Billy Hill

William Joseph (Billy) Hill was born in Jamaica Plain, Mass. on 14 July, 1899 (died 24 Dec. 1940). He was an athletic young man, 6'4", of American Indian ancestry. He studied violin as a youth, eventually playing with the Boston Symphony, but headed west when he was seventeen.

He worked as a cowboy in Montana, handled the payroll for the Death Valley mines and worked as a prospector before returning to music. As a visitor to a Texas ranch in the 1920s he witnessed a cowboy being trampled to death after falling from his horse. Later (in 1931), recalling this incident, Billy was inspired to write "The Last Round-up," one of the most popular cowboy songs ever written.

His "Wagon Wheels," co-written with Peter De Rose, falls into the same category, and "There's a Home in Wyomin'," "The Oregon Trail," "Empty Saddles" and "Call of the Canyon" are among the essential Western compositions of the century. Hill provided the lyrics for some and both lyrics and melody for others.

One of his co-compositions was "Rock Me to Sleep in My Rocky Mountain Home," which was the theme of the Rocky Mountaineers in the early 30s. There were other Western compositions that were less well known, eg. "Prairie Lullaby," but are now reaching new audiences with the re-issue of radio transcriptions from the 1930s.

Importantly, several of these titles were picked up by popular orchestras of the day (such as Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller) and popular vocalists (like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra), further spreading their popularity and broadening the gap between Hill's Western compositions and what was then termed "hillbilly" music. This was something he felt strongly about, wanting to be remembered as a Western composer.

Hill's dislike for the unfortunate association of his name with the term "hillbilly" led to his use of a pseudonym, George Brown, for a time. Rumors that Billy Hill was not his real name persist to this day, but the name was real, and indeed, will live forever as one of the great Western music composers of all time.