Died On This Date (October 7, 1966) Smiley Lewis / New Orleans R&B Legend
themusicsover Smiley Lewis (Born Overton Lemons)
July 5, 1913 – October 7, 1966
Smiley Lewis was a New Orleans R&B artist who got his start in the clubs throughout the French Quarter during the late ’30s. He released his first album, Here Comes Smiley Lewis on DeLuxe Records in 1947. In 1950, producer Dave Bartholomew recorded Lewis for Imperial Records. The sessions resulted in his biggest hits, “Tee Nah Nah,” “The Bells Are Ringing,” and the first recorded version of the R&B standard, “I Hear You Knocking” which would later be recorded by the likes of Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dave Edmunds, and Canned Heat. His “Blue Monday” became a hit for Domino while his “One Nigh,t” as covered by Elvis Presley, reached #4 on the Billboard singles chart in 1958. Smiley Lewis was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1965 and died from it on October 7, 1966. He was 53 years old.
What You Should Own
Johnny Kidd was the lead singer and songwriter for Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, a British band that was building momentum just before the Beatles broke, but soon became overshadowed by them. There sound was the blueprint from which garage rock was built. In 1960, the band released the Kidd-written “Shakin’ All Over” which shot to the top of the UK charts. The Guess Who had a hit in the US with it in 1965, and the Who’s 1970 live version from Live At Leeds ultimately became the recognizable version of it. Johnny Kidd was 30 years old when he was killed in a car accident on October 7, 1966.
Eddie Kendricks was a co-founder of the Motown hit-making vocal group, the Temptations. It is his falsetto voice that can be heard on such classic songs as “Just My Imagination,” “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” and “Get Ready.” He also scored a #1 single as a solo artist with 1970’s “Keep On Truckin.'” Kendricks’ run with the Temptations was from 1960 until he went solo in 1971. The ’70s were hit and miss as far as his career went. After “Keep On Truckin,” he had a few minor hits. The ’80s found him reuniting with the Temptations a couple of times and finding a new audience thanks to some help from Hall & Oates who invited him to sing with them on a live album and a couple of television events including Live Aid. In 1991, the same year that fellow Temptation, 
Woody Guthrie was arguably America’s most important folk singer and songwriter. Over a career that spanned a quarter century, Guthrie penned 100s of songs, many lending a voice to the common man. He also wrote many children’s songs. He wrote about the plight of the migrant worker, stories he learned first-hand as he traveled among them throughout the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Many such songs are archived in the Library of Congress, and one in particular, “This Land Is Your Land,” is sung in elementary schools across the US. In the late ’40s, Guthrie’s health began to deteriorate while his mental state seemed to come into question. At the time, some thought it might be due to schizophrenia and alcoholism. As it turned out, he was diagnosed in 1952 with a neurological disorder called Huntington’s disease. He spent several of his final years in psychiatric hospitals. With his health and mind failing during the folk revival of he early ’60s, he eld court with some of the day’s up-and-coming troubadors who admired him, most famously, Bob Dylan, 