Although born in Huntsville, Arkansas, on January 10, 1935, rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins enjoyed most of his success in Canada, where he released a string of Top 40 hits from the late-1950s through the early '70s. After graduating high school, he headed to Canada with his band, The Hawks, and made his recording debut with 1958's "Summertime." Although the song wasn't a hit, Hawkins climbed to Number 4 on the Canadian charts with 1959's "Forty Days," then hit Number 6 that same year with "Mary Lou." The latter song also became a Top 40 hit in America, but Hawkins focused his attention on Canada, where 1963's "Bo Diddley" and 1965's "Bluebirds over the Mountain" both became Top 10 hits. A mentor for younger artists, he notably filled with backing band with musicians like Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel, all of whom would later back Bob Dylan before forming their own iconic group, The Band. A prolific entertainer, he earned a string of adult contemporary hits in Canada during the 1970s (including the Number 2 smash "Patricia"), appeared in The Band's 1978 documentary film The Last Waltz, and won the Juno Award for "Best Country Male Vocalist" with 1984's Making It Again. More than a decade later, he returned to the Canadian country charts with Let It Rock, a Juno-nominated, gold-certified concert album that captured a live performance on his sixtieth birthday. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003 and went into remission years later, only for the dancer to return during his 80s. He passed away at 87 years old on May 29, 2022, heralded as one of the architects of Canadian rock and country music.
