Boyd Bennett

Boyd Bennett (b. Muscle Shoals, Alabama, December 7, 1924 – d. Sarasota, Florida, June 2, 2002) – Singer, songwriter, and disc jockey. An early rock-n-roll pioneer, Boyd Bennett is included here because he was the owner of Indianapolis’s nightclub The Thunderbird in Fountain Square, starting in the late 1950s, and was possibly an Indy resident for a short time. (As a side note, Indy legend Mary Moss sang her first gig with Body Bennett at the Thunderbird.) Nevertheless, he was born in Alabama and started his career in Tennessee. In 1955 on Cincinnati’s King Records, Boyd Bennett and the Rockets waxed two early rock-n-roll hits—“Seventeen” (#5 on the Billboard chart) and “My Boy, Flat Top” (#39). A member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, Bennett never repeated his commercial success of 1955, but he made several recordings and performed with many giants of various genres. In fact, his band opened for twenty-seven of Bob Hope’s Arthritis Telethons. In the late 1950s, his band included a second singer (Big Moe) and saxophonist Boots Randolph. Seemingly, a major problem in Boyd’s career was identity. More specifically, Columbia Records dropped him prior to his signing with King Records, because they could not decide on whether to market him as a country singer or pop singer. Likewise, country audiences have not embraced him because his style was too akin to Rock-n-Roll. Lastly, his band was accused of imitating Bill Haley and the Comets; however, Bennett contended that it was the other way around.