Rosco Gordon

Memphis-born Rosco Gordon was a fixture on the local blues scene when he was just a teenager, as a pianist and singer. His vocal style was termed "eccentric"--he went in for moaning, wailing, slurring and scrambling his words--and tended to mix his piano styles between blues and boogie-woogie. In the 1950s he hung with such icons as Johnny Ace and Bobby Bland, who would all record and even broadcast together. In 1951 Gordon signed with the renowned Sam Phillips. Phillips released Gordon's songs on both his own Sun label and leased others out to such labels as Modern---he released Gordon's 1953 "Booted" on both Sun and Modern, and it reached #1 on the R&B charts--and Duke. A few years later Gordon left Sun for RPM Records, but although he had one hit for them, all his other recordings were unsuccessful. In 1955 Gordon went back to Phillips but that lasted until 1958 and then he left again. He signed with Vee-Jay Records in 1959 and had one hit, "Just a Little Bit", but his timing was u