Carl Mann

Mann was born in Huntingdon, Tennessee, and raised in rural western Tennessee. His parents owned a lumber business. A child musical prodigy, he learned to play the guitar by age eight, sang in church, and by the age of eleven also began to perform country songs for local talent shows in nearby Jackson, Tennessee.

In 1957 at the age of 15, Mann released his first single on Jaxon Records, "Gonna Rock and Roll Tonight" b/w "Rockin' Love". After he released several more singles on Jaxon, W.S. Holland became Mann's manager, and took the young singer to Sun Records. (Holland was the drummer for singer/songwriter Carl Perkins.

Sun owner Sam Phillips signed Mann to a three-year contract, and soon after, Sun released Mann's rockabilly version of Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa" in 1959. Mann and Conway Twitty released single versions of the tune at the same time that year, and both charted; it was sixteen-year-old Mann's first hit, peaking at No. 24 on the US R&B Singles chart and No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. It ultimately sold a million records.