Billy Adams, a Rockabilly Hall of Famer who wrote and recorded the mid-1950s rockabilly staple “Rock, Pretty Mama,” died March 30 in Westmoreland, Tenn. He was 79. Clif Doyal, Mr. Adams’s publicist ...

He and his sister became child stars in the 1950s by making exuberantly unhinged music. “I had so much energy,” he said, “they didn’t know what to do with me.” By Bill Friskics-Warren Larry Collins, ...