When he was in junior high at Chippewa school in 1958, he saved his newspaper money and bought a $25 tangerine-and-white Harmony Caribbean H-1005 flat top from the local music store.

When he was a sophomore, the family moved to Sweetser in Grant County, close to the larger city of Marion, where his father worked at the local Fisher Body plant.

He began to take guitar lessons at Butler's music store from an old vaudeville performer, Art Oliver, and later Sy Cantrell, a local barber by trade.

His first band was The Torkays,[2] formed after he answered a newspaper ad placed by Jim Aguilar, looking for a guitarist, and met with him at Venable's café in Sweetser, Indiana on Monday, January 30, 1961.

Next they drove to Chicago toward the end of 1962, where they scored a contract with Stacy Records, after John Dolan heard their teen age tragedy song "Little Loved One".

Stacy Records was a small but well-funded label owned by Gaylord Products, who made Gayla hair accessories and advertised on American Bandstand.

[4] Their biggest artist was Al Casey, who had records on the charts and was a member of Duane Eddy and Lee Hazlewood groups.

The other musicians on the record were the Nashville pros they called the "A" team: The first two songs released on Stacy were "Little Loved One", which originally landed the band's contract, and "Cindy Lou!"

Aguilar and Murphy went on a promotional tour to New Orleans where "Cindy Lou" was listed as "best of the new releases", and made an appearance on regional TV with The Champs, who played "Tequila" and "Limbo Rock".

To make sure no one caught on that these were the same performers, they changed the songwriter credits on the Torkays' record to Angus (Aguilar) and O'Neil (Murphy).

Murphy did some work at Jan Hutchens' Tigre Records studio in Indianapolis for the next few years, and gave guidance to local Grant County groups.

[6][7] The lineup never changed from 1965 to 1968, and consisted of the following members: The Daze played at many venues throughout Indiana and surrounding states, and was one of the more popular groups in the area.

In 1967 they landed a contract with the iconic King Records based in Cincinnati,[9][10] which was known mostly for rhythm and blues acts such as James Brown, Hank Ballard, Bill Doggett, Wynonie Harris, and Little Willie John.

Around this time period the owner of King Records, Syd Nathan, died March 2, 1968, and promotion efforts were in chaos.

The King Records headquarters and studio were designated in 2009 with a marker as the second Rock and Roll Hall of Fame historical landmark site.

The Vietnam War was heating up and Murphy enrolled in the local Marion College, now called Indiana Wesleyan University.

[14][15][16] In June 2017, Keith recorded "Tiddlywink",the song he had written for Germany's Black Raven and replaced their version with his own in a reissued "The Class of 1962".

Black Raven was Kris Kristofferson's band for his European tour, and along with Keith, provided one of the few non-band songs on the album.