Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesJohn D. Loudermilk, the prolific songwriter responsible for such memorable tunes as “Tobacco Road” and “Indian Reservation,” passed away Wednesday at his home in Christiana, Tennessee, The New York Times reports. He was 82.
According his son Mike, Loudermilk died of a heart attack.
Loudermilk began his music career during the 1950s, scoring some minor pop hits as a solo artist before turning his focus to writing songs for others. Among his early songwriting successes were “A Rose and a Baby Ruth,” a top-10 hit for George Hamilton IV in 1956, and “Sittin’ in the Balcony,” which became rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Eddie Cochran‘s first top-20 hit in 1957.
Loudermilk enjoyed his greatest success during the 1960s and ’70s as a Nashville-based songwriter. He penned “Tobacco Road” in 1960 and recorded his own version of it that year, but arguably the best-known rendition was by the U.K. band The Nashville Teens, which had #14 hit with it in 1964. Scores of other artists also covered the song over the years, including The Jefferson Airplane, The Blues Magoos, Eric Burdon & War and David Lee Roth.
The biggest hit ever written by Loudermilk was “Indian Reservation,” which Paul Revere & the Raiders took to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971.
Among the many other well-known songs penned by Loudermilk are “Ebony Eyes” and “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye,” which were top-10 hits, respectively for The Everly Brothers in 1961 and The Casinos in 1967.
Loudermilk was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976.
In acknowledging his death, the Recording Academy’s Neil Portnow noted that Loudermilk “had an uncanny ability to create songs that crossed genres and to draw fans in with captivating stories.”
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