Spade Cooley King Of Western Swing & Murderer “Shame On You”

Spade Cooley had quite a career in the 1930's he started as an actor most notably as a stand-in for Roy Rogers in the 1940's he was a huge western swing star in the 1940's which led to more TV and movie work in the 50's. Spade's career took a much darker turn in 1961 when he was charged with murdering his wife, Ella Mae Evans, after she expressed her wish to divorce him. Cooley suffered a heart attack during the trial when he was delivered his prison sentence. In 1969 he had a second heart attack and died while on temporary release from prison to play a benefit concert. Here he is doing his first, and biggest, hit “Shame On You” featuring vocals by Tex Williams. It reached number one, spending 31 weeks on the Billboard charts. The "B" side, "A Pair of Broken Hearts" was also a hit reaching number eight. The recording was Cooley's first after taking over the band from Jimmy Wakely, and the first of an unbroken chain of six hits which led to him being on the cover of Billboard in March 1946. He also crops up as a minor character in a couple of books by LA noir writer James Ellroy. ChiTownSoundz is a production of MindsiMedia check out our Mikes Diggs Music section at our web portal. http://www.mindsimedia.info/

Added 16 Oct 2026