23 Years Ago, We Lost the Singer-Songwriter Behind One of the 1950s’ Wildest Novelty Hits Who Also Starred Alongside Clint Eastwood

Surprisingly, Sheb Wooley never struck gold again after the massive success of his 1958 novelty hit “The Purple People Eater”. Topping the charts in the United States, Canada, and Australia, it also hit number 12 in the United Kingdom. But although he was never able to replicate that success musically, Wooley didn’t exactly fade into obscurity. He also found success on the silver screen, landing starring roles in Hoosiers (1986); High Noon (1952); The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) alongside Clint Eastwood; and the TV series Rawhide (1959-1965).

Sheb Wooley died of leukemia in Nashville, Tennessee, on this day (September 16) in 2003. He was 82 years old. To honor the 23rd anniversary of his passing, we’re taking a look at his life and career.

Sheb Wooley Bought This Country Music Legend His First Fiddle

Born on April 10, 1921, on a ranch in Erick, Oklahoma, Shelby Frederick Wooley learned to ride horses at a young age, landing on the national rodeo circuit by his teenage years.

A 19, Sheb Wooley married 17-year-old Melva Miller, cousin of future honky-tonk legend Roger Miller. Wooley befriended the younger child, teaching him how to play guitar chords and buying Miller his first fiddle. (He would later divorce Melva.)

Music was another early passion, and Wooley’s father swapped a shotgun to secure his son’s first guitar.

The rodeo star led his own country band in high school, but didn’t see a financially stable future in pursuing a music career. So he went to work in the oilfields after graduating high school, following masses of his fellow Oklahomans to California during the late 1930s in search of a better life.

When World War II broke out, Wooley’s rodeo injuries prevented him from enlisting. So he spent much of the war working in defense plants.

Breaking into the Entertainment Industry

After moving to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1946, he began working full time as a country and western musician, touring the U.S. with his band Sheb Wooley and the Calumet Indians.

Wooley landed a regular spot on Fort Worth radio, and in 1949, he returned to California to work in the film industry.

He would appear in dozens of Western films from the 1950s through the 1990s, starring alongside Errol Flynn in Rocky Mountain (1950). Two years later, Wooley portrayed outlaw Ben Miller in High Noon.

A Massive Hit

As his film career took off, Sheb Wooley continued writing and recording songs. After writing several hits for other artists — including “Are You Satisfied” by Rusty Draper — he found musical success in the unlikeliest of places with 1958’s “Purple People Eater.”

Wooley based the lyrics on a joke he’d heard from the child of a friend: “What has one eye, one horn, flies and eats people?” (Answer: a one-eyed, one-horned, flying people eater.) 

It took Wooley just one hour to complete “Purple People Eater”, which he later deemed “undoubtedly the worst song he had ever written.”

The masses disagreed, and within nine weeks, “Purple People Eater” had sold upwards of a million copies. By 2001, that number had risen to 100 million.

In 1962, Wooley began recording his own novelty songs under the alter ego Ben Colder. These parodies included “Hootenanny Hoot” (1963) and “The Love-in” (1067).

In 1968, he won the Country Music Association’s Comedian of the Year award.

[RELATED: 3 Chart-Topping One-Hit Wonders From 1958 That We Still Stan]

Sheb Wooley remained a performer right up until the end, recording his final song just four days before his death. 

Featured image by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images