Floyd Cramer

Floyd Cramer (October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997) was an American pianist who was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His signature playing style was a cornerstone of the pop-oriented "Nashville sound" of the 1950s and 1960s. Cramer's "slip-note" or "bent-note" style, in which a passing note slides almost instantly into the chordal note, influenced a generation of pianists. His sound became popular to the degree that he stepped out of his role as a sideman and began touring as a solo act. In 1960, his piano instrumental solo, "Last Date" went to number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 pop music chart and sold over one million copies. Its follow-up, "On the Rebound", topped the UK Singles Chart in 1961. As a studio musician, he became one of a cadre of elite players dubbed the Nashville A-Team and he performed on scores of hit records. 
Biography.
Cramer was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and grew up in the small town of Huttig, Arkansas. He taught himself to play the piano. After finishing high school, he returned to Shreveport, where he worked as a pianist for the radio show "Louisiana Hayride".
In 1953, he cut his first single, "Dancin' Diane", backed with "Little Brown Jug", for the local Abbott label. In 1955 he played dates with an emerging talent who would later figure significantly in his career, Elvis Presley. After Presley performed on "Louisiana Hayride" in 1955, he hired his own band which included Cramer, Jimmy Day, Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and D.J. Fontana. This group remained his supporting band for much of that year; however, when Presley asked them to relocate to Hollywood, Cramer and Day declined to follow him there, preferring to remain in Nashville to pursue independent careers as studio musicians. In Nashville, Cramer found that piano accompaniment in country music was growing in popularity. By the next year he was, in his words, "in day and night doing session". Before long, he was one of the busiest studio musicians in the industry, playing piano for stars such as Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, the Browns, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, and the Everly Brothers, among others. It was Cramer's piano playing, for instance, on Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel". While Cramer was well-established as a session player, he had a long career as a solo performer with dozens of his own albums and singles, including some Top 40 instrumental hits.
Cramer had released records under his own name since the early 1950s and became well known following the release of "Last Date", a 45-rpm single, released by RCA Victor in 1960. The instrumental piece exhibited a relatively new concept in piano playing known as the "slip note" style. The record went to number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 pop music chart, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The song was kept out of the number 1 position by Elvis Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight". The session pianist for Elvis's recording of that #1 song, in a very early morning session (about 4:00 AM) at RCA Studio B in Nashville, was none other than Floyd Cramer himself.
Of the characteristic "slip note" style, Cramer commented, "The style I use mainly is a whole-tone slur which gives more of a lonesome cowboy sound. You hit a note and slide almost simultaneously to another." The origin of the style is uncertain. It seems to have first emerged at the 1960 session for Hank Locklin's hit "Please Help Me, I'm Falling", when Cramer was asked by Chet Atkins to copy the unusual piano styling of songwriter Don Robertson, who had played on the demo. Cramer also acknowledged the influence of "Mother" Maybelle Carter's autoharp playing.
In 1961, Cramer had a hit with "On the Rebound", which went to number 4, and number 1 on the UK Singles Chart. ("On the Rebound" was featured during the opening credits of the 2009 Oscar-nominated film "An Education", which was set in England in 1961.) Also in 1961, Cramer had a hit with "San Antonio Rose" (number 8).
By the mid-1960s, Cramer had become a respected performer, making numerous albums and touring with guitar maestro Chet Atkins and saxophonist Boots Randolph, sometimes headlining and sometimes as the opening act for Eddy Arnold. Cramer also performed with them as a member of the Million Dollar Band.
Over the years, he continued to balance session work with his own albums. Many of these featured standards or popular hits of the era. From 1965 to 1974 he annually recorded a disc of the year's biggest hits, entitled "Class of . . ." . Other albums included "I Remember Hank Williams" (1962), "Floyd Cramer Plays the Monkees" (1967), "Sounds of Sunday" (1971) and "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1978). In 1977 "Floyd Cramer and the Keyboard Kick Band" was released, on which he played eight different keyboard instruments.
In 1980 Cramer's final major chart entry was a version of the theme of the television series "Dallas".
Cramer died of lung cancer on New Year's Eve, 1997 at the age of 64. He was interred in the Spring Hill Cemetery in the Nashville suburb of Madison, Tennessee.
Legacy.
Cramer’s grandson, Jason Coleman, followed in his taking up the piano, performing with him on television and in concert at a young age. At age 17, he played "Please Help Me, I'm Falling", the first song to feature Cramer's signature slip notes, with Hank Locklin at the Grand Ole Opry, and two years later played piano for the Medallion Ceremony at Cramer's induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He carries on his grandfather's legacy with recordings and a touring tribute concert, The Piano Magic of Floyd Cramer, sharing the piano arrangements and story of Cramer's contributions to American music.
Awards.
In 2003 Cramer was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, his recording of "Last Date" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, established to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. In 2008 Cramer was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
East Tennessee State University, in Johnson City, Tennessee, offers the Floyd Cramer Competitive Scholarship.