Tiny Topsy born 22 May 1930

Otha Lee Moore (May 22, 1930 – August 16, 1964), better known as Tiny Topsy, was an American R&B singer. Although she is fairly well-known, there's almost nothing about her life that is substantial. She only appeared in fewer than 20 shows in a six-year period, but was never the main attraction in any of them.

"Tiny in the same spirit you'd call a bald man curly, Tiny Topsy definitely had the lungpower to match her name", writes Mark Lamarr in the liner notes for the CD "Roc-King Up A Storm" (Westside WESA 801). She was one of those big-voiced R&B women of the mid to late 50s, with a style close to that of LaVern Baker, Big Maybelle and Big Mama Thornton.

Otha Lee Moore was born in Chicago, the daughter of Annabell and Casey Moore, and was raised in nearby Robbins, Illinois, United States. According to Mike Rowes book - Chicago Breakdown she began her singing career in the mid-1940s, fronting Al Smith's eight-piece jazz and rhythm and blues band in her home town. (This was later questioned as supposedly this was something Al Smith only told Rowes)

                                  

Tiny's first recording session was held in Cincinnati on July 9, 1957 and resulted in the bouncy "Aw! Shucks Baby", (Federal Records) with a great tenor solo by Ray Felder. The label credit reads "Tiny Topsy With The Five Chances". The flip was a cover of "Miss You So", a Top 10 R&B hit for Lillian Offitt. A third track from this session, "A Woman's Intuition", remained unissued until 1988. Her next two singles - both solid rockers - "Come On, Come On, Come On" and "You Shocked Me" both saw a UK release on the Parlophone label, quite surprising, considering the rarity of US R&B releases in Blighty at that time.

Tiny Topsy's fourth Federal single is a very interesting one. Written by the aforementioned Bernice Williams, it is called "Western Rock 'n' Roll" and incorporates snippets of then-current hits Lollipop, At the Hop, Get a Job, and Short Shorts. It opens with gunshots and probably for that reason, Dave Penny (yes, the same one) calls it a "Western Movies pastiche" in his 1988 liner notes for the LP "Aw! Shucks Baby". However, the recording date of "Western Rock 'n' Roll" (March 19, 1958) predates the release date of the Olympics hit by some three months. So it looks like the sound effects on "Western Movies" were inspired by "Western Rock 'n' Roll" instead of the other way round.

In 1959, she recorded "After Marriage Blues" (also known as "How You Changed") and "Working On Me Baby" which were released on Argo Records. Her next single, which proved to be her last with Federal, was "Just a Little Bit" (1959). Rosco Gordon had a number 2 US Billboard R&B chart hit with his version in 1960. An alternate recording of "Aw! Shucks Baby" with "Everybody Needs Some Loving" on the B-side was released by King Records in 1963, months prior to her death.

Topsy with her manager Richard E. Stamz

Most sources repeat the fact that she had married Samuel Hall, a Chicago night club owner and disc jockey, and was therefore sometimes known as Otha Lee Moore Hall, but again there is no proof, only that it was stated in an article by the magazine Jet after her death. Tiny Topsy died on August 16, 1964, in Cook County Hospital in Chicago, at the age of 34 of an intracerebral haemorrhage, following an evening of performing at the C&C Lounge Club. Eight pallbearers, nearly all members of the clubs band were required to lift the body. In 2016 the Killer Blues Project placed a headstone for her at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

(Edited from This Is My Story and Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks)