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Billy Lee Riley

 


Billy Lee Riley | Los Angeles Times | tc588

The Megatons’ “Shimmy Shimmy Walk” is known for its UK release on Sue WI 327, but it was also leased to Chess for distribution in the US. Originally on the Dodge label, The Megatons were Billy Lee Riley, Pat O’Neil, James Van Eaton, Jimmy Wilson and Martin Willis and this record was recorded at Pepper Tanner studios in Memphis in 1961. The record was used as a theme by a number of radio disc jockeys in America. (Pepper and Tanner produced and sold jingles to radio stations.)

There have been a number of other groups who have used (and still use) the name The Megatons, which adds to the confusion.

Billy Lee Riley, singer, song writer and record producer, was born in Pocahontas, Arkansas on 5 October 1933 and died from cancer of the colon and bones in Jonesboro, Arkansas on 2 August 2009.

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