Sid King and the Five Strings

At concerts the Ranch Girls have been singing many of their songs. Then, in 1992, the Ragtime Wranglers backed up Sid and Billy King on several shows in Germany.

Sid King and the Five Strings recorded for Columbia and Dot, but they started out as "The Western Melody Makers", playing small clubs in Texas and recorded 6 songs for Starday in 1953.

In 1954 the band was signed by Columbia and recorded classics like "Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight" and "Sag, Drag and Fall".

The picture on the right shows Sid King and the Five Strings in the fifties.

In this period they toured various parts of the U.S.A. and Canada. They were voted as being "one of the best showbands" in Billboard in 1956.

By early 1958 Sid had acquired a club in Conrow Texas and his own t.v. show in Houston.

A year later they recorded a few songs for Dot-records.

In 1962 Sid King had a number one hit in Oklahoma City: "Once Upon a Time". It ended in the top ten in Chicago and New Orleans.

On the left: Ken Massey, Sid King, Dave White, Billy King and Mel Robinson in 1955.

If you want to enjoy their recordings you can find some excellent reissues on Rollercoaster records or Bear Family records.

In 1997 Joe interviewed Sid King on Radio Rijnmond 93,4 FM. A part of the interview is printed out on this website.

Yes, we played at Camden Town Hall last Saturday night. We had a great show. There was lots of people there, we were really pleased. That was our first time to play London in about ten years. Pretty exciting for us to get back. I like London real well and England.

We'll go to Oslo Norway and do two more shows in Sweden. We've been here a whole month this tour and our very first date was right here in Amsterdam, had a great time and a good crowd. This is our third time we play in Amsterdam. In 1995 we were at the D-day Rock and Roll festival and last year 1996 we were at the Paradiso. This year we played at the Cruise Inn. Always have a great time in Amsterdam. We like it here real well too.

You've been living in Texas. Can you tell us something about Texas in the fifties?

Right. We're from Denton Texas, that's about 4 miles north of Dallas. Right now these days we live in Dallas. There was lots of music going on. We were doing quite a lot o.fs shows. Rock and Roll had just been born, so it was a pretty exciting time as we look back.

We met a lot of the different ones, southern guys, like Buddy Holly. We used to go out to Lubbock Texas. We played the Cotton Club out there. The guy that booked us, Hi-pocket Duncan, the D.J. out there, was also Buddy Holly's manager. So that's how we met Buddy Holly. And we were good friends. We still know The Crickets and see them occasionally, even today. And we also worked shows with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley and many, many more.

Yes we did most of our work for Columbia. Our first record was on Starday: "Who Put the Turtle In Myrtle's Girdle" with "If Tears Could Cry" on the flipside. We had a couple of other things but that was never released. Then we went to Columbia Records. We were there for, like, five years.

Right. And then, about 1965, we stayed out of it, had stayed out of it for about ten years. And then they had the resurgence of the rock-a-billy. It started in the U.K. and kinda spread everywhere. So, that sorta got us back in doin' it again. So it's great, we really enjoy it this time around. We have great fans, we appreciate them.

Yeah, the rock-a-billy and early rock and roll is doing better now than it's ever done since the fifties. They're having shows like you've been doing in Europe for a long time. They have the Denver show, San Fransisco and the Viva Las Vegas weekender. So there's really a lot more going on than there was.

Well, Sid, thanks for the interview. Please give my best regards to Billy King. Lots of success for the rest of your tour.