"As Good as It Gets : Western Swing" is a 2-CD set featuring 52 tunes from the heyday of Western Swing. There are vocals and instrumentals by Bob Wills, Red Foley, Milton Brown, Patsy Montana, Jimmy Wakely and others. One song I especially like is "Three-Way Boogie" by Spade Cooley.
Spade Cooley was born Donnell Clyde Cooley in Oklahoma on February 22, 1910. His family moved west when hard times hit. Donnell was a trained violinist and cellist and he got into music professionally in the mid 1930s.
Spade Cooley had a high time with his band, movies and radio programs in California (especially a long-running and very popular live broadcast from the Santa Monica Pier) in the 1940s. Popular music tastes changed and Spade lost his gig to Lawrence Welk.
Spade retired at age 50, with a fortune in the bank. His ambitions didn't retire, though, and he pursued numerous business ventures. He was an alcoholic and he also abused his wife, culminating in the ultimate abuse when he stomped her to death in 1961.
He was convicted of murder and was paroled in 1969, with his release date scheduled for February 22, 1970. He did a benefit concert on November 23, 1969. After the show he was talking to some pals backstage about his future.
Actor Dennis Quaid has planned a biopic of the life of Spade Cooley, titled after Spade's first big hit, "Shame on You.""I think it's gonna work out for me," he said. "I have the feeling that today is the first day of the rest of my life."
The smile suddenly left his face. He dropped his fiddle, grimaced, clutched his chest and fell dead at 59 years of age. (From the TruTV.com story of Spade Cooley's life.)