Died On This Date (February 7, 1959) Guitar Slim / New Orleans Blues Great
themusicsover Guitar Slim (Born Eddie Jones)
December 10, 1926 – February 7, 1959
Guitar Slim was a New Orleans blues singer and guitarist whose “The Things That I Used To Do” is considered one of the most important records to the birth of rock ‘n roll. Slim learned to play the guitar as a child while working the cotton fields of Mississippi. After serving in the military during WWII, Slim began to build a local following due to his dynamic live shows. He was one of the first to wear outlandishly colorful outfits while sometimes dying his hair to match. And he is likely the first to commonly roam through the audience attached to a long guitar chord. On occasion he’d even walk out the front door of the club and literary stop traffic while playing a solo. He was also one of the earliest users of distortion in his playing. In 1954, he released his biggest hit, “That Thing That I Used To Do,” which was later covered by the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy. Slim’s version was produced and arranged by a young Ray Charles. Just five years later, Guitar Slim died of pneumonia at the age of 32.
What You Should Own
Big Punisher, or Big Pun, was a Puerto Rican-American rapper who exploded out of the South Bronx during the latter part of the ’90s. He first lent his vocal talents to recordings by the Beatnuts, and more famously, Fat Joe, before launching his solo career on Loud Records in 1998. His debut album, Capital Punishment, went to #5 on the Billboard album charts and earned him a Grammy nomination. It was also the first rap album by a solo Latino rapper to sell over a million copies. Unfortunately, health issues cut his life tragically short just two years later. It was no secret that Big Pun was considered obese, which factored in to his premature death by heart attack and respiratory failure at the age of 28.
Blossom Dearie was a bebop jazz vocalist and pianist who became popular during the 1950s. After a brief time working in New York City, Dearie moved to Paris in 1952 and formed a vocal group. She made her first recordings in France before moving back to the United States in the late ’50s. She soon signed to Verve Records who released her first six albums. Dearie’s popularity began to grow in the U.S. thanks in part to regular early appearances on television’s The Today Show. She also recorded a song that became popular from it’s use in a Hires Root Beer ad campaign. Over the course of her long career, she released many popular albums for the biggest jazz and pop labels in the industry. Dearie continued to be a popular club draw in New York City and London well into the 2000s. Later generations were exposed to her songs thanks to placements in such films as The Squid and the Whale and Kissing Jessica Stein. Blossom Dearie was 84 when she passed away on February 7, 2009.
Molly Bee was teenage country star who gained in popularity due to her TV appearances on Hometown Jamboree during the 1950s. Bee was only 10 years old when she was discovered, and by the time she was 13, she had her first hit record with “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” Bee was a popular guest on television variety shows like those of