This section is missing information about Willis's life before the start of his career. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.(May 2019)
Willis was born on February 27, 1938, in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1956 Willis began his recording and performing career with Conway Twitty and his band "The Rockhousers,"[6] who had record contracts with Mercury Records Nashville and MGM Records. Willis performed many songs with Conway Twitty, including "Shake It Up" and "I Need Your Loving". The latter was also Twitty's first record to hit the Billboard charts, peaking at #93. In 1957, during a tour stop in Toronto, Canada at The Brass Rail, Willis left Conway Twitty's band and joined Sun Records artist Billy Lee Riley's band, "The Little Green Men."[7][8] As a Sun Studio musician, Willis used his experience with rock-and-roll, jazz, blues, and country music, in addition to his abilities to quickly transpose music and play guitar keys with his saxophones, to add to the emerging "Rockabilly"-sound.[9] An example of his transposition is when he played a regular C-note as an A-note on the Alto/Baritone saxophone with an A♯-note for the tenor, while the piano and guitars played their original notes and chord progression as written.[10] He collaborated with several other Sun musicians in their songs, including with Jerry Lee Lewis in "I'll Sail My Ship Alone" and "Hang Up My Rock And Roll Shoes,"[11] with Roy Orbison in “I Like Love” and "The Fools' Hall of Fame,"[12] and with Charlie Rich in "Lonely Weekends."[13] Willis also recorded and went on tour with Charlie Rich's band.
After the birth of his son in 1965, Willis wanted to settle down to family life and take a break from traveling and performing.[20] One of his fans from his supper club performing days, Kemmons Wilson, gave him a job managing a club. Willis was subsequently promoted, becoming the food and beverage manager at the Peabody Hotel. In 1968, he was chosen to manage new hotels being built in Daytona Beach, Florida. For the next thirty-five years, Willis became a well-sought businessman and recognized official in the hotel management industry.[26][27] In 1978 he became a widower at the age of 40 when his wife died. After the death of one of his daughters in 2001, Willis retired in 2005 to Valrico, Florida, making his last performance the next year with Billy Lee Riley and "The Little Green Men" at the Memphis in May music festival.[28] Two years after the death of his second daughter in 2010, Willis began suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's disease. On February 13, 2018, Willis died following complications from a fall and broken hip. He was buried with his wife and daughters in the Masonic section of the Hillsboro Memorial Gardens cemetery in Brandon, Florida.[29]
Discography
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^"Rockabilly - music". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
^Burke, Ken and Dan Griffin. The Blue Moon Boys - The Story of Elvis Presley's Band. Chicago Review Press, 2006. pp. 143. ISBN1556526148 ; ISBN9781556526145. [1]
^Anglares, Dominique. "Martin Willis' Musical Sojourn and Legacy." The Big Beat of the 50s. Issue 149. September 2018. pp. 10-18.
^Nott, Simon. "As The Wind Blows: Martin Willis". Vive Le Rock. Volume 36. June 2016. p. 82.