Denver Darling (born

Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to: Australia * Cumberland County, New South Wales * the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia Canada *Cumberland County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Cumberland, historic county *Cumberl ...

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, April 6, 1909; died Jewett, Illinois, April 27, 1981) was an American country music performer and songwriter. He is best known for his patriotic songs of the World War II era and for his writing credit on

Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the King ...

Choo Choo Ch'Boogie "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" is a popular song written by Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, and Milt Gabler. The song was recorded in January 1946 by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five and released by Decca Records. It topped the R&B charts for 18 weeks f ...

Early life

Darling was the son of farmer Luel Darling (1872-1955) and Nora (Jones) Wellbaum (1878-1959). He had two half-siblings, Iva M. Wellbaum Kuhn (1897-1988) and Oscar Luther Wellbaum (1902-1992). He was raised in the small town of Jewett. He learned to play the guitar and developed a repertoire of "hillbilly" music. Darling's career in music started while he was attending a

Citizens' Military Training Camp Citizens' Military Training Camps (CMTC) were United States government authorized military training programs held annually each summer during the years 1921 to 1940. CMTC camps differed from National Guard and Organized Reserve training in that t ...

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; impressed with his skills, his commanding officer got him on air on local radio station

KMOX KMOX (1120 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, owned by Audacy, Inc. The station is a 50,000 watt List of North American broadcast station classes, Class A clear-channel station with a omnidirectional ante ...

. After the training camp was over, Darling pursued a career in radio, with his first regular gig being in 1929 on

WBOW WBOW (102.7 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a classic hits format. Licensed to Terre Haute, Indiana, it serves the Terre Haute metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1961 under the call sign WPFR. The station is owned by Due ...

in nearby

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. While there he met his future wife, Garnett Tucker, and married her in 1931 - reputedly to the disappointment of another WBOW regular,

Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American Folk music, folk singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his o ...

Radio and live performances

Darling moved from station to station over the next few years, working at WSBT in

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, Indiana, WDZ in Tuscola, Illinois (where he sang with a young

Smiley Burnette Lester Alvin Burnett (March 18, 1911 – February 16, 1967), better known as Smiley Burnette, was an American country music performer and a comedic actor in Western films and on radio and TV, playing sidekick to Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and ...

), and (by 1936) at KDKA in

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, backing

Glenn Riggs Glenn Everett Riggs (July 24, 1907 – September 12, 1975) was an American radio announcer. Early years Riggs was the youngest of two children born to parents Edwin E. (April 15, 1874–August 1, 1968) and Pearl Riggs on July 24, 1907 in E ...

. In September 1937 he was appearing on

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, Pennsylvania when he got his break and started appearing at The Village Barn, one of the first country music clubs in New York City, and making appearances on WOR. Darling soon became an emcee at The Village Barn. Darling had regular shows on WOR and the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Golden Age of Radio, ...

for periods of time in 1938, 1941, and 1945. Darling also played live shows when not doing radio work. His performance at the Clef Music Awards ceremony on September 28, 1945, was the first time a country musician had played in

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

Recording career

In November 1941 Darling started recording radio programs for broadcast elsewhere in the country for the

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transcription service; they were released under the name "Denver Darling and His Texas Cowhands"; the "Cowhands" included

Vaughn Horton George Vaughn Horton (June 5, 1911 – February 29, 1988) was an American songwriter and performer. Usually credited as "Vaughn Horton" or "George Vaughn," he wrote or contributed to the success of several popular songs, including "''Choo Choo Ch' ...

on steel guitar and bass and the producer was

Milt Gabler Milton Gabler (May 20, 1911 – July 20, 2001) was an American record producer, responsible for many innovations in the recording industry of the 20th century. These included being the first person to deal in record reissues, the first to sel ...

. On December 22, fifteen days after the attack on

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, the group recorded "Cowards Over Pearl Harbor", written by songwriter Fred Rose; the song was rushed out by

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

and was popular as one of the first songs to respond to the event. In February 1942 the group followed up with a number of patriotic numbers including "We're Gonna Have to Slap the Dirty Little Jap (And Uncle Sam's the Guy Who Can Do It)" by the prolific Bob Miller. The patriotic songs were well known, but the group's most popular tune of the year was recorded in July 1942: "Modern Cannonball", an update of a

Carter Family The Carter Family was an American folk music group that recorded and performed between 1927 and 1956. Regarded as one of the most important music acts of the early 20th century, they had a profound influence on the development of bluegrass, c ...

tune; it reached #2 on the "Hillbilly" music chart. In 1942 Darling also recorded several "

Soundie A soundie is a three-minute American film displaying both the audio and video of a musical performance. Over 1,850 soundies were produced between 1940 and 1946, regarded today as "precursors to music videos". Soundies exhibited a variety of mu ...

s" for Minoco, a division of the

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, manufacturer of the

Panoram The Panoram is a coin-operated jukebox produced by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago that played short musical films known as soundies, historic precursors to the modern music video. Reaching their greatest popularity in the United States ...

machines that the soundies played on. Darling's last vinyl recording session was in November 1947, with guitarist

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and producer Fred Rose in Nashville.

Songwriting

Darling had some brief success as a songwriter, mostly with veteran writer Vaughn Horton. They first collaborated on a patriotic song of 1942, "Care of Uncle Sam", a B-side for Darling. In 1945 Darling, Horton, and

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...

wrote "Don't Hang Around Me Anymore" and Autry's rendition went to #4 on the country charts. Late in that year Darling, Horton, and producer

penned "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie"; Louis Jordan's version was a #1 R&B hit and #7 on the pop charts. It has been recorded many times, charting again for

Asleep at the Wheel Asleep at the Wheel is an American country music, Western swing music group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, in 1970, and is based in Austin, Texas. The band has won nine Grammy Awards, released over 20 albums, and has charted more t ...

in 1974. Darling's only solo hit as a songwriter was "Silver Hair, Purple Sage, Eyes of Blue"; it was sung by

Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), nicknamed the King of the Cowboys, was an American singer, actor, television host, and Rodeo, rodeo performer. Following early work under his given name, first as a c ...

in the movie

Heldorado '' Heldorado '' is a 1946 American Western film starring Roy Rogers set during the annual Helldorado Days celebrations in Las Vegas. It was the last teaming of Roy and comedy relief sidekick Gabby Hayes. Hayes shares a scene with Pat Brady ...

, released in December 1946, and released on a single by

Cliffie Stone Clifford Gilpin Snyder (March 1, 1917 – January 17, 1998), professionally Cliffie Stone, was an American country singer, musician, record producer, music publisher, and radio and TV personality who was pivotal in the development of Californi ...

in early 1947, reaching #4 on the country charts.

Later life

Darling had always wanted to return home to Illinois. After World War II he developed problems with his voice that made it difficult to sing; towards the end of 1947 Darling returned to his home town of Jewett, Illinois and became a farmer. He reportedly continued to write songs, but without national success."Denver Darling", Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary, Richard Carlin, Routledge, 2014, p. 92 Denver and Garnett Darling had three children: Ronald Luel Darling (1934-2001), Susan Jill (Darling) Ives (1940-2012), and Timothy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darling, Denver 1909 births 1981 deaths People from Cumberland County, Illinois Musicians from Illinois Songwriters from Illinois MGM Records artists Decca Records artists 20th-century American songwriters