Warren Smith was born February 7th, 1932. One of Roy Orbison’s close friends from the Sun Records days in the 1950’s, Warren Smith recorded one of Roy’s songs “SO LONG, I’M GONE” as a single Sun 268, in 1957. Orbison never recorded the song himself, so Smith’s version is the definitive one. It’s fairly unknown even to hardcore Orbison fans.
If you like Roy Orbison’s Sun Records material, you’ll love Warren Smith’s. It’s Smith’s band that played behind Roy on many Sun Studio cuts and on tour after Roy’s band “The Teen Kings” quit as they started at Sun. The band is as follows: James Morrow, Charles Evans, Billy Pat Ellis, Jack Kennelly, and Richard West. With this band Roy started a riot in one small town that got them all (Carl Perkins, Roy, Johnny Cash and Warren Smith) banned from playing in that county for 10 years! Carl and Roy and Warren were considered dangerous back then in 1956 for playing Rock and Roll.
Warren Smith had success after Sun Records as a country artists and died of a heart attack in 1980.
