Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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BULLOCK, Chick

(b Charles Bullock, 16 September 1908, Butte MT; d 15 September 1981, CA) Vocalist; one of the most prolifically recorded of all time, with deep, virile voice, but shunned publicity. He made hundreds of records '30-42; sides with Duke Ellington '33 included 'Keep A Song In Your Soul'; with Adrian Rollini '34 'A Hundred Years From Today' and 'Keep On Doin' What You're Doin'. Studio lineups often given a different name at each session: among pseudonyms were Chick Bullock And His Orchestra, And His Levee Loungers, Bobby Snyder, Bob Causer or Sleepy Hall And His Collegians, Al Green And His Orchestra, Hollywood Dance Orchestra, Ralph Bennett And His Seven Aces, Hal White And His All-Star Collegians; but many really were all-star bands, with sidemen such as Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Muggsy Spanier, Bunny Berigan, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Eddie Lang; in '34 the Mills Blue Rhythm Band (see Irving Mills).

An Okeh session '41 included Bill Coleman, Benny Morton, Jimmy Hamilton, Teddy Wilson, J.C. Heard, Al Hall on bass (b 18 March 1915, Jacksonville FL; d 18 January 1988; staff musician at CBS '43-4, said to have been the first black musician to play in a pit band on Broadway; toured with Erroll Garner, Eubie Blake at Newport '60, Alberta Hunter '78, etc); George James on reeds (b 7 December 1906, Boggs OK; d 30 January 1995, Columbus Ohio; played with Fats Waller, Benny Carter, many others), Eddie Gibbs, guitar (b 25 December 1908, New Haven CN; d 12 November 1994; played with Edgar Hayes, Luis Russell, Claude Hopkins, Wilbur De Paris).

Bullock left music in the mid-'40s; was said to be in real estate on the West Coast. He appeared in a radio tribute to Berigan in the mid-'50s.