Rosco Gordon
| Rosco Gordon | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Rosco N. Gordon III |
| Born |
April 10, 1928 Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | July 11, 2002 (aged 74) Queens, New York, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Blues |
| Years active | 1950–2002 |
| Labels | Sun, Chess, RPM, Vee-Jay |
Rosco N. Gordon III (April 10, 1928 – July 11, 2002) was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known for his 1952 No. 1 R&B hit single, "Booted", and two No. 2 singles, "No More Doggin'" (1952, RPM 350) and "Just a Little Bit" (1960, Vee-Jay 332).
Gordon was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up on Florida street. He was a pioneer of the Memphis blues style. He made a number of his early recordings for Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Gordon played piano in a style known as "the Rosco rhythm", with the emphasis on the off-beat. This rhythm was an influence on the Jamaican pianist Theophilus Beckford and hence on reggae music as a whole.
"Booted" and "No More Doggin'" were both released in 1952. Phillips sold the master of "Booted" to both RPM (owned by the Bihari brothers) and Chess Records (owned by Leonard and Phil Chess), and both labels released the track as a single. The RPM release reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B record chart. Chess and the Bihari brothers later settled the conflict, with the Biharis getting exclusive rights to Gordon and Chess signing Howlin' Wolf to an exclusive contract.
Gordon's last single to reach the charts was "Just a Little Bit" (1960). In 1962, he gave up the music industry and moved to Queens, New York, with his new wife, where he purchased a partnership in a laundry business. Following his wife's death in 1984, he returned to performing in the New York area.
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