Hank Thompson
September 3, 1925 – November 6, 2007
Hank Thompson was a honky tonk and western swing band leader who, over a career that spanned an amazing 60+ years, sold more than 60 million albums. After his discharge from the Navy during WWII, Thompson decided to pursue a career making music. In 1952, he released his first #1 hit, “The Wild Side of Life.” The song sat at the top of the country charts for 15 weeks and has been covered by the likes of Waylon Jennings & Jessi Colter, Rod Stewart, Status Quo, Merle Haggard and Hank Williams. In 2000, he released a song entitled “Seven Decades,” a testament to the fact that he made records from the ’40s through the 2000s.” In October of 2007, Thompson was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer. He was 82 when he died of the disease just a couple of weeks later. His final concert had been just a month prior to that.
What You Should Own
