The story behind the song
Before it became famous as an instrumental song, White Silver Sands started out as a vocal pop song that Charles “Red” Matthews wrote in 1957. During that same year, traditional pop singer Don Rondo recorded it and made it a huge summer hit that reached No. 7 on the Billboard charts. “Brother” Dave Gardner also recorded a version of the song.
Bill Black had already become a huge name in music before he started his own band. He played upright bass for Elvis Presley’s first backing group (along with guitarist Scotty Moore), and his energetic slap-bass playing was super important in shaping Elvis’s early Sun Records and RCA songs.
After he and Presley split up because of money problems, Bill Black decided to start his own five-piece instrumental group in 1959, which he named Bill Black’s Combo. The band got signed to Hi Records, a brand new record label based in Memphis. When the group first started out, it had Bill Black playing bass, Reggie Young on guitar, Martin Wills playing saxophone, Jerry Arnold on drums, and Joe Lewis Hall on piano.
The Combo got off to a great start with their first song, Smokie, Part 2, which came out in late 1959. They wanted to follow up that success with another hit, so they decided to record their own version of White Silver Sands (put out on Hi Records #2021).
By the time they made this recording, the band had made some changes to who played in the studio. Carl McVoy, a talented musician, joined the group to play piano and organ. McVoy added a special touch to the song with his distinctive “rinky-dink” staccato organ sound that had a slightly weird quality to it. This sound worked really well with the band’s smooth, R&B-style beat.
When it dropped in 1960, the instrumental track became super popular on AM radio and people loved dancing to it at local clubs. The song stayed at number 1 on the R&B charts for four weeks and even made it into the pop Top 10. In the end, it sold over a million copies and became a huge success.
AT A GLANCE