Ted Daffan

Theron Eugene

Theron Eugene "Ted" Daffan (September 21, 1912 - October 6, 1996) was an American country musician noted for composing the seminal Truck Driver's Blues and the much covered Country anthem Born to Lose.

Daffan was born in Beauregard Parish, Louisiana. He lived in Texas in the 1930s, working in an instrument repair shop in Houston.

In the late 1930s Western Swing bandleader Milton Brown convinced Daffin to start performing. Soon after he scored his first success as a songwriter with "Truck Drivin' Blues", one of the first truck-driving songs, a motif which would come to dominate country music for decades.
Daffan wrote the seminal "Truck Drivers' Blues" after he stopped at a roadside diner and noticed that every time a trucker parked his rig and strolled into the cafe, the first thing he did, even before ordering a cup of coffee, was push a coin in the jukebox. He decided to write a song to capture some of the truck drivers' nickels and make himself rich and famous. Recorded by western swing artist Cliff Bruner (with Moon Mullican on lead vocal) in 1939, the song sold more than 100,000 copies, the best-selling record of that year.[1] It was later featured in James Jones' best-selling novel, "From Here to Eternity."
Forming his own band, The Texans, Daffan scored a string of hits, including "Worried Mind", "Born to Lose", "Those Blue Eyes Are Not Shining Anymore", "She Goes The Other Way" and "No Letter Today". "Born to Lose" may have sold as many as 7 million copies.

Daffan left active performance in the 1960s, and founded a Nashville-based publishing house with Hank Snow. He retired to Houston, but retained interests in the publishing business for a time. He died in 1996 in Houston, Texas

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