Henry Thompson was born in Waco Texas in 1925, and having played harmonica from an early age and won talent contests in his youth, he pursued a musical career after serving in the US Navy in WWII and completing his studies. He formed a band called The Brazos Valley Boys, playing a form of light Western swing, designed to complement Thompson's vocals. From 1947 to 1965 he was with Capitol Records, achieving his first No. 1 in 1952 with "The Wild Side Of Life", a song that has become a country and rcok standard over the years. For 14 years, they were voted the top country and western band in the Billboard poll. In 1955 he had chart entries with seven differnt records and over the years more than 70 of his singles made the charts. He continued to perform and record into the new millennium, only stopping when he was diagnosed with lung cancer a month before his death in November 2007. He had already been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989 and 1997 respectively. Acrobat has on catalogue an album of his recordings with the Brazos Valley Boys - for details click here.