Harold Lloyd Jenkins (1933-93) was a Mississippi boy named after silent movie star Harold Lloyd. The family moved to Arkansas when he was ten years old. It was there that he formed his first vocal group. Two years later, he had his own local radio show on Saturday mornings. He also played baseball, his second passion. He received an offer to play with the Phillies after high school but was drafted into the Army. He served in the Far East and organized a group called the Cimmerons to entertain fellow GI’s.
Once home, a neighbor suggested that Harold could make it in the music industry. Soon after hearing Elvis sing, he began writing rock and roll material. He went to Sun Records in Memphis and worked with the legendary Sam Phillips.
Accounts of how Harold Jenkins became Conway Twitty vary. One version is that in 1957, Jenkins decided that his real name wasn’t marketable. He was looking at a road atlas when he spotted the towns of Conway (AR) and Twitty (TX).
In 1958, using his new stage name, Twitty's fortunes improved while he was with MGM Records. An Ohio radio station didn’t play the “A” side of his record, instead playing the B-side, “It’s Only Make Believe,” a song written between sets by Twitty and drummer Jack Nance when they were touring Canada. The record took nearly a year to break but became his first hit, earning him a Gold Record.
In the mid-Sixties, he would return to his first love, country music, and establish a whole new career.