Page 16 - BiTS_08_AUGUST_2025

In 1946, at the age of 25, he had something of a hit with the song ‘Harlem Nocturne’,
which resulted in him joining a tour with the Inkspots. His prowess as a big band
drummer was recognised by some of the top names of the circuit, which resulted in
him playing with Count Basie, Lester Young and Lionel Hampton.

However, the era of the big bands was passing by the end of the 1940s, so he trimmed
his own band down to two saxes, trumpet, trombone and a rhythm section. He called

this his “small big band playing blues and that became rhythm and blues”, and it
included Bill Doggett on keyboards, Johnny
‘Guitar’ Watson, and Jimmy Rushing on
vocals. In fact, he had already found that
audiences preferred it when he played blues

and boogie woogie, rather than the
traditional big band music, so cutting down
on the numbers in the band, but adding a

blues guitarist and boogie piano player
worked to his advantage.

He also opened his own club, ‘The

Barrelhouse’, in Watts, which was strictly
R&B only, and commenced a long and
successful career as a dj, on radio KFOX,
which in turn led to a tv variety show, on

station KTTV, which ran for 8 years.

Running his own band and club enabled
Johnny to act as something of a ‘svengali’ for

artistes he considered worthy of further
Big Mama’ Thornton
attention, including Etta James, Jackie
Wilson, Hank Ballard, ‘Little’ Esther Phillips,

‘Big Mama’ Thornton, ‘Sugar Pie’ Desanto, and the Coasters (then known as The
Robins) all of whom were featured vocalists in his band at one time or another.
Indeed, Phillips was only 13 years old when he signed her up for his band in 1949,
and the following year he had no less than 10 R&B hits.

His one US pop hit, and probably his best known number, ‘Willie and the Hand Jive’
was in 1958, but it has been recorded numerous times over the years since. The
previous year he had achieved the number two spot in the UK with ‘Ma He’s Making

Eyes At Me’.

He and/or his band also backed other artistes on record, and he produced many of

them, including Little Richard, Johnny Ace, ‘Big Mama’ Thornton and Etta James, and
Otis had a hand in writing a number of their hits, including ‘Hound Dog’, ‘Pledging
My Love’, ‘Roll With Me Henry’, and ‘Every Beat of My Heart’. Indeed, between 1950
and 1952 the Johnny Otis Band was involved in 15 hit records!