Soon after he scored his first success as a songwriter with "Truck Drivers' Blues", one of the first truck-driving songs, a motif which would come to dominate country music for decades.

[1] Daffan wrote "Truck Drivers' Blues" after he stopped at a roadside diner, and noticed that every time a trucker parked his rig and strolled into the cafe, the first thing he did, even before ordering a cup of coffee, was push a coin in the jukebox.

It was also his own composition and sold over 350,000 copies,[4] in spite of being covered by 12 other prominent artists including Bob Wills, Roy Acuff and Wayne King.

Forming his own band, The Texans, Daffan scored a string of hits, including "Those Blue Eyes Are Not Shining Anymore", "She Goes The Other Way", "No Letter Today", and "Born to Lose",[1] which was also a platinum disc for Ray Charles in 1962.

[1] Ray Charles recorded it in 1965; Ringo Starr included it on his first solo album in 1970; and Boz Scaggs made it the title song on his 2015 release, which went to No.