New Girl In Town

Wes Reynolds

New Girl In Town

The flip of "Tossin' & Turnin'", his last single for the Bismark label in 1964

Born in the Los Angeles suburb of Southgate, Reynolds returned with his parents to their native Oklahoma when he was 6, growing up in Oklahoma City. By his mid-teens, he'd made the acquaintance of Gene Sullivan, the "Gene" in Wiley and Gene, a famous country-music duet whose hits included "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again." Sullivan had settled in Oklahoma City, where he opened a recording studio that would become legendary.

"He'd made his fame by that time, and he had people like Jimmy Dean recording his songs," recalled Reynolds. "He took me under his wing, and by the time I was 16 or 17 years old, I had started playing sessions there.

"A guy named Bill Burden owned Rose Records, out of Stillwater, and at that time everybody was talking about how someday they were going to put a man on the moon. They had this big talent contest, and put me in it, and I didn't know it was rigged. I had no idea I was going to win. But they were looking for someone to market."

After he won, he signed a management contract with Burden. Promising to make him a star, Burden pulled the youngster aside and told him, "Now, I want you to go home and write a song called 'Trip to the Moon.'"

Even though he hadn't done much songwriting, Reynolds went home and did as he was asked. He was surprised when the subsequent record hit the national charts and began climbing. He was also surprised, albeit less pleasantly, to find the song carried Burden's name as sole writer.

But he didn't have a lot of time to think about that. He and his band the House Rockers headed out on the road in support of the disc, appearing on the same bill with such heavyweights as Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis and playing other venues on their own, where handbills advertising the shows would be dropped from planes.