1958 song, “Cotton Pickin’ Rocker.” Like his bandmates, he was a graduate of Cowpens High School.


The earliest incarnation of The Sparkletones also included a female member named Sandra Vess but she was not part of the lineup that achieved international acclaim.


they just sparkled because he always seemed so upbeat and positive.” The Sparkletones even influenced a young


Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who, under the name Tom & Jerry, originally recorded music that was similar in spirit to that of the Spartan- burg natives. As Simon & Garfunkel, they sang a snippet of “Black Slacks” during a 1969 perform- ance at New York’s Carnegie Hall, which was first released on the legendary folk-pop duo’s 1997 box set, “Old Friends.”


The Sparkletones’ lineup of Childress,


Bennett, Arthur and Denton last performed to- gether in 2011 when the group appeared at Viva Las Vegas, an internationally recognized conven- tion that’s billed as “the biggest rockabilly party in the world.” The Sparkletones also did reunion shows in England in the early- to mid-2000s. Although Childress spent more than four


The Sparkletones’ meteoric rise to fame


began in January 1957 when a CBS talent scout named Bob Cox came through Spartanburg to au- dition young performers for the television net- work. A talent competition was held at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, and The Sparkletones took first prize, which was an ap- pearance on the “Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour.”


Cox was so impressed with the four


teenage musicians that he resigned his position at CBS to become their manager. Soon, Childress and his bandmates, who had never been out of their home state before, were on a plane to New York and signed to the ABC-Paramount record label.


“These guys were rock stars even before


Marshall Tucker came to town,” said Chesnee- based musician and producer Tim Lawter, a for- mer member of the Marshall Tucker Band, who were also from Spartanburg. “Those cats were ‘bad.’ These fellows were playing rockabilly, and that was like speed metal back in those days… And you get your picture made with Elvis Presley, I mean, that’s pretty big.” On a personal note, Lawter described Chil-


dress as having “the most crystal blue eyes I’ve ever seen on a human being.” Lawter added, “And


decades working for the Spartanburg-based Mil- liken and Company, he never lost his enthusiasm for music. As recently as the last year or two, he could be found playing at open pickin’ sessions at such venues as the Chesnee Opry House. Childress also performed in bands with his


older brother, Billy, who died in 1975. They played together in a pre-Sparkletones group called The Volts and a post-Sparkletones outfit billed as Howard Childress & the Clefs. Childress was a close friend to such Spar-


tanburg music icons as the late guitarist Hank Garland and the late banjo player Bobby Thomp- son, who became A-list session instrumentalists in Nashville. Childress’ last onstage public appearance


was earlier this year at the Chapman Cultural Center in Spartanburg, where he, Arthur, Denton and Randall Lark, who took over for Bennett in The Sparkletones, accompanied Greer-based singer-guitarist Brandon Turner at the sold-out release show for “There Goes the Neighborhood,” an album featuring local musicians performing songs written by Spartanburg native Randy Fos- ter.


“Howard, for some reason, kind of took a


liking to me,” said Turner, who first met Chil- dress in the late 1990s. “Sometimes, he’d just call me out of the blue and say, ‘hey, how you doing?’ or ‘where are you playing?’ He was just a gen-


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91