
In the UK he is best known for the smash hit Ma (He's Making Eyes At Me) featuring Marie Adams and the Three Tons of Joy, and a string of great rock and roll singles including Bye Bye Baby, Willie and the Hand Jive, Crazy Country Hop, Castin' My Spell, Telephone Baby and Mumbling Mosie. Other compositions include Every Beat of My Heart, a hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips. In 1969 he recorded an album of sexually explicit material under the name Snatch and the Poontangs and performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Little Esther and Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson. He continued to perform on and off until 2000. He once said: 'As a kid I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black.' Here are a couple of his classics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zow-lD1dnHc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEeeGMpM_Nk
Here are Johnny's obituaries in the Guardian and Independent. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/19/johnny-otis
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/johnny-otis-singer-songwriter-and-bandleader-who-popularised-the-hand-jive-6292146.html
Last Thursday's Suzi Quatro's Radio 2 programme was dedicated to Johnny Otis and was well worth a listen, although constrained by the thirty minute length. It can still be heard until about 9.00 pm tonight here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007klw8.
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