Thomas Tucker

Thomas Tucker, Tommy Tucker or Tom Tucker may refer to:

People

Fictional characters

Other

Tommy Tucker (bandleader)

Introduction

The Tommy Tucker Orchestra entertained many listeners as a big band in the 1930s and 1940s. Popular as a dance band, the Tucker orchestra played concert halls, theatres, hotels and various venues across the country—for a span of 25 years. Recorded for Okeh in June 1941, his biggest hit, I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire, achieved status as a Gold Record. Tucker wrote his own theme song, I Love You (Oh, How I Love You); it was published on four record labels, including Brunswick, in 1935, and MGM, in 1951.

Many listeners were familiar with the Tucker orchestra sound because they tuned into popular radio shows, such as Fibber McGee & Molly in 1936 and the George Jessel show in 1938, and several shows billed as Tommy Tucker Time.

Tommy Tucker opened each performance—on radio or live—with his signature "tic-toc, tic-toc, it's Tommy Tucker time." And he usually ended each session with Time to Go.

Background

Born Gerald L. Duppler, May 18, 1903, in Souris, ND, he changed to his stage name, Tommy Tucker, in 1968. He later received a Bachelor of Arts at the University of North Dakota in 1924, majored in Music and was recognized as Phi Betta Kappa.

Tommy Tucker (singer)

Tommy Tucker (born Robert Higginbotham; March 5, 1933 – January 22, 1982) was an American blues singer-songwriter and pianist. He is best known for the 1964 hit song, "Hi-Heel Sneakers", that went to No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and peaked at No. 23 in the UK Singles Chart.

Early life

He was born Robert Higginbotham, to Leroy and Mary Higginbotham, the fifth of eleven children, in Springfield, Ohio, United States.

Career

Tucker's follow-up release, "Long Tall Shorty", was less successful. Nevertheless, musicians that played on his albums included Louisiana Red, Willie Dixon and Donny Hathaway.

Tucker co-wrote a song with Atlantic Records founder executive Ahmet Ertegün, called "My Girl (I Really Love Her So)". Tucker left the music industry in the late 1960s, taking a position as a real estate agent in New Jersey. He also did freelance writing for a local newspaper in East Orange, New Jersey, writing of the plight and ignorance of black males in America, and the gullibility and exploitation of African Americans in general by the white-dominated media. Tucker currently has four albums selling in Europe and over the internet, through the Red Lightnin' record label.

Little Tommy Tucker

"Little Tommy Tucker" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19618.

Lyrics

Common modern versions include:

Origins

The earliest recorded version of this rhyme is from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (c. 1744), which has only four lines. The full version was produced in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765). There are references to various parts of the rhyme in earlier works. To 'sing for one's supper' was a proverbial phrase by the seventeenth century. An excellent new Medley (c. 1620) included the line 'Tom would eat meat but wants a knife'.

Various Thomas Tuckers have been identified, including a Bachelor of Arts who was appointed 'Prince or Lorde of the Revells' at St. John's College, Oxford in 1607, and a 'Tom Tuck' who appears in one of John Herrick's epigrams in Witt's Recreations (1640).

In popular culture

Notes