"Sweet Rockin' Music". Devastated by the failure of his rock sides, Owen Bradley convinced Mullican to record his original songs in the burgeoning new style of country music, the Nashville sound. However, Bradley was frustrated with Mullican; he reportedly said himself, "There was nothing I could do with him." Mullican, whose style was largely in traditional honky tonk, found it difficult to make such a large adjustment to his style. Consequently, he was dropped from Coral in 1959. In the early 1960s, Mullican was a largely forgotten figure nationally, but based himself in Texas and carried on gigging and recording for the Starday and Spar labels. The decade saw him record country songs such as "I'll Pour the Wine" and "Love Don't Have a Guarantee", together with less notable oddities including "I Ain't No Beatle, But I Wanna Hold Your Hand". One of his last records was "Love That Might Have Been". However, Mullican had a heart condition, although he continued to perform regularly. On New Year's Eve 1966, he suffered a heart attack in Beaumont, Texas, and died early in the morning on January 1, 1967. He and his wife, Eunice, who survived him (she died in 1973), had no children. Influence During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Mullican influenced many other country artists. He had defined a style of country balladeering not hinted at in his 1930s work. This style of music influenced Jim Reeves (a band member for a while), Hank Williams (who named Mullican as a favorite artist), Hank Snow, Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, and especially Jerry Lee Lewis, who covered many of Mullican's songs. It was in the realm of hillbilly boogie, however, that Mullican had his greatest influence. Many of his songs, such as "Pipeliners Blues", "Hey! Mister Cotton-Picker" and "Cherokee Boogie" (his biggest hit, in 1951) directly foreshadowed the style adopted by Haley and later rock and rollers. Mullican also influenced many others, some of whom recorded tribute CDs to mark Mullican's 100th birthday in 2009, and the Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel, who recorded his song "Cherokee Boogie" on their 1973 album Comin' Right At Ya. Mullican is also believed to have co-written "Jambalaya," a song made famous by Hank Williams that could not be credited to Mullican because of his contract with King Records. Mullican's recording of the song was released in July 1952, the same month as