Ray Campi

All Music Guide:

Rockabilly wildman Ray Campi recorded several classic singles during the music's prime era, and later staged a comeback that earned him a substantial cult audience over the '70s and '80s. Campi was born in New York in 1934 and moved with his family to Austin, TX, at age ten. He started listening to country music, learned the guitar, and formed his first band in high school, which played on local radio stations. Campi made his first recordings in 1951, but it wasn't until 1956, when he cut the single "Caterpillar" b/w "Play It Cool" for the small TNT label, that any of them were released. He went on to record for Domino ("Screamin' Mimi") and Dot ("The Ballad of Donna & Peggy Sue"), and moved to Los Angeles in 1959, where he signed with Colpix and recorded "Hear What I Wanna Hear." During the early '60s, Campi lived in New York and spent two and a half years as a staff writer at Aaron Schroeder's publishing firm, but was never allowed to record any of the songs he'd written. He returned to Austin in 1967 and recorded "Civil Disobedience" for the Sonobeat label, but nothing came of it, and he settled in Los Angeles and became a junior-high school teacher. Around 1973, Campi hooked up with Ronny Weiser's revivalist Rollin' Rock label and started making new recordings in the classic, high-energy rockabilly style. A steady stream of albums followed into the '80s, which also brought a couple of sets for Rounder, 1980's Rockin' at the Ritz and 1986's Gone, Gone, Gone!. Campi continued to record into the new millennium, releasing occasional albums on his own label.

Wikipedia:

Ray Campi (born April 20, 1934 in Yonkers, New York) is a distinguished musician often called The King of Rockabilly. Campi's trademark is his white double bass, which he often jumps on top of and "rides" while playing.

After his family moved to Austin, Texas in 1944, Campi began a lifetime of performing and recording music in numerous American genres, including folk, country, and rock and roll as well as rockabilly. Early on he recorded on Domino Records He rarely concentrated on his musical career exclusively, working a wide variety of jobs, notably twenty-five years spent as a high-school teacher in Van Nuys, California. His career never really took off until the early 1970s when he was rediscovered by Ronnie Weiser, the owner of Rollin' Rock Records. Campi began touring Great Britain and Europe and has regularly played festivals there ever since. Though now in his seventies, he remains a dynamic performer. He has also recorded with German, Finnish, British and Dutch rockabilly bands over the past two decades, and has produced his own albums with artists such as Rosie Flores, Bobby 'Fats' Mizell and Ian Whitcomb.

Ray continues to gig and record with his longtime Rockabilly Rebels band consisting of Kevin Fennell (his lead Guitarist since 1977), Rip Masters on piano for 30 years, Pep Torres on rhythm guitar and DJ Bonebrake on drums.

In the 1950s Ray Campi recorded for several labels, including Dot Records, and recorded the first tribute record to the 1959 Buddy Holly plane crash, 'The Ballad of Donna and Peggy Sue', backed by the Big Bopper's band. He also worked with many of the most prominent pioneers of rock and roll music, including Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and Gene Vincent. He has fiercely criticized the mainstream music industry, in particular its connections with drug culture.

Ray Campi is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Early Discography

Many of Ray Campi's earliest 1950s recordings weren't issued until the 1980s and 1990s, mostly on European albums. But the following were issued on 45-rpm and, in some cases, 78-rpm. "Caterpillar" was considered his most popular record until his revival in the 1970s.