Bill Carlisle
Musician · 1908–2003 · Wakefield, Kentucky
Best known for
Songwriter
Bill Carlisle was a Kentucky-born country singer, songwriter, comic, and guitarist whose seventy-year career ran from the early Carlisle Brothers radio shows with brother Cliff through a string of postwar novelty hits with the Carlisles. Nicknamed “Jumpin’ Bill” for the airborne stunts that punctuated his stage shows, he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame seven months before his death in 2003.
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- Born December 19, 1908, in Wakefield, Kentucky; began performing in the 1920s on WLAP Lexington and WNOX Knoxville with older brother Cliff.
- Began recording as the Carlisle Brothers for ARC in 1933; the duo’s King single “Rainbow at Midnight” reached No. 5 country in 1946.
- Built a side career on WNOX’s Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round and Tennessee Barn Dance, where he developed the comic alter-ego “Hot Shot Elmer.”
- Scored a solo No. 14 country hit on King with “Tramp on the Street” in 1948.
- Reorganized as The Carlisles (none of whom were related to him) after brother Cliff retired around 1950; signed to Mercury and launched a string of comic-country “crazy songs.”
- Scored country hits with “Too Old to Cut the Mustard” (No. 6, 1951), “No Help Wanted” (No. 1, 1953), “Knothole” (No. 3, 1953), “Is Zat You, Myrtle” (No. 2, 1953), and “Tain’t Nice (to Talk Like That)” (No. 5, 1953).
- Earned the nickname “Jumpin’ Bill” for the athletic leaps he worked into his Opry shows.
- Elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002 and continued performing on the Grand Ole Opry nearly until his death.
- Died March 17, 2003.