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AN EAST
TEXAS SONGWRITER
Ted
Daffan
by Bob
Bowman |
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Remember the
old country song, "Born to Lose?"
The sad tale of a luckless lover, the song was introduced in 1942,
but it wasn¹t until 1962, when Ray Charles recorded the song, that
it soared to the top of the music charts as a million dollar hit with
these words:
Born to lose, I've lived my life in vain
Every dream has only brought me pain
All my life, I've always been so blue
Born to lose and now I'm losing you
The song also became a part of America¹s vocabulary -- the synonym
for hard luck. Even Frank & Ernie used in a famous cartoon where St.
Peter asks a newcomer to Heaven, "Is it true that in a previous
life you were a French painter?" The newcomer¹s reply: "Yes,
I was born Toulose."
The original composer of the old standard, East Texan Ted Daffan,
has been forgotten by most country music fans, but he was anything
but a flash in the pan.
Daffan, who lived in Lufkin, was a band leader, a musician, a singer,
a recording artist and a songwriter. His career spanned more than
40 years and he continued to publish songs until his death in his
eighties.
Daffan played steel guitar with bands in the Houston area before starting
his own band, Ted Daffan and His Texans. As a band leader, he pioneered
the use of the steel guitar as a lead instrument and in solos, a departure
from the traditional fiddle sounds used by most country bands. Daffan's
clean, distinctive sound -- which combined blues and swing -- and
his songs influenced artists for years to come.
Like "Born to Lose," a number of Daffan songs were recorded
by other artists. Among them were Ray Charles, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald,
Bob Willis, Fats Domino, Rosemary Clooney, Ringo Starr and Elton John.
In 1943, Daffan's "No Letter Today" topped the charts and
competed with the Mills Brothers' "Paper Doll," Frank Sinatra's
"It¹s Always You," and a song by fellow East Texan Al Dexter,
"Pistol Packing Momma."
Other Daffan hits were "Worried Mind" in 1940, "I¹ve
Got Five Dollars and It¹s Saturday Night" in 1950, and "I'm
A Fool to Care" in 1954.
One of Daffan's biggest hits, "Truck Drivers' Blues," was
written when he stopped at a roadside diner and made a prophetic observation.
While chowing down, he noticed that every time a trucker parked his
rig and strolled into the cafe, the first thing he did, even before
ordering a cup of coffee, was push a coin in the jukebox.
It occurred to him that if he could write a song for those drivers,
their nickels might make him rich and famous.
He went home and wrote a song recorded by western swing artist Cliff
Bruner in 1939. It sold more than 100,000 copies -- which was a smash
hit in the thirties -- and went on to become a part of James Jones'
best-selling novel,"From Here to Eternity."
In 1949, Daffan received a rare gold record for his own recording
of "Born to Lose" and a platinum disk in 1982 for Ray Charles'
recording of the same song.
Before his 1996 death in Houston, Daffan was honored by the Academy
of Country Music Hall of Fame, the Texas Swing Music Hall of Fame,
the Western Swing Society, the Texas Steel Guitar Association, the
State of Louisiana, and the Nashville Songwriters Association.
But one of Daffan¹s most unusual honors came in 1981 when the upper-crust
Smithsonian Institute included Daffan¹s music in an anthology of 50
years of American country music.
By now, Daffan¹s old forties hit, "Born to Lose," was anything
but the hymn of a loser. |
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