Mickey Hawks

Who was Mickey Hawks?

David Michael "Mickey" Hawks was an American rockabilly singer and pianist, whose best remembered record, "Bip Bop Boom", has been included on many compilations of the genre after years as a collectible record.

He was born in Thomasville, North Carolina, moving with his family as a child to High Point. He learned piano as a child and listened to Ernest Tubb and Louis Armstrong records, before discovering the music of Little Richard in 1956. With his school friends, he formed a band, the Rhythm Rockers, and came to the attention of local disc jockey Moon Mullins, who had his own band, the Night Raiders. Hawks joined the Night Raiders as vocalist and pianist in 1958; the other members were Mullins, Bill Ballard, John Owens, and Bob Matthews. Influenced by Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula", Hawks wrote "Bip Bop Boom", which they recorded in a Greensboro studio owned by Eddie Robbins. It became the B-side of their first single, "Rock and Roll Rhythm", a song Hawks co-wrote with Matthews, and was released on two local labels, Robbins Red and Mart, before being picked up by the Profile label in Chicago. The label remixed the record, and moved "Bip Bop Boom" to the A-side.