Music
Skeets McDonald
1915–1968 · country and rockabilly singer, songwriter
Arkansas-born honky-tonk singer who learned his trade in Detroit's Depression-era country scene and cut his first records for the city's Fortune label before his No. 1 hit “Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes.”
- Born
Greenway, Arkansas- Died
Los Angeles, California
aged 52- Birth name
- Enos William McDonald
- Also known as
- Skeets Saunders
- Detroit years
- early 1930s–1951
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Like thousands of Southerners drawn by the auto plants, Enos “Skeets” McDonald followed an older brother to Detroit in the early 1930s. He joined his first band, the Lonesome Cowboys, in 1935, then led his own group in taverns and on radio in Flint and Pontiac. After Army service in World War II, which earned him a Bronze Star, he returned to radio and early television work in Dearborn. In 1950 he made his first recordings for Detroit's Fortune Records with Johnnie White and his Rough Riders. He moved to Los Angeles in 1951, signed with Capitol, and in 1952 topped the country chart for three weeks with “Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes.” His later rockabilly sides, some with a young Eddie Cochran on guitar, became collector favorites, and his Detroit years are a key chapter in the city's often overlooked country music history.
Highlights
- First recordings for Detroit's Fortune Records (1950)
- “Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes” was No. 1 country for three weeks (1952)
- Rockabilly sides with Eddie Cochran, including “You Oughta See Grandma Rock”
- Radio and TV work in Pontiac, Flint and Dearborn in the 1940s
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Recorded here · 1950
Fortune Records
Closed
Jack and Devora Brown's independent Detroit label, known for country, doo-wop and R&B; he made his first records here.