Party Doll Oldies Music Lyrics

The Party Doll oldies music lyrics was written by Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen. 

Knox was 15 years old in 1948 when he wrote the original verses to the song behind a haystack on his family farm near Happy, Texas.

Buddy attended Happy High School, graduating in 1950 with a class consisting of 15 boys and 9 girls. After high school, Knox attended West Texas State College (WTSC), in Canyon, Texas.

For the $60 they had in their pockets, they spent three days recording three songs that would change their lives forever.

Recording Party Doll took eight hours. "I bet we did "Party Doll" 57 times before we got it right," Knox told "Accent West." 

Bowen added that Norman Petty had needed eight hours to get a two minute and two second A-side out of four half-ass musicians.  

Jimmy Bowen was on stand up bass, Don Lanier on lead guitar, and Buddy was on rhythm guitar and lead vocals. Knox said "We didn’t have a drummer, but a boy by the name of David Alldred, who joined the band later, was a session player for Norman Petty, so we used him."

Besides Lanier's jangly Tex-Mex lead guitar solo, the record's most distinctive sound came from Dave Alldred's slap-back drum. "My drum was a paper box stuffed with cotton," Alldred told the "TV Radio Mirror" in August of 1957.

A young girl from the Clovis High School band sat in on cymbals and Buddy"s sister and two of her friends sang background vocals.

"We didn’t know what we had just done," Knox recalls, " All we wanted to do was record our music and sell it around the college. This was just a fun trip for us."

It should be noted that the Jimmy Bowen song started as the flip side to "Party Doll" but eventually both artists attracted the attention of Roulette Records which then released the sides as two separate records with different B-sides.

Bowen's song ultimately hit the charts on its own, peaking at No. 14 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Bowen's version sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold record.

However, Jimmy Bowen's singing career did not take off as well as that of Knox.  He eventually abandoned his singing career, choosing to stay in the production end of the music industry.

In the early 60s Frank Sinatra hired Bowen as record producer for Reprise records. 

In 1964, Bowen brought his high school pal and original Rhythm Orchids member, Donnie Lanier to L.A. to become a contractor for his recording sessions.

After arranging musicians for Bowen’s sessions as Dean Martin’s producer, Lanier became in-demand as a musician contractor throughout the West Coast recording scene. 

In 1966 Bowen produced one of Sinatra's biggest hits, "Strangers In The Night." 

The song was a #1 hit in both the US and the UK, and won three Grammy Awards in 1967, including Record of the Year for Bowen.

Lanier also continued to write songs. His “Here We Go Again” became a hit for Ray Charles in 1967 and for Nancy Sinatra in 1969.

He also continued to play lead guitar, contributing to records by Lee Hazelwood, Phil Everly, Bill Haley, Dean Martin and more.

Beginning in 1971 Bowen became president of a series of record labels. His success stories over the years included Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams Jr., George Strait, Suzy Bogguss and Garth Brooks.

In 1983 Bowen worked with Conway Twitty and helped make his album "Merry Twismas" a number one album.

Bowen brought Lanier to Nashville when he took over MCA Records in 1984. Lanier became renowned and respected in Music City for his “ears,” that is, his ability to hear future hit songs. 

In addition to George Strait and Reba McEntire, he found tunes for many of the other MCA artists of the 1980s including Patty Loveless and Loretta Lynn.  

Below is the studio Roy Orbison suggested to Buddy Knox, the same studio where Buddy Holly recorded his first songs.