Paul Gilley

Gilley's contributions to songwriting are not widely known; he is not listed in the Oxford New Encyclopedia of Country Music published by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, nor in Barry McCloud's Definitive Country encyclopedia. However, his hometown declared a Paul Gilley Day in 2012, and Kentucky historian W. Lynn Nickell has written a biography, Paul Gilley: The Ghost Writer in the Sky.

Maytown, Kentucky, declared Paul Gilley Day on June 9, 2012, to honor the songwriter. At the same time, a new biography of Gilley was announced, self-published by historian W. Lynn Nickell as Paul Gilley: The Ghost Writer in the Sky. Nickell had gathered material from a wide range of sources, including handwritten lyric sheets in the possession of the son of Gilley collaborator Carter Gibbs.

Gilley wrote song lyrics in high school. In his first year of college, he wrote an essay titled "Getting a Song Published", warning against the "song shark", who asks for payment from the songwriter. In the Morehead Inkpot, Gilley was credited as the writer of "Cold, Cold Heart", jokingly said to have been inspired by a basketball referee. Decades later, music journalist Chet Flippo wrote in 1981 that Gilley traveled to a Nashville bus station, where he met Hank Williams to sell the songs "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". Gilley sold the songs outright because the one-time payment to him was higher if he allowed others to take credit. Historian W. Lynn Nickell wrote in 2012 that the bus-station encounter was in mid-1950, with Williams curious to meet this young songwriter who had already supplied him with a couple of songs, including "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", and that Williams bought "Cold, Cold Heart" at the meeting. Gilley once wrote that it was "not too bad" being uncredited, since "you get paid for the lyrics—sometimes well paid." Gilley was paid in the range of $50 to $400 for each song, equivalent in today's dollars to $560–4,510.

Gilley drowned while swimming in a neighbor's pond on June 16, 1957. He was 27 years old. His protective mother was shattered by the death, and she burned his papers, destroying much of the evidence of his songwriting career. In Billboard magazine, a Dallas music agent wrote to inquire who was handling the Gilley estate, as the agent was still interested in buying two songs written by Gilley and Kratz.

In 1949, Gilley began promoting bluegrass and country music acts, starting with a performance by the Stanley Brothers in Campton. Gilley apparently sold them his song "A Fallen Star", which was later recorded by Jim Reeves, Conway Twitty, and Bill Monroe, though the lyrics were credited to James Joiner. The efforts of Paul Gilley Promotions were mentioned occasionally in Billboard magazine, for instance listing his 1955 clients as Lula Bell Si and her Country Folk, Linville Ball, Paul Hebert, and Bob Nash. In 1956 he promoted Beverly Bresson.

Because of his 6-foot-9-inch (2.06 m) height, Gilley played basketball in high school. He was listed under "Honorable Mention" on the All-State Basketball Squad in 1944. Gilley entered Morehead State College in the fall of 1950 on a basketball scholarship, but he left after the spring semester of 1952. He wrote an article on songwriting for the summer 1951 edition of the student publication, Inkpot, and was featured in the campus newspaper The Trail Blazer in April 1951 and February 1952.

Herbert Paul Gilley (October 1, 1929 – June 16, 1957) was an American country music lyricist and promoter from Kentucky. In his lifetime, he was little known as a songwriter, but decades after his death by drowning at age 27, he was identified more widely as likely having written the lyrics to a dozen famous songs, including two that were hits for Hank Williams: "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". He may have also written "I Overlooked an Orchid", which was a number-one country hit in 1974 for Mickey Gilley (no relation). Other songs that have been attributed to Gilley include "If Teardrops Were Pennies", "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes", and "Crazy Arms".

Gilley was born on a farm in the small town of Maytown, Kentucky, on October 1, 1929, the only child of father McClellan "Clell" Gilley (1889–1963) and mother Nora Alice Gilley (née Phipps, 1890–1958). He grew up a very tall boy, attending high school in nearby Ezel, where he wrote poetry – his friends said he was able to converse in rhyme. At 15, he published a poem in the local newspaper. He enrolled in Hazel Green Academy in Wolfe County, graduating in 1949. During this time, he joined several professional writing associations, including the Poetry Society of America.