Mickey Gilley, the country music crooner and piano player who reignited his career in John Travolta's 'Urban Cowboy' film, has died at 86.
As a showman, Gilley — the cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis — exuded charisma. He wore a massive cowboy hat with a feather band and sparkly rings and pendants, often in the shape of his initials. In 1976, he turned an offensive-by-today’s-standards song called “Don’t the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time” into a Number One on sheer charm, delivering outrageous lyrics about rating women on a scale of 1 to 10 with a sly wink.
Enter John Travolta. In 1980, the movie heartthrob introduced country & western cosplay to America as the star of, a film about an oil worker who lets off steam riding the mechanical bull at Gilley’s club. Based on a 1979 story, the movie became a pop-culture sensation and spawned a smash soundtrack featuring songs by Kenny Rogers, Charlie Daniels Band, and Johnny Lee, whose “Lookin’ for Love” was all but inescapable at the time. Gilley also had a cut on the soundtrack — a version of Ben E.
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