Little Willie John
b. William Edgar John, 15 November 1937, Cullendale, Arkansas, USA, d. 26 May 1968. The brother of singer Mable John, Willie was one of the most popular '50s R&B performers. His first hit, All Around The World, also known as Grits Ain't Groceries, was followed by a spectacular double-sided smash, Need Your Love So Bad/’Home At Last’. The a-side of this successful coupling was later recorded by Fleetwood Mac. It was followed by Fever/’Letter From My Darling’, both sides of which also reached the US R&B Top 10. Fever, written by Otis Blackwell (as Davenport) and Eddie Cooley, was a million-selling single in its own right, topping that particular chart in May 1956. However, the song is more closely associated with Peggy Lee, who took the song into the US and UK charts in 1958. Talk To Me, Talk To Me gave Little Willie John another gold disc that year, while in 1959 he scored further success with Leave My Kitten Alone, a favoured song of British beat groups. The singer's professional career faltered during the '60s while his private life ended in tragedy. Convicted of manslaughter in 1966, John died of a heart attack in Washington State Prison in 1968.