The year is 1944.  It is not a peaceful year on the planet.

World War II raged in both Europe and the South Pacific.  Thousands and indeed millions were dying around the globe.  Nothing had yet been settled and peace was a year away.

Across America people listened for the news, for updates, for any piece of good news about the ongoing war.  And then they would hear a song by a new artist, someone they didn't know.

 

 

That artist was Floyd Tillman and that song was 'They Took The Stars Out Of Heaven'.

It's hard now, all these many years later, to know or understand what that song might have meant for the people listening, how that two and a half minutes or so may have given them a bit of respite from the news that was often not good.

Floyd Tillman came out of the cotton-mill town of Post, Texas and is generally regarded as one of the innovators of western swing and honky tonk music.  'They Took The Stars Out Of Heaven' was his first #1 hit and he continued to have hits through the rest of the 1940's and 1950's.

In 1949 Floyd had another major hit with 'Slippin' Around', a song that's still being recorded to this day.  In fact, in 1981 Floyd and Willie Nelson got together to do a duet of this great classic.

 

 

Floyd was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984.

So whatever happened to Floyd Tillman?

Well, Floyd lived to be 88 years old, passing away in 2003 in his beloved Texas.

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