Benny Barnes (January 1, 1936 – August 15, 1987) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his 1956 hit "Poor Man's Riches". Barnes also owned various Southeast Texas nightclubs in the 1960s and 1970s and continued recording and performing into the 1980s.
Benjamin Milam Barnes, Jr. was born in Beaumont, Texas. After starting out playing a toy ukulele around age ten, the young Barnes eventually switched to guitar and appeared on various Beaumont-area amateur programs through his middle teen years. Following his first marriage at the age of seventeen and a subsequent series of jobs in the oilfield or related industries, Barnes was befriended and mentored by the budding country star George Jones, a hometown hero who also mentored him and had him play rhythm guitar in his road band.
In late 1955 Barnes first came to Houston’s Gold Star Studios as an instrumentalist accompanying Jones on new recordings, at which time Jones introduced him to Starday co-owner and session producer H. W. “Pappy” Daily and suggested that Barnes audition as a prospective featured singer for the label. In March 1956 Barnes returned to Gold Star to make his debut recordings for Starday, resulting in the release of “Once Again” backed with “No Fault of Mine” on 45 rpm disc. The limited but encouraging commercial success of that record led to other sessions that spawned three minor releases on the Dixie label, also owned by Daily.
Barnes’s big break came in August 1956 when he recorded “Poor Man’s Riches.” First issued on Starday, the song promptly became a regional bestseller and was then leased to and reissued nationally by the Nashville-based Mercury label, whereby it later peaked at Number 2 on the Billboard country charts. This led to him making appearances on the Grand Old Opry and becoming a regular on the Louisiana Hayride, but he found a follow-up hit hard to find. In 1959, he recorded ‘Gold Records In The Snow’, a tribute to Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens.
Barnes continued to make records with Daily at Gold Star Studios through 1959, which the producer issued on various labels, including Mercury, Starday, Dixie, and D. However, despite some modest sales and radio airplay, Barnes could never replicate the phenomenal commercial success of “Poor Man’s Riches.” That trend continued through the rest of Barnes’s career as he issued additional tracks on Mercury, the most noteworthy of which, “Yearning,” crested at Number 22 in the Billboard country rankings in 1961.
At this point, Barnes also operated The Blue Lantern in Beaumont. He ran his bar for several years, during which time he wrote a song called ‘Bar With No Beer’ which, to anybody except perhaps Barnes and his family, was literally nothing but a very slight variation of Australian Gordon Parsons’ ‘Pub With No Beer’ (a major hit, in 1959, for Slim Dusty). Billy made many recordings, namely for Hallway (1962-65), Musicor (1965-68), and Kapp (1968). In 1970, Barnes moved to California where he worked for a year, but he soon returned to Beaumont and bought a night club at the Houston Highway called The Benny Barnes Melody Club, where, with his band the Ranch Hands, he proved to be a popular entertainer recording for the Mega label in1972. He kept the club until 1973. Then recorded for the Starday label and in 1976 the Playboy label where ‘I’ve Got Some Getting Over You To Do’ made the charts reaching at a modest number of 94, in 1977.
Benny Barnes died too young at the age of 51. A lifetime spent in smoke filled bars took its inevitable toll. When he became ill and started chemotherapy in June 1987, several musicians including Johnny Preston, Billie Jo Spears, and Jones, performed at benefits to help pay for his medical bills.. According to Enterprise archives, Barnes spent the last three weeks of his life at St. Elizabeth Hospital. He died on Aug. 18, 1987.
One of the best honky-tonk singers was gone. Pappy Daily said of Barnes : "I thought Benny was a fine singer. He was a great artist with a fine stage act. I never could understand why he didn't make it big."
(Edited from Texas State Historical Association, AllMusic, Beaumont Enterprise, Bear Family liner notes & Wikipedia) (* some sources also give date of death as Aug 27th)