His two biggest hit singles, both written with John F Young and performed by him (Boyd) were "Seventeen" with his band, the Rockets (U.S. No.
[5] Bennett was born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, United States,[6] but attended high school in Tennessee and formed his first band there.
At the age of 16, however, his career was interrupted by World War II in which he served for four years;[6] and in his free time perfected his playing of the guitar.
During the early 1950s, Boyd Bennett and his Southlanders performed at local dances and on variety TV shows.
Boyd and his group played in the Rustic Ballroom in Jasper, Indiana on a regular basis for a number of years.
Renamed as Boyd Bennett and His Rockets,[6] they came to the attention of Syd Nathan, owner of King Records.
Bennett's Rockets became King's house band, backing up Moon Mullican, Earl Bostic, Bill Doggett, Merle Travis, and Otis Williams and the Charms.
The band played for both musical and comic effect, with 425-pound trumpeter Jim Muzey (billed as "Big Moe"), 110-pound guitarist M. D. Allen, bassist Kenny Cobb, and saxophonist Boots Randolph.
These included fellow chart efforts by The Fontane Sisters, Rusty Draper, and Ella Mae Morse.
The Boyd Bennett disc of "Seventeen" "changed record-producing/buying and marketing forever," wrote musicologist Robert Reynolds: "As Boyd Bennett had predicted, teenagers bought 'Seventeen' in droves and other record companies soon began producing songs aimed specifically at the teen market.
[6] Noting that he was drifting away from a teenage audience, he left the music industry and built up his business interests, which included owning nightclubs and an air-conditioning parts manufacturer.