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 unfortunate--interest in R&B began to fade in the early 1960s and his career waned. He moved to New York City and recorded a few releases for Columbia and ABC-Paramount, and the even smaller Old Town Records, but nothing seemed to help. In 1969 he started his own label, Bab-Roc, when he couldn't find any other labels that would sign him. He continued to release records into the 1970s, but eventually he faded from the R&B scene.