Van Howard ~Tears On My Pillow

Van Howard is standing left of Ray Price.

From the early part of 1954 through 1958, Van Howard was vocalist for Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys. He had a rich, deep country singing voice that many have heard without even realizing it!

Van Howard was born and raised in Eastern New Mexico and started singing at about 7 years of age. After graduating from high school and completing a year of college he went to work at a bank in Clovis. Van sang at functions in the community for a couple of years.

In 1950, an announcers from a local station and Van drove to Dallas to make a demo record with hopes of pitching it to some record company. While he was doing the recording, a talent scout from station KWKH and The Louisiana Hayride happened to be at the Jim Beck studio and heard Van singing.

Later he received a phone call from that talent scout asking if he would be interested in moving to Shreveport and join the cast at The Louisiana Hayride. The promoters of The Hayride paid him $5.00 a week. The talent scout knew a vice president at one of the banks in Shreveport and made arrangements for Van to get a job there so he could support himself.

Soon, Van was off to stardom. He was in Shreveport for a couple of years when Lefty Frizzel came through and was looking for a band to accompany him on a tour of the west coast. Six people from the Hayride decided to take that tour with him. The six were: D.J. Fontana (drums), Jimmy Day (steel guitar), Chuck Wiginton (bass), Bill Peters (fiddle), Floyd Cramer (piano) and Van Howard (rhythm guitar & vocals).

They were a bunch of young folks who loved country music and wanted to make a place in the industry. The tour lasted six months all up the west coast. None of them had a job when the tour was finished. Fortunately for Van, Ray Price was in need of a front man for his 9 piece western swing band, and he called and asked Van to join him in that position. Howard jumped at the chance. What an opportunity that was. Ray was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and thus Van was privileged to play on that great show also.

About a year and a half later, Ray was practicing some songs for one of his recordings for Columbia Records and there was a song that Van took an interest too. As Ray would practice, Van would hum some harmony with him. Ray liked what he heard and decided to record it with Van singing harmony. As it turned out, Sweet Little Miss Blue Eyes was a success. Then with that song opening a new format for Ray's music, they recorded more duets, the next one being Crazy Arms which put Ray Price on the map for good. From then on for the next several years they recorded about 15 duets, most of them reaching the top 10 on the country music charts.

At the end of 1958, deciding to make a change in his lifestyle, Van left Nashville and the music business, moving to Dallas. He returned to the banking industry where he remained for the next 37 years. He met his wife (Charlotte) in 1961 and they married in 1964. Health problems forced him to retire in 2008
RJB, Country Music Historian. Nashville, Tennessee

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[rokn50s]

Nice

[dmeadows555]

Van Howard has a great voice. Love him with Ray too.

[grammie0301]

@BABSINUK

Van has a CD called Country Classics Remembered which includes this song. He has a MySpace page. You can order the CD from him.

[FAUSTORICCARDO]

always full of information your videos, flash. Grazie.

Beautiful song

[ROYS5166]

Now that is some great music, takes me back a few years thanks for sharing with all of us. 

[jtls8]

Thank you for sharing this*****

[BABSINUK]

Hi new singer to me,nice voice easy listening,thanks for posting.