Theron Eugene "Ted" Daffan (September 21, 1912 - October 6, 1996) was an American country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

ian noted for composing the seminal Truck Driver's Blues and the much covered Country anthem Born to Lose.

Early years

Daffan was born in Beauregard Parish, Louisiana

Beauregard Parish, Louisiana

Beauregard Parish [p] is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Beauregard Parish was formed on 1 January 1913. The parish seat is DeRidder. As of 2000, the population was 32,986. Beauregard Parish is part of the DeRidder Micropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Fort Polk...

. He lived in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 in the 1930s, working in an instrument repair shop in Houston.

Music career

In the late 1930s Western Swing

Western swing

Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...

 bandleader Milton Brown

Milton Brown

Milton Brown was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid, thus giving him the nickname, "Father of Western Swing"...

 convinced Daffin to start performing. Soon after he scored his first success as a songwriter with "Truck Drivin' Blues", one of the first truck-driving songs, a motif which would come to dominate country music for decades.

Truck Drivers' Blues

Daffan wrote the seminal "Truck Drivers' Blues" after he stopped at a roadside diner and noticed that every time a trucker parked his rig and strolled into the cafe, the first thing he did, even before ordering a cup of coffee, was push a coin in the jukebox. He decided to write a song to capture some of the truck drivers' nickels and make himself rich and famous. Recorded by western swing artist Cliff Bruner

Cliff Bruner

Cliff Bruner was a fiddler and bandleader of the western swing era of the 1930s. Bruner's music combined elements of traditional string band music, improvisation, blues, folk, and popular melodies of the times....

 (with Moon Mullican

Moon Mullican

Aubrey Wilson Mullican , known as Moon Mullican, was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. However, he also sang and played jazz, rock 'n' roll and the blues...

 on lead vocal) in 1939, the song sold more than 100,000 copies, the best-selling record of that year. It was later featured in James Jones' best-selling novel, "From Here to Eternity."

Other hits

Forming his own band, The Texans, Daffan scored a string of hits, including "Worried Mind", "Born to Lose", "Those Blue Eyes Are Not Shining Anymore", "She Goes The Other Way" and "No Letter Today". "Born to Lose" may have sold as many as 7 million copies.

Retirement and passing

Daffan left active performance in the 1960s, and founded a Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

-based publishing house with Hank Snow

Hank Snow

Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...

. He retired to Houston, but retained interests in the publishing business for a time. He died in 1996 in Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

Discography

Singles

• Conqueror 9697: Put Your Little Arms Around Me / I'm A Fool To Care (1940)
• Conqueror 9698: She Goes The Other Way / Gray Eyed Darling (1940)
• Conqueror 9699: Blue Steel Blues / Worried Mind (1940)
• Conqueror 9700: Rainy Day Blues / Let Her Go (1940)
• Conqueror 9701: I'm Sorry I Said Goodbye / I Told You So (1940)
• Okeh 5668: Worried Mind / Blue Steel Blues
• Okeh 5741: Crying The Blues Again / Where The Deep Waters Flow (1940)
• Okeh 6172: Because / Those Blue Eyes Don't Sparkle Anymore (1941)
• Okeh 6253: Weary, Worried And Blue / Too Late, Little Girl, Too Late (1941)
• Okeh 6504: I'll Travel Alone / I Lost My Sunshine (1941)
• Okeh 6542: Breakin' My Heart Over You / Car Hop's Blues (1941)
• Columbia 20077: Shut That Gate / Broken Vows (1946)
• Columbia 20103: Baby You Can't Get Me Down / You Better Change Your Ways Baby (1946)
• Columbia 20358: Long John / Lonesome Highway (1945)
• Columbia 20567: Flame Of Love / I'm That Kind Of Guy (1949)
• Columbia 20628: That's A Dad Blamed Lie / Take That Leash Off Of Me (1949)
• Columbia 20678: I've Got Five Dollars And It's Saturday Night / I'm Gonna Leave This Darned Old Town (1950)
• Columbia 20707: Ain't Got No Name Rag / Kiss Me Goodnight (1950)

Sources

• [ Ted Daffan] at Allmusic
• Online Discographical Project

External links