Charlie V. Looper

Charles Looper and the Loopers - She's My Baby Now (Jaggars unreleased)

Charles Verill "Charlie" Looper was born on February 10, 1938, in Bismarck, Hot Spring County, Arkansas, a tiny community southwest of Hot Springs. He was the only son of his Doyle and Eunice Looper but had three sisters - an older one and two younger ones. By 1940, the family had moved within the boundaries of Hot Spring County to an even tinier place called Valley Township.

Batesville Guard
July 24, 1958

He became interested in music and began performing as early as the mid 1950s. We first find mention of Looper in the Hope Star, which mentioned him playing a "string solo". He was performing rockabilly three  years later and appeared at the Melba Theatre with such groups as the Jokers, the Martin Sisters, and the Del Reys. He founded a band called the Loopers eventually and they made a demo rockabilly recording probably in the late 1950s at Jaggars Recording Studio in Little Rock. "She's My Baby Now", which has survived, fortunately, was later reissued on a few compilations put out by Bison/Buffalo Bop and Norton.

Looper joined the US Navy and did service for 30 years. The Navy possibly sent him to the San Francisco area, and it seems he continued his musical ambitions there. In 1963, a band known as "Charlie Looper and the Space Men" recorded a single for the Karl label, which was presumably operated by Barbara Karl. The disc featured "But It Did" and "40 Acres on the Moon", which was oriented towards the softer teen doo-wop market. The record did good enough for him that it was taken over by the Bagdad label in late 1963 as by "Chuck Looper".

Following his retirement from the Navy, Looper worked for the Texas Department of Corrections. He returned to Arkansas and lived with his wife Lacie in Fouke near the Texas border. Looper passed away on June 4, 2017, in Fouke and was buried at Chapelwood Memorial Gardens in Wake Village, Texas, near Texarkana.

Discography

Jaggars No.#: She's My Baby Now / [other side blank] 
Karl R-2223: Charlie Looper and the Space Men - But It Did / 40 Acres on the Moon (1963)
Bagdad SR-1009: Chuck Looper - But It Did / 40 Acres on the Moon (1963)

Sources

• 45cat entry

• Rockin' Country Style entry on Charlie V. Looper and Charles Looper

• Find a Grave entry

• Official census records accessed through Ancestry.com