Shuggie Otis: One Of The Best Songwriters In The Business

One of the best songwriters, record producers, and funk, rock, blues and American R&B singers is Shuggie Otis who was born as Johnny Alexander Veliotes on 30th November, 1953 in Los Angeles, California. ‘Strawberry Letter 23’ is one of his popular compositions that The Brothers Johnson had covered and this number had topped the Billboard R&B chart while finding its place in the Billboard Hot 100 chart at the 5th position in 1977. 1975 also saw his hit single ‘Inspiration Information’ making it to the R&B chart at the 56th position.

Otis, other than being a soul and R&B singer has a second identity and that is because of his father Johnny Otis who was also an R&B singer. Hence having the legacy of music Shuggie began performing since the age of 12 and amusingly enough used goggles and false moustache to be able to play in nightclubs. Other than playing guitar Otis is also recognized for other instruments like organ, drums, piano, and bass. In 1969 at Al Kooper’s request Otis played for the succeeding episode of the album ‘Super Session’. This album also had Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills who was supposed to be replaced by Otis who was only 15 years old at that point of time.

Otis had also made an appearance in an album with his father including the performer Mighty Mouth Evans and they worked for the album ‘Cold Shot’ that was released in 1969 by the Kent Records. Finally in 1974 the industry got to see Otis’s very first solo album named ‘Here Comes Shuggie Otis’. In the process of growing up Otis had worked with many of the popular R&B artists like Frank Zappa, Etta James, Eddie Vinson, Cal Tjader, and lastly Mos Def. Otis’s album ‘Inspiration Information’ had all the songs written by Otis and he was the one played most of the instruments in the album but unfortunately this album failed miserably. Despite the failure of this album Otis got the offer of joining The Rolling Stones from Billy Preston for the world tour that was just around the corner. Due to the opportunity of working with Quincy Jones, Otis rejected the offer made by The Rolling Stones.

Otis had refused other bands and musicians as well to join them and work with them and this earned him the reputation of a less sought after artist or session performer. This finally led to Otis’s loss of agreement with Epic Records and unfortunately Otis had faded from the list of R&B artists by the end of 1970s. ‘Inspiration Information’ was currently released again by David Byrne having the additional tracks from Freedom Flight. Few of his popular albums are Kooper Session, Freedom Flight, Inspiration Information and Here Comes Shuggie Otis. Shuggie’s Boogie: Shuggie Otis Plays The Blues and In Session: Great Rhythm & Blues are the more recent compilations of Shuggie Otis.

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