Career
Dollar relocated to Dallas in the early 1950s, where he worked in trucking and in a lumber yard. In 1952 he recorded a single for Doctorate Records, but it didn"t catch on, and Dollar then found work as a DJ in Louisiana and New Mexico. There he began fronting a group called the Texas Sons and performed on the Louisiana Hayride in the middle of the 1950s.
Following this he played with the Light Crust Doughboys, but soon returned to Dallas, where he began performing in the nascent style of rockabilly.
Working with promoter Editor McLemore and songwriter Jack Rhodes, he recorded a number of songs, but they were never issued, and Dollar soon left music, taking up work as an insurance salesman in Oklahoma. In 1964, he met Ray Price, and this encounter led to a contract with Columbia Records.
Through the second half of the 1960s, he had a number of hits for Dot Records, Date Records, and Chart Records. Among them were "Big Big Rollin" Manitoba" (United States Country Number 48, 1968) and "Big Wheels Sing for Maine" (United States Country Number 65, 1969).
His best-selling album was 1968"s Johnny Dollar, which reached Number.
41 on the United States. Billboard Country chart. Foreign much of the 1970s, Dollar did production work, for The New Coon Creek Girls, Jimmy Dickens, and Teddy Nelson, among others He committed suicide on April 13, 1986.
