Sue Thompson

Biography

Sue Thompson (born Eva Sue McKee; July 19, 1925 – September 23, 2021) was an American pop and country music singer. She is best known for the million selling 1961 hits "Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)" and "Norman", "James (Hold The Ladder Steady)" (1962), and "Paper Tiger×Paper TigerJanuary 1965 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Paper Tiger2:25A2Suzie2:03A3Bad Boy2:50A4Fan Club2:20A5Big Hearted Me1:50A6I Need a Harbor2:05B1What's the Use (To take My Lovin')2:33B2True Confession2:23B3What's Wrong Bill3:10B4Cause I Ask You2:17B5I'd Like to Know You Better2:37B6What I'm Needin' Is You2:40" (1965).

Early life

Thompson was born in Nevada, Missouri in July 1925. By the age of 7, she was singing and playing the guitar on stage. She later moved with her family to live in San Jose, California.
During World War II, she worked at a defense plant. She married when she was 17, and had a daughter at 20, but the marriage failed and she and her husband split up after three years. To keep supporting herself after her divorce, she returned to the nightclub scene in California, now using the name Sue Thompson. In San Jose, she won a talent contest, thus catching the attention of a bandleader and radio/TV host named Dude Martin (real name John Stephen McSwain), who invited her to sing with his band. This led to their marriage. They recorded duets together, including "If You Want My Lovin'", which helped her get a solo contract from Mercury Records in 1950 and made Billboard's Country and Western Disk Jockeys Pick chart. She released numerous singles on Mercury between 1951 and 1954, with no chart action.

Recording career

Within a year, she divorced Martin, and married Hank Penny, a comedian and singer, in 1953. Penny and Thompson hosted a TV show in Los Angeles together before eventually moving to Las Vegas. After her contract with Mercury ended, Thompson recorded for Decca Records from 1954–57, again without a commercial breakthrough. Thompson and Penny had a son, Greg Penny, but divorced in 1963.
In 1960, Thompson signed on with Columbia Records, who renamed the singer "Taffy Thomas" and issued one non-charting single under this artist name. Thereafter, the Taffy Thomas moniker was quickly dropped, and Thompson signed with Hickory Records. In 1961, after having issued over a dozen non-charting singles in a decade-long recording career, Thompson's "Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)" became a No. 5 hit on the pop charts. She followed this up successfully with "Norman," which reached No. 3. Both of these hit singles were written by songwriter John D. Loudermilk. They both sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs. Both were also chart successes in Australia, reaching No. 3 and No. 8 respectively.
In 1962, "Have a Good Time" was a Top 40 hit and in 1963, "Willie Can" was a minor hit. Her early-1960s hits made Thompson, then in her late 30s but with a much younger-sounding voice, a favorite among the teenage crowd and briefly a rival to the much younger Connie Francis and Brenda Lee. Two additional hits, also written by Loudermilk, were "James (Hold the Ladder Steady)", and 1965's "Paper Tiger×Paper TigerJanuary 1965 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Paper Tiger2:25A2Suzie2:03A3Bad Boy2:50A4Fan Club2:20A5Big Hearted Me1:50A6I Need a Harbor2:05B1What's the Use (To take My Lovin')2:33B2True Confession2:23B3What's Wrong Bill3:10B4Cause I Ask You2:17B5I'd Like to Know You Better2:37B6What I'm Needin' Is You2:40," her last Top 30 hit and her biggest hit in Britain and in Australia, where it reached No. 3.

Later career

In the late 1960s, she went back to country music and released the album This Is Sue Thompson Country×This Is Sue Thompson CountryJune 1969 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Who's Gonna Mow2:272Here's to Forever2:303Tennessee Waltz2:094Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings2:505Tears on My Pillow2:376Pair of Broken Hearts2:377You Two Timed Me2:128Lost Highway2:189Thanks to Rumors2:1610Take Me As I Am (Or Let Me Go)3:3611Because You Love Me2:42 in 1969. Her singleThoughts with Roy Acuff Jr. reached No. 39 on the Canadian Country charts, November 8, 1969. In 1971 she worked with country music singer Don Gibson on some albums, and they had minor hits with "I Think They Call It Love×I Think They Call It Love1972 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAI Think They Call It Love2:35BOver There’s the Door2:35", "Good Old Fashioned Country Love×Good Old Fashioned Country Love1974 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAGood Old Fashioned Country Love2:20BAges and Ages Ago2:44", and "Oh, How Love Changes×Oh, How Love Changes1975 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAOh, How Love Changes2:45BSweet and Tender Times". She recorded further solo singles for the country charts, like "Big Mable Murphy", which made the Top 50 in 1975 and "Never Naughty Rosie", her last chart single in 1976. She also performed mainly at the Las Vegas casinos and at clubs in Hollywood, like the Palomino Club. In the 1990s, she settled in Las Vegas, and continued to periodically perform.
She also appeared on American Bandstand, Where the Action Is, The Buddy Deane Show, and The Lloyd Thaxton Show (1966 visit and performance of "Paper Tiger×Paper TigerJanuary 1965 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Paper Tiger2:25A2Suzie2:03A3Bad Boy2:50A4Fan Club2:20A5Big Hearted Me1:50A6I Need a Harbor2:05B1What's the Use (To take My Lovin')2:33B2True Confession2:23B3What's Wrong Bill3:10B4Cause I Ask You2:17B5I'd Like to Know You Better2:37B6What I'm Needin' Is You2:40").
In 2009 Thompson's son, record producer Greg Penny, recorded her acoustic cover of her favourite song, the 1952 hit "You Belong to Me". The demo was given its radio premiere during her 2010 interview on the South Australian radio show "The Doo Wop Corner" by Carmen Kaye.

Death

Sue Thompson died at her daughter's home in Pahrump, Nevada, on September 23, 2021, at the age of 96.

Singles

A"Paper Tiger×Paper TigerJanuary 1965 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Paper Tiger2:25A2Suzie2:03A3Bad Boy2:50A4Fan Club2:20A5Big Hearted Me1:50A6I Need a Harbor2:05B1What's the Use (To take My Lovin')2:33B2True Confession2:23B3What's Wrong Bill3:10B4Cause I Ask You2:17B5I'd Like to Know You Better2:37B6What I'm Needin' Is You2:40" peaked at No. 8 on the RPM Top Singles chart in Canada.