Daily Travels/Before and After: Casting My Spell On You (in memory of Johnny Otis)

Live from the Johnny Otis Memorial Office

Johnny Otis

Johnson Brothers (1959)

The Measles (1965)

Wilko Johnson's Solid Senders (1981)

Johnny Otis RIP

 Johnny Otis - RIP

"Born white, the son of Greek immigrant parents, and raised in a predominantly black neighborhood in Northern California in the 1920s, Otis decided as a youth that he'd rather be black.

The choice put him on a path to a life in music during which he created the sensually pulsing 1958 hit "Willie and the Hand Jive." It also gave him a deep connection to black culture that helped him discover such future stars of R&B and rock as Etta James, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Hank Ballard and Little Esther Phillips.

"Yes, I chose," Otis told The Times in 1979, "because despite all the hardships, there's a wonderful richness in black culture that I prefer."