GLEN GLENN was one of the many talented singers of the 1950's who did not reach the success he was worth. He was born as Glen Troutman on the 24th of October, 1934 in Joplin, Missouri. He lived there with his family till they moved to San Dimas, California. Soon after his arrival in California, Glen started playing guitar. After a short time he met Gary Lambert who was a gifted guitar player and they started playing country music. Then in 1952 they decided to try making it in the music business, so they left school.
THEIR FIRST SUCCESS in country music was in 1952 when they won a talent spot at the "Squeakin' Deacon Show" at the "Riverside Rancho" in Los Angeles. In 1954 they started to appear regularly in many local country bars like the "Country Barn Dance" in Baldwin Park. Those days they called themselves "Glen & Gary - the Missouri Mountain Boys."
IN EARLY 1956 Glen & Gary started touring Missouri and the states around together with Glen's cousin Porter Wagoner. Their tour was very successful and they appeared on many TV show like the "Ozark Jubilee" and the "Circle 7 Jamboree."
LATE IN 1956 Glen was back home again in California and joined the Maddox Brothers and Retta Maddox. They toured a lot and appeared on a TV show called "Cal's Coral." Glen also became involved with Rockabilly then - which was new to his style.
"KATHLEEN" and "ONE CUP OF COFFEE" were the first two demos Glen made in 1957, and so he was searching for a record contract. But although some record companies were interested, he did not get an firm offer so he decided to record some more in January of 1958.
THIS TIME he had better luck and signed a contract with Herb Newman and Lew Bedell (ERA Records) in February of 1958. Soon "Everybody's Moving" b/w "I'm Glad My Baby's Gone" were ready for release. This minor success was followed by "Laurie Ann" b/w "One Cup of Coffee" (ERA 1074) and this was really a big hit, but since Glen had been drafted on January 20th, 1958, he was not able to promote his records in the right way and so his last single on ERA "Would Ya" b/w "Blue Jeans and a Boy's Shirt" wasn't a huge success when it was released in late 1958.
NEARLY AT THE SAME TIME Lew Bedell left the corporation to form his own label, Dore', and took some of ERA artists with him - one of them was Glen. In the spring of 1959 Dore' produced "Goofin' Around b/w "Susie Green from Abilene" in cooperation with the Ernie Freeman Band, but that wasn't a big hit either.
WHEN GLEN quit the Army in December of 1959, he returned back to his music business. He married in 1961 and after releasing his last single in 1964, he became fed up with touring around the states and decided to take a daytime job (with General Dynamics), quit the music scene and spend time with his family.
1987 found Glen in Europe, playing a few shows in Holland for the "Rockhouse Festival" and then on to Great Britain. In 1993 went back to tour Europe again performing 9 sell-out concerts in 5 countries.Glen and Brian Setzer at the Hootenanny at Fullerton State College
July 5, 2003.
http://www.rockabillyhall.com/GlenGlenn.html
