Hank Cochran

Primarily known as a songwriter, Hank Cochran was born Garland Perry Cochran on 2nd August, 1935, in Isola, Miss. After his parents divorced when he was 9, he briefly lived with his father in Memphis entering St. Peter's Orphan’s Home due to the tough economic times. He ran away several times before going to live with his grandparents. At 10, he was playing guitar and singing in church; at 12 he and his uncle hitched from Mississippi to New Mexico to work in the oilfields. By his mid-teen years, Hank had moved to California, found a job working for Sears & Roebuck in L.A., and returned to school. At this time he began to look at music as a possible career. He met a young guitar picking vocalist from Oklahoma City called Eddie Cochran (no relation) and they formed The Cochran Brothers, making friends with other musicians/songwriters like Bobby Bare and Harlan Howard. After moderate success, the duo disbanded and Hank moved to Nashville. Eddie, of course, became an icon of rock n roll and one of its' early victims. In January 1960 Hank got himself a job at Pamper Music, co-owned by Ray Price. Price remembers Cochran fondly as a friend as well as a former employee. “I hate it,” Price said of his friend's passing in July 2010. “He was really a good one. He had a great talent and he was there when he was needed. ... What you saw with Hank is what you got, and it was all good. I don’t know anybody that didn’t like Hank.” Price said he spoke with Hank on the Monday before he passed away. “We got to say goodbye,” Price said. “I knew it was coming and he did, too, but we didn’t want it to happen.” In 1961, Hank scored his first No. 1 as a songwriter with Patsy Cline's recording of his song “I Fall to Pieces,” co-written with Harlan Howard. By 1974, Hank had made such a name for himself as a songwriter that he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Association International's Hall of Fame — the only writer ever to receive a unanimous vote. Over the years, Cochran has also been the recipient of numerous awards from performing rights organization BMI, including recognition for 3 million plays on Eddy Arnold's “Make the World Go Away,” George Strait's “Ocean Front Property,” and “I Fall to Pieces.” In June 2009 a private, surprise celebration of Hank's work at BMI in Nashville was attended by Merle Haggard, Bobby Bare, Cowboy Jack Clement and Grand Ole Opry star Jeannie Seely (Hank's ex-wife) and others. "He’s a songwriting icon and everybody knows his songs,” said longtime friend Bobby Bare. “Hank wrote from personal feelings, just the way he felt. Hank fell in love a lot and broke up a lot, so he had a lot of feelings. And Hank, like all great songwriters was very aware of all things going on around him, and he was very bright. (Great songwriters) are not afraid to put their feelings on the line." Quoting from the Cline hit, Bare continued "‘You walk by and I fall to pieces' - that says it all right there.’” RIP, Hank Cochran, a great Country.popular songwriter