18 Facts About Billy Vaughn

Vaughn was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, United States, where his father, Alvis Radford Vaughn, was a barber who loved music and inspired Vaughn to teach himself to play the mandolin at the age of three, while suffering from measles.

Billy Vaughn went on to learn a number of other instruments, including guitar and alto saxophone, his primary instruments.

In 1941, Billy Vaughn joined the United States National Guard for what had been planned as a one-year assignment, but when World War II broke out, he was in for the duration as a valued musician and composer at Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

Major General Daniel I Sultan decided that Vaughn was too valuable to the base's Thirty-Eighth Division big band, and kept him at Camp Shelby for the duration of the war.

Billy Vaughn decided to make music a career when he was discharged from the army at the end of the war, and on the GI Bill, attended Western Kentucky State College, now known as Western Kentucky University, majoring in music composition.

Billy Vaughn had apparently learned to barber from his father, because he did some while studying at Western Kentucky to support himself financially, when he was not able to get jobs playing the piano at local night clubs and lounges.

Billy Vaughn soon added his voice to theirs, converting the trio to a quartet.

Billy Vaughn went on to have many more hits over the next decade and a half and was the most commercially successful orchestra leader of the rock era.

Billy Vaughn charted a total of 42 singles on the Billboard charts, often based on the sound of two alto saxophones and guitar as his 'trademark'.

Billy Vaughn was the bandleader, and he played the lead guitar on most of his songs.

Billy Vaughn charted thirty six albums on the Billboard 200, beginning with 1958's Sail Along Silv'ry Moon and ending with 1970's Winter World of Love.

Billy Vaughn had nineteen Top 40 hits in, beginning with the chart-topping "Sail Along, Silv'ry Moon", a gold record, which was a cover of a 1937 Bing Crosby hit.

Billy Vaughn had two more number ones in Germany: "" and "Wheels".

Billy Vaughn's tours of that country began about the time "Pearly Shells" was a hit in 1965.

Billy Vaughn had a number one album in Germany in the early 1980s with Moonlight Melodies, which consisted of 20 of Billy's biggest hits.

The Billy Vaughn Orchestra began touring in 1965 with numerous sell-out tours throughout Japan, Brazil, and South Korea.

Billy Vaughn died of peritoneal mesothelioma at Palomar Hospital in Escondido, California, on September 26,1991, aged 72.

The Billy Vaughn Orchestra, co-owned and managed by his son, Richard Smith Vaughn Jr.