Biography

Bass player. Born August 8, 1939. Prominent Nashville studio musician. Career most active late 1960s-late 1980s. Played on over 500 Top Ten hits, including “Happy Birthday Darlin’” (recorded by Conway Twitty), “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (recorded by George Jones), and “Oh, Pretty Woman” (recorded by Roy Orbison). His songwriting credits include “Long Tall Texan.”

Interview Summary

1990 March 14
(1 hour, 37 minutes)
Nashville session musician Henry Strzelecki talks about the start of his career. Discussion includes childhood and family history; early musical influences and his musical training; learning to play the bass; his first professional groups, including the Four Flickers and Gene Hendrickson’s Band; experiences during his early career; his songwriting and the story behind “Long Tall Texan”; coming to Nashville and his early work as a studio musician; working with Owen Bradley; working with Hank Garland; his first recording work on an album; development of his career as a session musician; details from early recording sessions; a description of the difficulties associated with recording a bass; working for Chet Atkins; and comments on the debate surrounding the issue of identifying session musicians in album credits.