Mickey Leroy Gilley is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer and musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as well. Among his biggest hits are "Room Full of Roses

Room Full of Roses

"Room Full of Roses", written by Tim Spencer, is a song first recorded in 1949 by country music singer George Morgan, and famously covered in 1974 by up-and-coming singer Mickey Gilley...

," "Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time

Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time

"Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time" is the title of a song written by Baker Knight and recorded by American country music artist Mickey Gilley. The song became Gilley's fifth No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart...

," and the remake of the Soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 hit "Stand by Me

Stand by Me (song)

"Stand by Me" is the title of a song originally performed by Ben E. King and written by King, Jerry Leiber, and Mike Stoller, based on the spiritual "Lord Stand by Me,", plus two lines rooted in Psalms 46:2-3...

". He is also the cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...

, Carl McVoy

Carl McVoy

Carl McVoy was an American pianist.McVoy was cousin to the younger Jerry Lee Lewis. He had been to New York with his father, who had been a minister there. McVoy got hooked on boogie-woogie while in New York, which he subsequently brought back to Pine Bluff, Arkansas...

, Jim Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart

Jimmy Swaggart

Jimmy Lee Swaggart is a Pentecostal American pastor, teacher, musician, television host, and televangelist. He has preached to crowds around the world through his weekly telecast...

.
He was born to Mr.