Major Works
Bobby Joe Swilley and Andy Anderson.
Photo Courtesy of Swilley
Songs
- Johnny Valentine (Andy Anderson and the Rollin’ Stones)
- You Shake Me Up (Andy Anderson and the Rollin’ Stones)
- Tough, Tough, Tough (Andy Anderson and the Dawnbreakers)
Original Releases
- Feb. 3 , 1958
- Johnny Valentine
- I-I-I Love You
- May 18, 1959
- You Shake Me Up
- The Way She Smiled
- May, 1960
- Gimme Lock A Yo Hair
- Tough Tough Tough
- 1960/Oct.
- I’m Gonna Sit Right Down & Cry Over You
- Promise Me
- 1962 or later
- All By Myself
- Tall Oak Tree
- 1962/Mar. 10
- The Scoot
- Ol’ Man River [unissued]
- How Long, How True, ‘Til Then
- Please Forgive Me
- They Call It The Blues
- 1964 [unissued]
- I Missed A Lot In You
- Mustang Kid
- My Babe
- Stuck On You
- Tall Oak Tree [alt. vers.]
- Without Your Love
- 1965 [unissued]
- Big Game Hunter
- Sad Notes
- So Long, I’m Gone
- We Were Happy
- April 9, 2003,/li>
- You Shake Me Up (Label: Sunjay)
T.V. Shows
- Dick Clark’s American Bandstand
- Alan Freed Show
Andy Anderson: A Biography
by Chad Stowell (SHS)
Andy Anderson was born on a family-owned plantation in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1935, where he grew up listening to live Saturday afternoon shows by artists like Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker. In 1951 Andy’s mother, Elizabeth Anderson, suggested that Andy might be able to earn some money playing and singing guitar, so she bought him a guitar in Memphis. Listening to the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday night, Andy learned some of the songs, and Andy’s mother encouraged him. She herself played piano, sang and composed. Her death in 1953 ended Andy’s family encouragement in music. He also had a younger brother named Brooks. Throughout his life, Andy has always enjoyed rock and roll, and rhythm and blues. He has had many ups and downs in his career, but he has always found a way through (Brewer 158.)
Andy Anderson and the Rollin’ Stones formed in Starkville, Mississippi, in 1955. The members were Andy Anderson, Joe Tubb, “Cuz” Covington, Bobby Lyon, James Aldridge, and Roy Estes. Andy and all the other boys attended Mississippi State in Starkville, Mississippi. Andy had a great voice and a love for music, and Andy Anderson and the Rolling Stones quickly became popular in the Starkville area. Andy Anderson signed with Delta Records in 1965, and Delta distributed their hit song Johnny Valentine nationwide. They also went to Memphis to see Sam Phillips at Sun Records. There Andy and the “Rolling Stones” cut several records for Sun. While still attending Mississippi State, Andy and the Stones cut an album with Jack Clements as engineer at the old Madison Avenue Studio in Memphis. Unfortunately, the work was never released because of Sun’s financial position. Apollo records released some of their work in New York. “You shake me up” was extremely popular in the New York State area, and the Andersib and his band played on Dick Clark’s Bandstand and appeared on the Alan Freed show in Philadelphia.
In 1959, Andy got a phone call from his father telling to forget about rock and roll and to come home to work on the family plantation. Since Andy was obligated to take up his responsibilities at the plantation, Andy told the other guys he was going home. When Andy got home, his father told him that he had changed his mind and did not need him. Andy was furious at his father because he was now finished with the Rolling Stones. Later Andy moved to California to pursue an acting career (Rockabilly Hall of Fame). He also married there and divorced.
In 1968 Andy received another phone call from home saying his brother Brooks was terminally ill with cancer. Andy immediately moved home to take care of his brother. Andy’s brother Brooks died in 1969. In California, Anderson had started a business, and the IRS and Andy’s ex-wife were after him for court settlements. Anderson was forced to seek psychiatric help. He became secluded from the world, and according to Rockabilly Hall of Fame, no one could get to him. Finally, by the fall of 1975, Andy had negotiated final settlements with his wife and the IRS. In 1974, Andy was living in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. There he met J.J. Hettinger from Louisville, Kentucky, who was teaching in the Catholic High School in Biloxi. Andy once again turned to music as Hettinger was a talented and creative songwriter. Together they wrote songs they classified as progressive, folk-rock, blues. They wrote several commercial songs and cutting tracks at Malaco Studios in Jackson, Mississipp,i under the name of “The Eagle and the Hawk”. On December 23, 1975, while visiting his cousin in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Andy met his future wife, Kay Norcom.
In April of 1976, Andy, Kay, and J.J. moved to Taos, New Mexico. Aerie Records, his new record label, was a new outlet for Andy and the Eagle and the Hawk. Andy got a real estate license and started developing and selling real estate to earn a living, while continuing to promote his music. However, on May 13th, 1976, Andy got his middle finger of his left hand cut off by a hydraulic lift just two days before his forty-first birthday. He became depressed and put up his guitar. Hettinger moved back to Louisville.
In 1983, Andy once again began to play around a little bit on his guitar, and he started rehearsing with some other musicians in Taos. In August of 1987, Andy and his wife Kay moved back to Mississippi. Together Andy and Bobby Furman finished what Andy had left incomplete in Nashville; Andy got the master tapes back and finished them.
Timeline
- 1935-Andy is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi
- 1951-Andy buys first guitar for $37.50
- 1953-Elizabeth Anderson, Andy’s mother, died. Andy, Joe, and Cuz enroll at Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS
- 1955-The Rolling Stones was formed
- 1956-The Rolling Stones were offered a contract from Delta records
- 1957-Andy and the Rolling Stones graduated from Mississippi State
- 1957-Murray Nash and Associates in Nashville signed the Rolling Stones and re-recorded “Johnny Valentine” became a hit.
- 1959-Andy returns home to give up on music.
- 1965-Andy moves to California to pursue an acting career
- 1968-Andy receives a phone call from home saying his brother is terminally ill with cancer
- 1969-Andy’s younger brother Brooks Anderson dies
- 1972-Andy is forced to seek therapy in seclusion
- 1975-Andy started cutting tracks with J.J. Hettinger under the name “The Eagle and the Hawk”
- 1975-Andy meets his future wife Kay Norcom
- 1976-Andy lost the middle finger of his left hand in a hydraulic lift
- 1983-Andy started rehearsing with some local musicians in Taos, New Mexico
- 1987-Andy and Kay moved back to Mississippi
- 2003-April “You Shake Me Up” released by Sunjay
Related Websites
- Web Page for Andy Anderson and the Dawn Breakers provides a complete history to 2007 for Andy Anderson.
- Blackcat Rockabilly (a European site entitled Andy Anderson, Mississippi’s Main Stay)
- Excellent and complete biography of Anderson on Rockabilly Hall of Fame site.
- Original Rolling Stones to rock Old Capitol. The Clarion Ledger, 2015
Bibliography
- “Andy Anderson and the Rolling Stones”. Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Jackson, Mississippi: Rockabilly Hall of Fame. 2001.
- Brewer, James H. Ed. “Andy Anderson. Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. Brandon, Mississippi: Quail Ridge Press, 2001. 158.