Ace Cannon
b. Johnny Cannon, 5 May 1934, Grenada, Mississippi, USA. Saxophonist Ace Cannon is best remembered for his 1962 US Top 20 single Tuff, on Hi Records. He began playing saxophone at the age of ten and started working with country bands in Memphis in his teens. In the mid-50s he joined the band of Sun Records artist Billy Lee Riley. In early 1960 Cannon joined the Bill Black Combo and stayed for nearly two years. He signed as a solo artist with Hi in 1961 and recorded Tuff, a song dating back to the '20s. Cannon placed four further singles on the charts, although none was as popular as the first. He stayed with Hi Records until the label expired in the late '70s. He then recorded for other, smaller labels and appeared on the CLASS OF ’55album with fellow Memphis artists Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison.