Tommy Willis

Tommy Wills

(August 7, 1924 - October 20, 2017)

Tommy Wills, saxophone player, singer, and band leader played a variety of styles from Country to Rock N’ Roll and Big Band Swing. He was a major player in Seeburg jukeboxes, producing numerous recordings under his multiple labels - Terry Records, Gregory Records, Airtown Records, and Juke.

Born and raised in Middletown, Ohio, Wills started playing guitar in farmhouse jam sessions at at age 11.  He entered an amateur talent contest in Middletown's Paramount Theatre which he not only won, but they hired him as a regular, and he was paid 50 cents and a free movie pass each week.  In high school, he began to play the clarinet before moving on to his signature instrument, the saxophone. “When I was in high school, I used to buy Charlie Barnet's records - of course, they were all 78s then,” Wills recalls in a 2002 Nuvo article. “My mother had an old Victrola, and you would wind it up. It had a lever under it to slow the records down to whatever speed you wanted. I used to slow it down and copy the Charlie Barnet solos from his records.”  After seeing the Count Bassie Orchestra at age 14, that experience turned into a life-long passion for big band jazz that led to his own Tommy Wills Big Band.

In the early '40s, Tommy Wills and his Artists of Rhythm were booked as 'The Youngest Band in the Land,' playing ballrooms in the area including a gig four nights a week at the Indiana Roof Ballroom. At night, Wills participated in sessions on Indiana Avenue like George's Place and the Place to Play.  He began recording professionally in 1954 at the age of 27, cutting both 78s and 45s for the Club Miami Label. But his big breakthrough came in 1963 when his single “Man with a Horn” sold an astonishing 500,000 copies worldwide in jukebox distribution. Wills recorded seven albums, two CDs and countless numbers of 45s in almost every genre from traditional jazz classics to country tunes and even a sprinkling of rock and roll.

Wills moved to Indianapolis in the early '70s but at this time there was a declining demand for the big band sound, and he became a regular on the Holiday Inn circuit. In the late 1970s, he packed up his RV and traveled the nation playing country sax in the style of Boots Randolph. In the 1980s, Wills led various big bands, such as Tommy and the Tom Cats, the Ted Weems Orchestra (1980-84), and the Eddy Howard Orchestra (1985-89).  For about a year starting in 1989, he toured the country with Bill Haley and the Comets.  As a pioneering independent label founder, primarily geared towards distribution by the Seeburg Juke Box Company, Wills’ greatest legacy may be the thousands of copies of titles he sold through his record distribution network and the many labels he founded over the years.