About Howard Chandler
Artist Biography
Very little is known about Howard Chandler, other than that he was an excellent prospect at Sun Records circa 1957 whose work never saw the light of day -- at least not until decades later. He wrote one song, "Wampus Cat," that is considered a kind of underground hillbilly (or rockabilly, depending on whose doing the defining) classic -- and given the song's title and the particulars of the legendary "wampus cat," Chandler likely hailed from Tennessee. He cut the latter as a midtempo hillbilly rocker for Wampus Records, backed with "Island of Love," issued in early 1958, and he subsequently recorded singles of "Black Gumbo Land" b/w "A Million Friends," and "Mean Old Tomcat" b/w "Before You Wanted to Be Free" for the same label. But lurking in the background was a hotter alternate take of "Wampus Cat" (paired with "Golden Band" for a proposed single) that turned up in the Sun Records vaults and finally got issued in the 1990s, courtesy of Bear Family Records. In the interim, Johnny Burnette cut a song of the same title that appears to be a substantially different composition, but has also been credited to Chandler as composer. ~ Bruce Eder
Hometown
United States of America
Genre
Rock
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