Regarded as an architect of the “Bakersfield Sound,” Collins performed on the “Town Hall Party” radio series from California in the early 1950s, employing a young Buck Owens in his band. Tommy’s first chart record became one of 1954’s biggest hits, “You Better Not Do That,” which spent seven weeks at #2 on Billboard’s country chart (blocked from the top spot by Webb Pierce’s “Slowly”).
The following year, Collins reached the Top 15 with the first version of Werly Fairburn’s “I Guess I’m Crazy,” later a seven-week chart-topper for Jim Reeves in 1964. Tommy wrote (although he didn’t record) “If You Ain’t Lovin’ (You Ain’t Livin’),” a #2 hit for Faron Young in 1955. The song was covered by George Strait, becoming his 15th number one single on December 10, 1988.
In later years, Collins wrote songs for Mel Tillis’ publishing company, Sawgrass Music, and Mel took one of them, “New Patches,” into the Top Ten in 1984. Tommy was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1999. He lived out his final years at his farm near Ashland City, Tennessee, dying of emphysema on March 14, 2000 at the age of 69.