Ronnie Hawkins

about

Ronnie Hawkins OC (born Ronald Hawkins on 20 January 1935; died 29 May 2022) was an American/Canadian rock and roll musician whose career spanned more than half a century. He recorded solo and, in early recordings, as Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks. His career began in Arkansas, where he was born and raised. He found success in Ontario, Canada, and lived there for most of his life. He is remembered as very influential in the establishment and evolution of rock music in Canada. A pioneering rock and roll musician (and cousin to fellow rockabilly pioneer Dale Hawkins) known as "Rompin' Ronnie" Hawkins or "The Hawk", he was a key player in the 1960s rock scene in Toronto and for the next 40 years, performed all over North America, recording more than twenty-five albums. His best-known hits are "Forty Days" and "Mary Lou" (about the song narrator's experiences with a gold-digging woman), both were major hits for him in 1959. At the age of nine, his family moved to nearby Fayetteville. After graduating from high school, he studied physical education at the University of Arkansas where he formed his first band, The Hawks, touring with them throughout Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Hawkins also owned and operated the Rockwood Club in Fayetteville where some of Rock music's earliest pioneers came to play including Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty. In 1958, he moved to Canada with the Hawks and made Peterborough, Ontario, his permanent home. Gradually th

top songs

albums

Ronnie Hawkins [Roulette]

Original Album Series

Essentail Rockabilly Masters

Ronnie Hawkins [Cotillion]

Mr. Dynamo

Presenting Ronnie Hawkins

The Roulette Years

Mojo Man

Ronnie Hawkins

Arkansas Rockpile

The Hawk

The Folk Ballads Of Ronnie Hawkins

similar artists