Billy "The Kid" Emerson

A vitally important figure at the nexus of blues and rockabilly, <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Billy "The Kid" Emerson</a> was a pianist, vocalist, and songwriter who cut dozens of excellent R&B sides in the 1950s, but his songs would be best known as performed by other artists. <a href="spotify:artist:43ZHCT0cAZBISjO8DG9PnE">Elvis Presley</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3WrFJ7ztbogyGnTHbHJFl2">the Beatles</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0a85EJEd3a9RGM9ops09rZ">Billy Lee Riley</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4Imc3wiT22cuynvQNpXcVn">Wynonie Harris</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2gCsNOpiBaMNh20jQ5prf0">Buddy Guy</a> were among the musicians who covered his tunes, and his rollicking melodies, boogie woogie-inspired piano work, and clever, playfully witty wordplay inspired plenty of other musicians and tunesmiths. His '50s sides for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sun%22">Sun</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Vee-Jay%22">Vee-Jay</a>, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Chess+Records%22">Chess Records</a> didn't cross over to the pop charts, but he would be rated highly by collectors and blues fans in the years to follow, and late in life he became a respected gospel artist.

William Robert Emerson was born in Tarpon, Springs, Florida on December 21, 1925. He got his start in music playing piano in church, and in his teens he began sitting in with local bands. <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> joined the United States Navy in 1943, and when he was discharged after the end of World War II, he relocated to Tampa, Florida, playing piano with Ivory Mitchell, Alfonso Brown, and Billy Battle. <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> picked up his nickname after landing a standing gig at a club in St. Petersburg; the man who ran the club dressed up his musicians in cowboy gear as a gimmick, which inspired his nickname, borrowed from the famed outlaw. He briefly attended Florida A&M University on an athletic scholarship, but he dropped out and returned to the military, enlisting in the United States Air Force in 1952. <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> was stationed in Greenville, Mississippi when he met guitarist and bandleader <a href="spotify:artist:0FAxkBiT0g3jKF2AaKEipb">Ike Turner</a>, who was touring with his group <a href="spotify:artist:3KBAzxR13j4mPRhf1aSSER">the Kings of Rhythm</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:0FAxkBiT0g3jKF2AaKEipb">Turner</a> liked <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a>'s piano style, and when his military commitments were over, he signed on to play in <a href="spotify:artist:0FAxkBiT0g3jKF2AaKEipb">Turner</a>'s band. <a href="spotify:artist:0FAxkBiT0g3jKF2AaKEipb">Turner</a> had worked with Sam Phillips, the head of Memphis, Tennessee-based <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sun+Records%22">Sun Records</a>, and he arranged an audition for <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:6Epdio7Ic0zhZkhXHFc8qa">Phillips</a> believed <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> had potential, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sun%22">Sun</a> released his debut single, "If Lovin' Is Believing" b/w "No Teasing Around," in 1954, with <a href="spotify:artist:0FAxkBiT0g3jKF2AaKEipb">Turner</a> sitting in on guitar. Between 1954 and 1956, <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> cut five singles for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sun%22">Sun</a>, but <a href="spotify:artist:6Epdio7Ic0zhZkhXHFc8qa">Phillips</a> made greater use of his talents as a songwriter. His tune "Red Hot" was cut by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sun%22">Sun</a> artist <a href="spotify:artist:0a85EJEd3a9RGM9ops09rZ">Billy Lee Riley</a> and became a regional hit. (It was also a staple of <a href="spotify:artist:3WrFJ7ztbogyGnTHbHJFl2">the Beatles</a>' live shows in their early years, and rockabilly revivalist <a href="spotify:artist:1coQ4GcxuazfjZ0MP9JnBF">Robert Gordon</a> would also cut the tune.) <a href="spotify:artist:6Epdio7Ic0zhZkhXHFc8qa">Phillips</a> placed another <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> tune, "When It Rains, It Really Pours," with <a href="spotify:artist:43ZHCT0cAZBISjO8DG9PnE">Elvis Presley</a>; <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> would later tell reporters that the success of artists like <a href="spotify:artist:43ZHCT0cAZBISjO8DG9PnE">Presley</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2zyz0VJqrDXeFDIyrfVXSo">Jerry Lee Lewis</a> led <a href="spotify:artist:6Epdio7Ic0zhZkhXHFc8qa">Phillips</a> to put the label's promotion efforts behind their white artists at the expense of his Black signings.

In 1956, <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> left the South and headed to Chicago, where he signed with the Black-owned R&B label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Vee-Jay%22">Vee-Jay</a>. One of his first singles for the label was "Every Woman I Know (Crazy 'Bout Automobiles)," which would be covered years later by <a href="spotify:artist:05sRO4JdAtJGyZQOTb6kSL">Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1CPwHx5lgVxv0rfcp7UXLx">Ry Cooder</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> cut four fine singles for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Vee-Jay%22">Vee-Jay</a>, but he still wasn't getting the recognition he deserved, and he left for another noted Chicago blues and R&B imprint, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Chess+Records%22">Chess Records</a>. In addition to recording for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Chess%22">Chess</a>, he worked in their artists and repertoire department alongside <a href="spotify:artist:5v8WPpMk60cqZbuZLdXjKY">Willie Dixon</a>, and the two ace songwriters would sometimes collaborate. <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> would only cut three singles for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Chess%22">Chess</a>, but he remained active with the label as a session musician and songwriter; <a href="spotify:artist:78CBFzwo7wwNaaTYVP5btK">Junior Wells</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2gCsNOpiBaMNh20jQ5prf0">Buddy Guy</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:7rmHrwuyVuFNIvikHchsQn">Willie Mabon</a> were among the acts who recorded his material, while he also cut sides for smaller Chicago labels including <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22USA+Records%22">USA Records</a>. In 1966, <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> sued Sam Phillips, alleging years of non-payment of songwriting royalties for "Red Hot," and he received a settlement of $2,500. <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> used it as seed money to launch his own label, Tarpon Records, where he put out singles of his own material, as well as sides by future stars <a href="spotify:artist:0GVO1kqJHVxOarPgex9K15">Denise La Salle</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:7nc1uZa6SAT2mgrvoQfn5A">Matt "Guitar" Murphy</a>.

In the '70s, as he found less work in the record business, <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> put a new emphasis on live work, playing night clubs and appearing at European blues festivals, and in 1978, after a near-death experience, he embraced Christianity and became a minister and choral director for a church in Chicago. He took part in the 1979 American Folk Blues Legends tour of Europe, but after that he turned his back on secular music and wrote and performed sacred music exclusively. As his songs continued to be heard, <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> was honored with induction into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, and in 2017, he received the Florida Folk Heritage Award for his career in music. In 2009, the German reissue label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Bear+Family+Records%22">Bear Family Records</a> issued Red Hot: The Sun Years Plus, an anthology that compiled his rare single sides for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sun%22">Sun</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Vee-Jay%22">Vee-Jay</a>, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Chess%22">Chess</a>. In his later years, <a href="spotify:artist:5Y1fDUKYkFE1M4ALzFGdfF">Emerson</a> retired to his hometown of Tarpon Springs, where he had the distinction of being the last living <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sun%22">Sun</a> recording artist. He was living in an elder care facility in Tarpon Springs when he died on April 27, 2023, at the age of 97. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi