This Day in History

"1932: Rockabilly singer Sleepy LaBeef born."

I expect I’m not the only one who read that and immediately needed to know more about Mr LaBeef.

Sleepy is 6’7’’ tall, comes from a place called Smackover (it’s in Arkansas) and grew up on a melon farm. After a brief stint as a gospel singer he started recording rockabilly and country songs; his biggest hits were Every Day and Blackland Farmer which reached #73 and #67 in the charts respectively.  In between records he found time to star in a horror movie called The Exotic Ones.*

Live performances are what Sleepy is really all about.  He began recording in 1957 and has been on the road more or less ever since, except for in 1977 when his bus caught fire. From his website: “he still performs two hundred shows a year and plays with such energy that people a third of his age are annihilated when they attempt to keep up with him.”


People seem to like him. The Detroit Metro Times says “He possesses one of the most distinctive and compelling baritone voices ever to be heard in rock”.  Someone else ( I forget who, and don't have time to check) described it as a voice which can rattle windows.  And from the Los Angeles Herald Examiner: “Some music cooks, LaBeef roasts."



*Also called The Monster and The Stripper. Sleepy played a swamp monster.