His Scots-Irish immigrant ancestor, James Mullikin, was born in Scotland, arriving in Maryland, United States in the 1630s from Northern Ireland.

As a child Mullican began playing the organ, which his religious father had purchased in order to better sing hymns at church.

[1] However, Moon made friends with Joe Jones, a black sharecropper on the family farm, who introduced him to the country blues.

Although published sources suggest it is short for "moonshine" or possibly from his all-night performances;[1] his family says it was because he loved to play "Shoot the Moon", a variation of the dominoes game "42".

It is also highly likely the widely popular syndicated comic strip Moon Mullins, which debuted in 1923, played a role in the similar nickname and alliteration sticking to Mullican.

His earliest influences were popular blues artists of the day such as Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leroy Carr, together with country musicians including Jimmie Rodgers, and Bob Wills.

[5] In the early 1940s, he returned to the Texas Wanderers as lead singer and pianist, sang on the hits "Truck Driver's Blues" and "I'll Keep On Loving You".

His second release, "New Jole Blon" in December 1946 (later recorded by Doug Kershaw), reached number 2 on the Country and Western chart,[1] sold one million copies[6] and was the beginning of a long string of hits.

In the mid-1950s, many artists, such as Lefty Frizzell and George Jones experimented with rock and roll as its popularity began to gain ground on traditional country-and-western in the mid-1950s.

Devastated by the failure of his rock sides, Owen Bradley convinced Mullican to record his original songs in the burgeoning new more lush style of country music, the Nashville sound.

In the early 1960s, Mullican was a largely forgotten figure nationally, but based himself in Texas and carried on performing, recording then for the Starday and Spar labels.

Mister Cotton-Picker" and "Cherokee Boogie" (his biggest hit, in 1951) foreshadowed a style adopted with widespread popularity by Haley and later rock and rollers.