Floyd Cramer (October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997) was an American

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

who became famous for his use of melodic "half step" attacks. He was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His signature playing style was a cornerstone of the pop-oriented "Nashville sound" of the 1950s and 1960s. Cramer's "slip-note" or "bent-note" style, in which a passing note slides almost instantly into or away from a chordal note, influenced a generation of pianists. His sound became popular to the degree that he stepped out of his role as a sideman and began touring as a solo act. In 1960, his piano instrumental solo, " Last Date" went to number two on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...

chart and sold over one million copies. Its follow-up, " On the Rebound", topped the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in 1961. As a studio musician, he became one of a cadre of elite players dubbed the Nashville A-Team and he performed on scores of

hit records Hit Records was a record company based in Nashville, Tennessee, which specialized in sound-alike cover versions of hit records. These types of releases are often categorized as exploito. Background It was run by entrepreneurs Bill Beasley an ...

Biography

Cramer was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and grew up in the small town of

Huttig, Arkansas Huttig is a city in Union County, Arkansas, Union County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 597 at the United States Census 2010, 2010 census. Geography Huttig is located at (33.038999, -92.183797). According to the United States Censu ...

. He taught himself to play the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

. After finishing high school, he returned to Shreveport, where he worked as a pianist for the radio show ''

Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the ...

''. After

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

performed on ''Louisiana Hayride'' in 1955, he hired his own band which included Cramer, Jimmy Day,

Scotty Moore Winfield Scott Moore III (December 27, 1931 – June 28, 2016) was an American guitarist who formed The Blue Moon Boys in 1954, Elvis Presley's backing band. He was studio and touring guitarist for Presley between 1954 and 1968. Rock critic ...

, Bill Black, and D.J. Fontana. This group remained his supporting band for much of that year; however, when Presley asked them to relocate to Hollywood, Cramer and Day declined to follow him there, preferring to remain in Nashville to pursue independent careers as studio musicians. In Nashville, Cramer found that piano accompaniment in

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

was growing in popularity. By the next year he was, in his words, "in day and night doing session". Before long, he was one of the busiest studio musicians in the industry, playing piano for stars such as

Brenda Lee Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944), known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Performing rockabilly, pop and country music, she had 47 US chart hits during the 1960s and is ranked fourth in that decade, surpassed onl ...

Patsy Cline Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, Patrice, or Patricia). Among I ...

, the Browns,

Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentleman ...

Eddy Arnold Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the ''Billboard'' cou ...

, Roy Orbison,

Don Gibson Donald Eugene Gibson (April 3, 1928 – November 17, 2003) was an American songwriter and country musician. A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Gibson wrote such country standards as " Sweet Dreams" and "I Can't Stop Loving You", and enjoy ...

, and the

Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 193 ...

, among others. It was Cramer's piano playing, for instance, on Presley's first RCA Victor single, "

Heartbreak Hotel "Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with credit being ...

". While Cramer was well-established as a session player, he had a long career as a solo performer with dozens of his own albums and singles, including some Top 40 instrumental hits. Cramer had released records under his own name since the early 1950s and became well known following the release of " Last Date", a 45-rpm single, released by RCA Victor in 1960."Last Date" is the closing theme of

Ray Hadley Raymond Morris Hadley OAM (born 27 September 1954) is an Australian talkback radio broadcaster and a rugby league football commentator for Channel Nine. He presents 2GB Sydney's Monday to Friday morning show, and leads the Continuous Call T ...

's radio show on Sydney's radio station 2GB. The instrumental piece exhibited a relatively new concept in piano playing known as the "slip note" style. The record went to number two on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. The song was kept out of the number 1 position by Elvis Presley's " Are You Lonesome Tonight". The session pianist for Elvis's recording of that #1 song, in a very early morning session (about 4:00 AM) at RCA Studio B in Nashville, was none other than Floyd Cramer himself. In 1961, Cramer had a hit with " On the Rebound", which went to number 4, and number 1 on the

. ("On the Rebound" was featured during the opening credits of the 2009

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

-nominated film ''

An Education ''An Education'' is a 2009 coming-of-age drama film based on a memoir of the same name by British journalist Lynn Barber. The film was directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby. It stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a bright school ...

'', which was set in England in 1961.) Also in 1961, Cramer had a hit with " San Antonio Rose" (number 8). By the mid-1960s, Cramer had become a respected performer, making numerous albums and touring with guitar maestro

Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as "Mr. Guitar" and "The Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music ...

and

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ...

Boots Randolph Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III (June 3, 1927 – July 3, 2007) was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit "Yakety Sax" (which became Benny Hill's signature tune). Randolph was a major part of the "Nashville sound" for most o ...

, sometimes headlining and sometimes as the opening act for

. Cramer also performed with them as a member of the Million Dollar Band. Cramer died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

on New Year's Eve, 1997 at the age of 64. He was interred in the Spring Hill Cemetery in the Nashville suburb of Madison, Tennessee.

Legacy

Cramer’s grandson, Jason Coleman, followed in his footsteps taking up the piano, performing with him on television and in concert at a young age. At age 17, he played " Please Help Me, I'm Falling", the first song to feature Cramer's signature slip notes, with

Hank Locklin Hank Locklin (born Lawrence Hankins Locklin; February 15, 1918 – March 8, 2009) was an American country music singer-songwriter. He had 70 chart singles, including two number one hits on ''Billboard''s country chart. His biggest hits included ...

at the Grand Ole Opry, and two years later played piano for the Medallion Ceremony at Cramer's induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He carries on his grandfather's legacy with recordings and a touring tribute concert, The Piano Magic of Floyd Cramer, sharing the piano arrangements and story of Cramer's contributions to American music.

Awards

In 2003, Cramer was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, his recording of "Last Date" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, established to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. In 2008 Cramer was inducted into the

Louisiana Music Hall of Fame The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame (LMHOF) is a non-profit hall of fame based in Baton Rouge, the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana, that seeks to honor and preserve the state's music culture and heritage and to promote education about the state ...

East Tennessee State University East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. Although it is part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee, the university is governed by an institutional Board of Tr ...

, in

Johnson City, Tennessee Johnson City is a city in Washington, Carter, and Sullivan counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, mostly in Washington County. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 71,046, making it the eighth largest city in Tennessee. Joh ...

, offers the Floyd Cramer Competitive Scholarship.

Discography

Albums

Singles

*^A"Dallas", a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the theme to the popular TV series, peaked at No. 8 on the '' RPM'' Country Tracks chart in Canada.

References

Other sources

* Escott, Colin (1998), "Floyd Cramer". In Paul Kingsbury (ed.), ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music'', New York: Oxford University Press., pp. 117–18.

External links

Rockhall.com

*
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
*
Floyd Cramer recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
Jason Coleman, grandson of Floyd Cramer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cramer, Floyd 1933 births 1997 deaths American country pianists American male pianists American country singer-songwriters Abbott Records artists RCA Victor artists Musicians from Shreveport, Louisiana People from Union County, Arkansas Deaths from lung cancer Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Members of the Country Music Association Deaths from cancer in Arkansas Million Dollar Band (country music group) members Burials in Tennessee 20th-century American singers 20th-century American pianists Singer-songwriters from Louisiana Singer-songwriters from Arkansas Country musicians from Louisiana Country musicians from Arkansas Easy listening musicians 20th-century American male musicians American male singer-songwriters