Who was/is Al Henderson ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
AL HENDERSON
A fixture in and around Louisville for years, Al Henderson was born in nearby Owensboro, Kentucky on November 18, 1937. He says that his East-West record was made in Nashville, and believes that it is his first. His co-writer, Ray Wilson, was a buddy from Owensboro. Wilson and another friend had an Everly Brothers-style act. "We were in a little enclave of our own there," says Henderson. It sounds very much like the Boyd Bennett Band backing Al on East-West, though, and Al sang with Boyd from around 1957 until 1963. "A buddy of mine, Bill Clark, was playing drums for Boyd," remembers Henderson. "Rock 'n' roll was coming in, and Boyd wasn't a real rock-type singer, so I started singing with him at a rock 'n' roll dance party show on Saturday afternoons in Evansville, Indiana.
I played a little guitar at that time, but when I was with Boyd, I only sang and emceed. We went on the road together, and then the local ABC-TV affiliate in Louisville, WLKY, gave us an after school show five nights a week. It was sponsored by a hamburger place called the Ranch House, and it was called the Ranch House Dance Party. Then we had a Friday night talk and music show with out-of-town guests, and guys like Muhammad Ali, who was from Louisville." Al Henderson's biggest hit came in 1963 with a song written by Louisvillian John F. Young, Jr., The Lemon Twist (Young, incidentally, also co-wrote Boyd Bennett's epic hit, Seventeen). "A local dairy, All Star Dairy, was introducing a new flavor, the Lemon Twist," remembered Henderson.
"So we named the song after that, and the Twist dance was coming in." The song hit WKLO's local chart, and inspired King Records' notoriously frugal Syd Nathan to spring for a picture sleeve. "By this point or soon after, Boyd had more or less retired," said Henderson. "I took over the band for several years. Then I stripped it down to the Al Henderson Combo. We worked supper clubs. I was at the Holiday Inn Lounge in Louisville for eight or nine years, and then Jim Porter's Tavern for maybe five years. Boyd and I had played the NCO and officers' clubs at Fort Knox, and I took over that gig. I retired in 1986, and went to Florida, where Boyd had gone. In fact, I was due to go fishing with him the day after he died. Then in 2000, I bought a motor home and just went traveling.
I come back to Louisville pretty often, and I go back to Fort Myers, Florida during the winter." Henderson's last records, as far as we can tell, were on Derbytown circa 1977 (Louisville's Churchill Downs hosts the annual Kentucky Derby horse race).
Copyright © Bear Family Records®. Copying, also of extracts, or any other form of reproduction, including the adaptation into electronic data bases and copying onto any data mediums, in English or in any other language is permissible only and exclusively with the written consent of Bear Family Records® GmbH.