Bill Black
American bassist (1926–1965)
William Patton Black Jr. (September 17, 1926 – October 21, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader who is noted as one of the pioneers of rock and roll. He played in Elvis Presley's early trio, the Blue Moon Boys. Black later formed Bill Black's Combo.
Early life and career
William Patton Black Jr. was born on September 17, 1926, in Memphis, Tennessee, to a motorman for the Memphis Street Railway Company. He was the oldest of nine children. His father played popular songs on the banjo and fiddle to entertain the family. Black learned to play music at the age of 14 on an instrument made by his father—a cigar box with a board nailed to it and strings attached. At the age of sixteen, Black was performing "honky-tonk" music on acoustic guitar in local bars.
“Bill Black” enters the record as american bassist (1926–1965). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bill, Black and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q861962. VIAF identifies the subject as 46963595. The Library of Congress control number is n93104019. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926 and 1965.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bill Black” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.