Interesting quotes from the liner notes to "Spadella! The Essential Spade Cooley"
(Columbia Classics CK 57392):
"Coming to an end concurrent with the '40's was the 20-year heyday of the cowboy
movie. Also fading fast was the public's fascination with both singing cowboys and
highly arranged western swing bands. Spade reacted by bringing in horns and retooling
his 18-piece band into a slick, Freddy Martin-like entity. His label, RCA Victor,
reacted by kicking Cooley off the hillbilly roster and putting him in the pop lineup...
"Cooley signed with Decca in 1950. Now augmented by a string section, his band
swelled to 25 pieces. Their overwrought recordings bore little resemblance to the
spirited country swing of their earlier heyday...Worse yet, new shows such as that of
unhip upstart Lawrence Welk began attracting chunks of Spade's audience...
"After five years and no hits, Decca dropped Spade Cooley in 1955. The following year
his TV show was cancelled. The year after that Spade Cooley retired from show
business."
By the way, for a lurid account of his last years, see this URL (3D glasses
recommended):
http://www.hotad.com/spade.HTML
