Johnny Otis

Known as the "The Godfather of Rhythm and Blues", Johnny Otis crossed racial divides to become a bandleader, television host, political activist, chef, cartoonist and one of the great all round entertainers of the 1950s. Born in California to Greek immigrant parents, he changed his name from Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes in his teens and became one of the first white Americans to perform with black musicians when he played drums with swing orchestras around his home town of Oakland in the mid-1940s. Settling in Los Angeles, he opened The Barrelhouse Club and his house band led the way in turning the city's jazz scene into an R&B craze and launched the careers of Little Esther Phillips, The Coasters, Etta James and saxophonist Big Jay McNeeley. As leader of the Johnny Otis Orchestra he scored a number of R&B hits, including Double Crossing Blues, Cupid Boogie and Gee Baby, and he produced Big Mama Thornton's ground breaking version of Hound Dog - later a huge hit for Elvis Presley. As rock'n'roll started to take shape, Otis (with his new act The Johnny Otis Show) had his biggest crossover hits with Willie And The Hand Jive (1958) and Ma, He's Making Eyes At Me (1957), but by the 1960s his musical output began to wane and he turned his hand to other interests, including becoming a political journalist, a church pastor and running a farm and organic orchard. He released an album of lewd, X-rated R&B grooves under the name Snatch And The Poontangs - which became a cult classic - and hosted a weekly radio show until 2006, before his death in 2012 aged 90.