Billy "The Kid" Emerson
b. William Robert Emerson, 21 December 1929, Tarpon Springs, Florida, USA. Emerson's father was a blues singer and the young Emerson played piano with the Billy Battle Band and other local groups before serving in the forces in 1952-54. On his return, he joined Ike Turner's band in Memphis. Here Emerson made his first records for Sun which displayed his talent for wordplay and included No Teasing Around, the jive-talking The Woodchuck and Red Hot, a song later taken up by rockabilly singer Billy Lee Riley and by Bob Luman. He moved to Chicago soon afterwards, playing piano or organ on numerous recording sessions and releasing singles under his own name in 1955-57 for VeeJay(Every Woman I Know Is Crazy About An Automobile, later revived by Ry Cooder) and in 1958-59 for Chess (I'll Get You Too). There were later records for Mad (1960), M-Pac (the dance craze song The Whip,1963) and USA (1963) before Emerson formed his own Tarpon label in the mid-60s. Among his Tarpon singles was I Dig The Funky Broadway.