Earl King
b. Earl Silas Johnson IV, 7 February 1934, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The son of a blues pianist, King became an accomplished guitarist and singer with local bands before making his first recordings in 1953 for Savoy (Have You Gone Crazy) and Specialty (A Mother‘s Love). Strongly influenced by Guitar Slim (Eddie * Jones), during the mid-'50s he worked with Huey Smith's band and made his biggest hit, Those Lonely Lonely Nights with Smith on piano. This was on Johnny Vincent's Ace label, for whom King was house guitarist. 
In 1958, he made a version of Everyone Has To Cry Sometime as Handsome Earl. He went on to record for Rex and Imperial where he made Come On and the R&B hit Trick Bag (1962) which featured King's influential guitar figures. He was also starting to enjoy success as a songwriter, composing the Lee Dorsey hit Do Re Mi, He‘s Mine for Bernadine Washington, Big Chief recorded by Professor Longhair and Teasin‘ You, Willie Tee's 1965 R&B hit. Jimmy Clanton, Dr. John and Fats Domino were others who recorded King compositions. During the '60s and early '70s, King himself made recordings for Amy , Wand, Atlantic, and Motown, though the Allen Toussaint-produced Atlantic session was not released until 1981 and the Motown tracks remain unissued. King remained active into the '80s, recording with Roomful Of Blues for Black Top. His Imperial tracks were reissued by EMI + EMI Records in 1987.