Tragedy (Bastien)

Tragedy

I also found some more info on the song "Tragedy" by Gerald Nelson and Fred Burch.

The next info is from the inlay of the CD: "Fernwood Rock 'n' Roll": Thomas Wayne came to Fernwood in 1958 and made a scorching debut with "You're the one that done it / This time", which even achieved a license deal with Mercury, but did not chart.

From Paducah, Kentucky came Gerald Nelson, who had already recorded "Tragedy" with his band the Escorts in 1958.

Co-written with advertising man Fred Burch, the song was offered to Scotty Moore, who recorded it with Thomas and provided the eerie guitarfigures along with the almost inaudible bass of Bill Mack and the female chanting of the De-Lons. This angst ridden, haunting teen ballad finally peaked at no. 5 on the Billboard charts, but sadly, although creeping onto the bottom rungs of various charts with "Follow-up" 45's, Thomas never again came close to a hit record and eventually became a studio engineer. There was at least one consolation for Thomas in that Elvis Presley recorded his song "The Girl next door (went a walkin')", the original of which is included here. Chip Moman's song "This time" originally by Thomas and also on this CD would later become a huge hit for Troy Shondell, while Thomas would end his days on August 17th, 1971 in a car accident.

History