Leroy Van Dyke’s first job as a livestock auctioneer inspired the song that brought him to fame back in 1956.

This is a hoot. It takes me back to my first job at Christies, though there was none of that fast-talking rat-a-tat-tat you hear at livestock auctions; more a case of raised hands, raised eyebrows and a knowing smile from an old Etonian with a hammer.

I’d never heard of Leroy Van Dyke until my Kiwi chum Dojo named him as his favourite singer the other day, so I looked him up and here he is doing his trademark thing – combining a rural persona with countrypolitan charm.

Best known, apparently, for a chart-topping 1961 single called Walk On By (but not that one), he actually came to fame five years earlier with this tune, following a brief period as a livestock auctioneer himself – using real “calls” in the song.

Van Dyke had originally wanted to be a farmer and earned a degree in agriculture and journalism at the University of Missouri, where he first began playing guitar, going on to work as a newspaper reporter.

He returned to journalism in Chicago after serving in the Korean War, where he kept up his musical sideline, performing for his fellow conscripts.

He entered this self-penned song in a talent contest on a Chicago radio station in 1956 and the DJ, Buddy Black, agreed to manage his career, slipping a page into the contract that gave himself co-writing credits and half the song’s royalties – an unscrupulous and highly profitable scam when the song sold 2.5 million copies.

In 1961 Van Dyke moved to Nashville and signed with Mercury Records and Walk On By – a classic country cheatin’ song with a fast two-step rhythm – topped the country charts for 19 weeks and crossed over to the top five of the pop charts, earning him a Grammy nomination.

It’s since been named by Billboard as the biggest country song of all time, based on a combination of sales (1.5m), plays and weeks in the chart (42).

He only had one other minor UK hit – Big Man In A Big House – but the US hits kept coming and included If A Woman Answers (Hang Up the Phone) and Black Cloud, Roses From A Stranger and Louisville in 1968.

He then became one of the first country stars to package and perform his own show in Vegas and went on to perform in the country music tourist mecca of Branson, Missouri close to his 1,000-acre ranch, where he raises Arabian mules with his wife Gladys, a former court reporter and legal secretary.

Now aged 95, he remains active in various music industry bodies as well as a member of the National Auctioneers Association Hall Of Fame (I know, who knew!), and only recently gave up his regular appearances at agricultural trade shows and livestock auctions, fairs, festivals and rodeos.