Biography
# Tommy Tucker (Robert Higginbotham, March 5, 1933 – January 22, 1982) was an American blues singer-songwriter and pianist. He is best known for the 1964 hit song, "Hi-Heel Sneakers", that went to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and peaked at #23 in the UK Singles Chart.
## Tommy Tucker (Gerald L. Duppler May 18, 1903 - July 11, 1989) was an American, swing jazz, big bandleader.
# Tommy Tucker was born Robert Higginbotham, to Leroy and Mary Higginbotham, the fifth of eleven children, in Springfield, Ohio.
Tucker's "Hi-Heel Sneakers" follow-up release, "Long Tall Shorty", was less successful. Nevertheless, musicians that played on his albums included Louisiana Red, Willie Dixon and Donny Hathaway.
Tucker co-wrote a song with Atlantic Records founder executive Ahmet Ertegün, called "My Girl (I Really Love Her So)". Tucker left the music industry in the late 1960s, taking a position as a real estate agent in New Jersey. He also did freelance writing for a local newspaper in East Orange, New Jersey, writing of the plight and ignorance of black males in America, and the gullibility and exploitation of African Americans in general by the white-dominated media. Tucker currently has four albums selling in Europe and over the internet, through the Red Lightnin' record label.
Tucker was the father of up-and-coming blues artist Teeny Tucker (real name Regina Westbrook), and was the cousin of Joan Higginbotham, the U.S. female astronaut who launched in November 2006 on the Space Shuttle Discovery.
He was also friends with Davey Moore, the featherweight who died following a boxing contest with Sugar Ramos; and Johnny Lytle, the renowned vibraphonist.
Tucker died in 1982 at the age of 48 at College Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, from inhaling carbon tetrachloride while refinishing the hardwood floors of his home; though his death has been alternatively attributed to food poisoning.
## Tommy Tucker (born Gerald L. Duppler in Souris, ND, May 18, 1903 - July 11, 1989) was an American swing jazz big bandleader.
The Tommy Tucker Orchestra entertained many listeners as a big band in the 30s and 40s. Popular as a dance band, the Tucker orchestra played concert halls, theatres, hotels and various venues across the country—for a span of 25 years. Recorded for Okeh in June 1941, his biggest hit, I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire, achieved status as a Gold Record. Tucker wrote his own theme song, I Love You (Oh, How I Love You); it was published on four record labels, including Brunswick, in 1935, and MGM, in 1951.
Many listeners were familiar with the Tucker orchestra sound because they tuned into popular radio shows, such as Fibber McGee & Molly in 1936 and the George Jessel show in 1938, and several shows billed as Tommy Tucker Time.
Tommy Tucker opened each performance—on radio or live—with his signature "tic-toc, tic-toc, it's Tommy Tucker time." And he usually ended each session with Time to Go.
Tucker received a Bachelor of Arts at the University of North Dakota in 1924, majored in Music and was recognized as Phi Betta Kappa.
Shortly after college, Tucker organized a small band and played at a fairground pavilion in Minot, ND. They played at the Breen Hotel in St. Cloud, MN that winter, and then in the summer of 1926 they played at a popular resort in Detriot, MN—The Pettibone Lodge.
The group began to travel and landed in California. His first recordings were with Crown Records in 1933, and recorded under the name Tommy Tucker and His Californians. He used the name Tommy Tucker and His Orchestra for his next recordings for Brunswick in 1935. With Columbia records dominant, Tucker recorded over one thousand sides for over 10 record companies.
Then the band first toured the country, Tucker devised his own marketing approach. When he planned a route, Tucker would send telegraph messages to various towns announcing that he was traveling through the area, and asked if the proprietor of a venue would like to book him. Later in the early thirties, Joe Galkin became the orchestra's official manager who planned all bookings and arrangements for travel.
The Tommy Tucker Orchestra played at the Berkeley-Carteret Hotel in Asbury Park and the Strand Theatre in New York City; the Adams in Newark, NJ; the Earle in Philadelphia; the Oriental in Chicago, and the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC—to name a few. Television shows that Tucker appeared on include The Kate Smith Show, Cavalcade of Bands, Arthur Murray House Party, and Strike It Rich.
The musicians associated with Tucker's band included the pianist Hal Dennis, five saxes including Mac Becker, Roy Underwood, Milton Brodus, Gordon Reanly, Al Little and Gerry Mulligan, clarinetist Clarence Hutchinrider, and trumpeters Carlyle Hall (Sr), Danny Davis, and Clarence Zylman. One of his long time Trumpeters was Carlton "Buster" Brown who player first chair. Vocalists include Amy Arnell, Clare Nelson, Madeline Russell, Kerwin Somerville, Don Brown, Peter Hanley and the Three Two-Timers, reinforcing the clock theme. Eydie Gorme sang with the band when Tucker settled on the east coast near Asbury Park. Over the years, many songs recorded were written by Irving Berlin.
When Tucker retired from the band business, he became a professor emeritus in music at Monmouth College in West Long Branch, New Jersey, close to his home in West Allenhurst. He conducted the school's concert band and taught classes for the school's degree programs in music and music education. After twenty years as an educator, he retired to Florida in 1979. Tommy died on July 11, 1989. Remembered as a "sweet sound" and appreciated as "swing", critiques note that his charts can contrast "exotic effects with jazz-time passages".
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