06 January 2014

Jeff Hughes, who recorded for Mel Tillis' obscure label?

Who was this Jeff Hughes who recorded a single for Mel Tillis' obscure label? And may have recorded more?

This record is the release on the label Tillis TI-1002:
"If I Had The Right" b/w "Sorrow's Tearing Down The House (That Happiness Once Built)" (sample).
The Tillis Recording Company must have been a label of Mel Tillis, who was the producer and composer (of the B side). I know of only 1 other release on this Tillis record label (Tillis 1001: Johnny Wiggins "It’s no surprise" / "I'm not gonna love you anymore", probably 1960 or 1961). I did not find any other Tillis' release, the label might have stopped after 2 efforts.
Mel Tillis' song on the B side is a May 1962 release by Stonewall Jackson. Hughes' version on the Tillis label may come from about the same time. Probably his version is the original. The song on the A-side was copyrighted in 1961, the (original?) version was on a Kitty Wells LP.
So, date of the release of Jeff Hughes' single may well be 1961/1962 as a source claims, based on the Columbia ZTSB-listing, corresponding end 1961/ begin 1962

Then there is another Country flavoured record release from 1962 from a Jeff Hughes on the Karen label:
"Our Space Man Did Come Back" (listen) b/w "I Should've Kept Moving", Karen 59 (May 1962).
Both sides are a Hughes composition, probably both written by Jeff Hughes himself, though BMI-files couple the A side to a June Hughes and the B to a Jess Hughes. But the Library of Congress copyrights are both by Jeff Hughes. Billboard mentions the release May 5 and gives both sides a 3-star rating ('moderate sales potential'). An eBay seller writes: "great rockabilly tribute to the historic outer space flights of astronaut John Glenn and the flip is a fine country bopper". The novelty song is chosen in a later years various artists compilation cd, "Out Of This World Flying Saucers", now titled "Our Space Man Came Back".

I don't know if these two records are by the same Jeff Hughes. For the time being, I suppose so.
They both seem to be from around 1962, when the Gettysburg Times write of a Jeff Hughes, "famous recording star", playing with the Southland Playboys. In 1963, newspapers mention the Jeff Hughes Band of York, PA. Same man?

Over the years, there are a couple of more songs  to be found composed by several Jeffrey Hughes'. But I doubt if they deal with the same Hughes who recorded that 45 for the Tillis label. And these days there's a Jeff(rey Paul) Hughes playing in a band called Chaparral.