Billy Stewart (March 24, 1937 – January 17, 1970) was an American musical artist, with a extremely distinctive scat-singing type, who loved recognition within the Sixties.
Stewart was 12 years outdated when he started singing together with his youthful brothers Johnny, James, and Frank as The 4 Stewart Brothers, and later went on to get their very own radio present each Sunday for 5 years at WUST-AM in Washington, D.C.
Stewart made the transition to secular music by filling in sometimes for The Rainbows, a D.C. space vocal group led by the longer term soul star, Don Covay. It was additionally by means of The Rainbows that Stewart met one other aspiring singer, Marvin Gaye. Rock and curler Bo Diddley has been credited with discovering Stewart enjoying piano in Washington, D.C. in 1956 and alluring him to be one among his backup musicians.
This led to a recording contract with Diddley’s label, Chess Information and Diddley performed guitar on Stewart’s 1956 recording of “Billy’s Blues”. A robust vendor in Los Angeles, “Billy’s Blues” reached the gross sales prime 25 in Selection journal. Stewart then moved to Okeh Information and recorded “Billy’s Heartache”, backed by the Marquees, one other D.C. space group which featured Marvin Gaye.
Again at Chess within the early Sixties, Stewart started working with A&R man Billy Davis. He recorded a tune referred to as “Fats Boy” after which had further success together with his recordings of “Reap What You Sow” and “Unusual Feeling”, each making the Billboard Scorching 100 and the Prime 30 within the R&B charts. Main chart success was not distant and in 1965, Stewart recorded two self-written songs, “I Do Love You” (#6 R&B, #26 Pop), which featured his brother Johnny Stewart as one of many backing vocalists together with his companion James English, and “Sitting within the Park” (#4 R&B, #24 Pop). His idiosyncratic improvisational strategy of doubling-up, scatting his phrases and trilling his lips made his type distinctive within the Sixties.[citation needed]
In 1966, Stewart recorded the LP Unbelievable. The primary single launched from that album was Stewart’s radical interpretation of the George Gershwin tune, “Summertime”, a Prime 10 hit on each the pop and R&B charts. The follow-up single was Stewart’s cowl model of the Doris Day hit “Secret Love”, which reached the Pop Prime 30 and simply missed the Prime 10 on the R&B chart.
Stewart continued to file all through the rest of the Sixties on Chess with out main success. A weight drawback worsened, and he developed diabetes. Stewart suffered minor accidents in a motorbike accident in 1969.
Stewart died in a automotive accident the next January in 1970, simply two months previous to his thirty third birthday. The accident occurred when the Ford Thunderbird that Stewart was driving approached a bridge throughout the Neuse River. Stewart’s automotive left the freeway, ran alongside the median strip at a slight angle to the freeway, struck the bridge curbing, and plunged into the river, killing Stewart and his three passengers immediately. The automotive had been bought solely 12 days earlier than and had been pushed only one,400 miles earlier than the accident occurred.Supply