JOHNNY OTIS: Well, this goes back to the mid '40s, and it was my first record date with my own band, as I recall. And we did three things. I went to the producer after we had completed the third one ...

No matter how talented a singer might be, more often than not, what Mom says goes—at least, that’s what Etta James was dealing with when she was figuring out how to get to Los Angeles to cut a record ...

You know, we'd all seen pictures of Johnny Otis with the nice hair, and he looked like a tall kind of a, like, a Creole man with a nice mustache and a beard, and he - you know, and the nice pompadour ...

Otis had several R&B hits in the early '50s, and in 1958, his record "Willie And The Hand Jive" made it to the top 10 of the rock 'n' roll chart. Although Otis is a pioneer of R&B and played almost ...

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's continue our archive series R&B, rockabilly and early rock 'n' roll with rhythm and blues singer Etta James. She got her start at the age of 15 when she was ...

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Today, we continue our archive series R&B, rockabilly and early rock 'n' roll. Before Elvis Presley recorded "Hound Dog," it was recorded by Big Mama Thornton. The ...

Otis, who died in 2012, started out leading a big band. Later, as a talent scout, he discovered such performers as Big Mama Thornton, Esther Phillips and Etta James. Originally broadcast in 1989.