Guess Who

There is just too much good stuff in the world of breakfast cereal, so I have to take my time and savour the purely fucked universe that is breakfast time in the 60's.

That being so, I thought I would educate the reader about the beginnings of rock and roll. On this day in 1960, at just 27 years old, Jesse Belvin died. He was an R&B singer/songwriter, who had he lived was definitely poised to move into that vast ocean of the young white hip consumer.

His first pro gig was as a backing singer for Three Dots and a Dash, of Big Jay McNeely fame. Anxious to move up on his own he signed a deal with Specialty Records (Bumps Blackwell, Sam Cooke, John Lee Hooker) and released song after song till "Dream Girl" made it to #2 on the R&B charts in 1953.

He hit the big time with the Penguin's huge hit, Earth Angel in 1954, co-written with Curtis Williams and Gaynel Hodge. He had success on his own too the following year with Goodnight My Love, featuring a young Barry White on piano.

He recorded with lots of musicians including Johnny "Guitar" Watson, but by the end of the decade he was looking to move away from the pack again and show he had the good. 1959 saw his only major hit "Guess Who" released. An album followed and by 1960 he was moving away from rocking R&B into softer, more melodic ballads, and into mainstream territory.

After giving a concert in Little Rock, Arkansas, the first that allowed a mixed race audience ever in that city, him and his wife died in a head on car accident.