As an eleven-12 months-previous Darnell achieved native fame as a gospel singer, and left dwelling at 15 years of age to work as a dancer with a burlesque road present, the Brownskin Models. In 1949, he was signed up by Fred Mendelsohn for the Regal label in New Jersey. In New Orleans he gained steady employment as a singer at the Dew Drop Inn. His first two recordings, “I’ll Get Alongside One way or the other” and “For You My Love”, each hit the R&B charts in November 1949, with “For You My Love”, written by Paul Gayten, staying at the number 1 spot for eight weeks.

The follow-ups “I really like My Baby” and Louis Prima’s “Oh Babe!” have been additionally hits, and Darnell’s highly effective and passionate voice contributed to the development of a pattern in common music quickly marketed nationwide as rock and roll. In 1969, he made his final recordings, for the moment label in New Orleans. By now often called “Mr. Coronary heart & Soul”, he appeared in the 1955 film Harlem Rock & Roll Revue, and spent the rest of the decade recording for various labels. Nonetheless, after Regal collapsed in 1951, his data became much less profitable.

Receding from professional activity, he continued to sing in church and at charitable events. Santa Barbara: Praeger Publishers. In April 1979, while en route to sing at a funeral in Akron, Ohio, he was mugged by a gang, and obtained severe accidents. Text is obtainable under the Inventive Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms could apply. By utilizing this site, you comply with the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues – A Regional Experience. Colin Larkin, ed. (1995). The Guinness Who’s Who of Blues (Second ed.). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Basis, Inc., a non-revenue group. This web page was last edited on 19 December 2023, at 03:Forty (UTC).