Mitchell Torok

Early life and education

Torok was born in Houston to Hungarian immigrants Niklos and Irene Torok, with an older brother named William. He was playing guitar by the age of 12, and attended Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, from 1948–1953 on a football and baseball scholarship. He majored in art and minored in world history, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in art and journalism.

Career

During the summer of 1950, Torok played baseball with a team from Garrison, Texas (the Bulldogs) and also pitched for the Minden Redbirds in Minden, Louisiana. During that period, known for his guitar playing and singing in Houston, he was also hired to write a special song for the Conoco Oil Company in Houston. It was titled "Continental Roll Along" and was used as a promotional recording given to company employees to celebrate the company's 100th birthday.

He also recorded his first session in Houston with a duet partner named Sally Lee. These masters later wound up on Imperial Records. In 1948, Torok enrolled at Stephen F. Austin College in Nacogdoches, Texas on a baseball and football scholarship. During the next two years, he performed his own morning radio show on KSFA and KFRD, in Rosenberg and KTRE in Lufkin. Impressed by the rolling East Texas hills, Mitch recorded two singles for the FBC label in Rosenberg, the "Nacogdoches County Line" and the "Piney Woods Boogie".

One of Torok's idols, Hank Williams, died suddenly on January 1, 1953. Prior to graduating in May, Torok was struck by the pall of sadness that enveloped the country music industry and its many fans. Inspired by a need for some happy songs, he immediately penned a happy-go-lucky song titled "Mexican Joe," which he wrote in thirty minutes on a cold January night, initially intending the song for another one of his idols, Hank Snow. But, a new record producer and label owner from Hollywood, Fabor Robison, happened by Nacogdoches and found Torok and the song. Torok wanted one of Robison's supposed heavy West Coast artist to record his song. He reluctantly gave it to him and his Abbott record label, to be recorded by one of his own struggling artists, the then unknown Jim Reeves, in Shreveport. (Torok, feeling the chances of Reeves' record hitting were small or non existent, planned to use the Jim Reeves record as a "demo" to send to Hank Snow.) Reeves had been hired to be an announcer on KWKH and the Hayride Show, but not allowed to sing. Torok's song was titled "Mexican Joe" and, when Reeves was finally offered a chance to sing one number, it became a huge number one hit (six encores) and spent seven weeks riding the top of the Billboard Country Music Charts. Torok was then signed to Abbott Records. A month later wrote his own number one hit that became popular in both the Billboard Country and Jukebox charts, and remained at the top for four weeks. The song was "Caribbean". It remained on the country chart for 24 weeks, also a top five hit on both the Best Sellers and Disc Jockey charts as well as being a #13 hit in Australia.

Torok became a member of Louisiana Hayride on KWKH-AM in Shreveport. In 1954, his song "My Arabian Baby" appeared as the B-side of Snow's hit "I Don't Hurt Anymore". He gained a No. 8 country hit with "Hootchy Kootchy Henry (From Hawaii)" and in 1956, after joining Decca Records in Nashville, he had top ten success on the UK Singles Chart with his and Gail's song, "When Mexico Gave Up The Rhumba" and "Red Light, Green Light". This success led to a four-month tour of the United Kingdom in 1956, headlining in all the old famous vaudeville houses in England, Ireland and Scotland, including the London Palladium. His shows included English comedian Dickie Henderson and the "Goldfinger" singer, Shirley Bassey, and it marked the only time Mitchell has performed with a full pit orchestra with written arrangements on all the songs, led by Torok's own conductor, Maurice " Tex" Bromley, at the on-stage piano with him. In the next few years, Torok made further recordings for Mercury, and RCA. His last US chart entry was "Instant Love" for the Reprise record label in 1967.

Prior to that, he had two other hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Pledge of Love" hit No. 25 in 1957, and "Caribbean" hit again in 1959, peaking at No. 27. In 1960, "Pink Chiffon", also on Jamie/Guyden peaked at No. 60 and in 1996 this song was used as main title music in RKO Pictures movie Laura Smiles (2006).

Torok continued to write songs, working in partnership with his wife (who has used both "Gayle Jones" and "Ramona Redd" as pseudonyms, the latter being her maiden name). Their songs were recorded by artists including: Skeeter Davis, Kitty Wells, Hank Snow and Willie Nelson, Jerry Wallace, Billy Walker, Barbara Eden, Glen Campbell, Dean Martin. and Clint Eastwood, who sang their song, "No Sweeter Cheater than You" in the Warner Brothers Honky Tonk Man movie. They also wrote the title song "Look Out, Ol' Norwood's Comin' Home!" for Glen Campbell's Paramount movie Norwood, and five other songs on different Campbell albums, including "Arkansas, a tribute to Glen's home state. Hank Snow recorded Torok's songs: "Caribbean", "Dogbone", "My Arabian Baby" and "The Mysterious Lady From St. Martinique" on one of his last RCA albums. "The Redneck National Anthem" was a top 20 hit for Vernon Oxford in 1976.

Combining his art and music, Torok was commissioned to paint a 110-foot, five-panel mural titled "The History of the Grand Ol' Opry", which was on display in the Ryman Auditorium until it was remodeled for live performances. The mural served as a fund raiser for Hank Snow's Abused Children's Foundation while there, as tourists made donations after viewing the mural. He then created the "Elvis-a-Rama", which consisted of a 12-foot-high, 125-foot-long mural with a 22-minute light and music show depicting his life, from his truck driving days in Memphis to his death in 1977. It has been shown in Nashville, in Branson, and recently in Las Vegas, and has been signed by over 50,000 Elvis fans.

Mitchell and his writing-partner, wife Gail also created a tribute to Nashville's 200th birthday while writing for Cedarwood Music, with a 12-song LP recording titled Nashville, filled with songs based on Music City's colorful history. And they also wrote, produced and performed on a Texas history album, titled The Ballads of Texas. Torok has also written a book and accompanying CD, titled Jim Reeves, Me & Mexican Joe, which tells the story of how the song made its way to Reeves. Torok also created smaller artistic tributes to Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, Dolly Parton, Big John Merritt and other smaller creations. Gail passed away in Nashville in 1985 and Torok is now semi-retired on the coast of Texas, his home state where he still paints and is writing several albums.

Personal life

Torok married Gail Redd, a beauty queen from Lufkin, Texas, in 1951.

Discography

Singles