A regional hit, it prompted a production and distribution deal with powerful Atlantic Records. A second and more successful stage of Thomas’ recording career, as a soul singer, began in 1960, when he recorded “Cause I Love You,” a duet with his teenage daughter Carla, for the new Satellite label. Williams, hired him on as a deejay in 1950. He scored the first hit for Sun, Sam Phillips’ new label, in 1953 with “Bear Cat,” an answer song to Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog.” Thomas remained a prominent force in Memphis music via his popular Hoot ‘n’ Holler program at WDIA his high school history teacher, Nat D. Thomas, who counted Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Gatemouth Moore as his most important musical influences, made his first recording for the Star Talent label around Christmas of 1949, followed by singles for Bullet, Chess, Sun, and Meteor. He later became the host-together with partner Robert “Bones” Couch-of the popular amateur contest at Beale Street’s Palace Theater, where the most notable winner in the 1940s was a then-unknown B. Washington High School in 1936 Thomas went out on the road with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels of Port Gibson, Mississippi, initially working as a tap dancer and later as a singer. Carmel Road before they moved to Memphis in about 1921. Thomas was born in Cayce on March 26, 1917, and his family lived on Mt.
Rufus Thomas embodied the spirit of Memphis music perhaps more than any other artist, and from the early 1940s until his death on December 15, 2001, occupied many important roles in the local scene. Known as the “world’s oldest teenager,” Thomas recorded blues for Chess and Sun, and his many soul hits for Stax included “Walking the Dog.” As a young man Thomas toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and later worked in Memphis as an emcee at Beale Street’s Palace Theater and as an influential and long serving deejay on WDIA. A recording artist, disc jockey, comedian, and ambassador for Memphis music, Rufus Thomas (1917 – 2001) was born here in Cayce.
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