't Had No Lovin'", 1955) and 45-C-108 ("There Might Have Been A Love Song" / "Tomorrow I'll Be Gone", 1956), both credited to Spurlin as writer.^[26][27] For "Hang Loose (I've Gotta Rock)" / "One-Eyed Sam" it lists the original Perfect 45-109 (1956), a promotional pressing, an unofficial 1975 issue on the Perfect label, and the UK issue on RM (RMA 1007).^[28][29][30] The Art single "Heart Throb" / "No Time For Heartaches" (Art 45-131) had a lowest Discogs asking price of about $97 in September 2026.^[31]

The 1979 LP Miami Rockabilly (AFS 1001) first issued unreleased Spurlin takes, including "No Time For Heartaches" and "Heart Throb".^[19] Ace Records' 1998 CD of the same name has four Spurlin tracks: "Hang Loose" and "One Eyed Sam" by Tommy Spurlin & the Southern Boys (both 1956), and "Heart Throb" and "No Time For Heartaches" by Tommy Spurlin (both dated 1979 in the booklet). The booklet credits "One Eyed Sam" to Spurlin and George Dumas, "Heart Throb" to Jerry Reed and Spurlin, and "No Time For Heartaches" to Dumas. The "Hang Loose" on the CD is the original Perfect version, without the overdubbed drums.^[4] See also Spurlin records and recordings.