Slim Willet - Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes: The Singles Collection 1950-62 (2024)

Slim Willet was a country singer, guitarist songwriter and disc jockey from Texas, born in 1919, who started performing and recording in the late ‘40s while still continuing to work on radio in Abilene. Among his more mainstream country songs, he specialised in writing material that celebrated the macho aspects of the Texas oil industry, which was a major feature of his region of Texas. Quite separately from that, he was famous for writing and recording the song “Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes” , with which he had a country No. 1 and which was a pop No. 1 for Perry Como. This 53-track 2-CD collection comprises selected A & B sides of his singles on the Star Talent, Slim Willet, 4-Star, Decca and Edmoral labels during these years, plus those on his own Winston label. Among those were all the titles from his album “Texas Oil Patch Songs”. It naturally includes his No. 1 country hit and landmark composition “Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes”. It features recordings as Slim Willet with The Blue Sage Boys, Slim Willet with the Brush Cutters, Slim Willet with His Hired Hands and Slim Willet and his Big State Jamboree Gang, along with later recording with Jimmy Seal & Dash Crofts. This set captures most of his key recordings before his premature demise from a heart attack in 1966 at the age of 46 and admirably showcases his distinctive style of country music.