Bobo Jenkins born 7 January 1916

Bobo Jenkins (January 7, 1916 – August 14, 1984) was an American Detroit blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He also built and set up his own recording studio and record label in Detroit. Jenkins is best known for his recordings of "Democrat Blues" and "Tell Me Where You Stayed Last Night". 

He was born John Pickens Jenkins in Forkland, Alabama. His father, a sharecropper, died when John was not yet one year old, and the boy grew up with his mother and uncle. He left home before the age of 12, and arrived in Memphis, Tennessee. He had a wife at the age of 14, the first of ten marriages. Jenkins took casual work in the Mississippi Delta for several years and then enrolled in the United States Army. Following his 1944 military discharge, he relocated to Detroit, working for Packard and managing a garage, before spending twenty-seven years working for Chrysler.

 In the late 1940s Jenkins learned to play the guitar and started writing songs. He wrote the politically themed "Democrat Blues", about the U.S. Election Day in 1952, expressing his unease about Dwight D. Eisenhower becoming the first Republican in the White House in almost twenty years. 

                                        

With assistance from John Lee Hooker, Jenkins recorded "Democrat Blues" in Chicago in 1954, which was released by Chess Records. Another recording was issued by Boxer Records, based in Chicago, and then "Ten Below Zero" (1957) was released by Fortune Records, based in Detroit. 

In 1959, Jenkins established his own record label, Big Star Records, whose first release was his single "You"ll Never Understand" and "Tell Me Where You Stayed Last Night". He met and played alongside Sonny Boy Williamson II, before constructing his own recording studio in the 1960’s. He recorded mainly local musicians, including James "Little Daddy" Walton, Little Junior Cannady, Chubby Martin and Syl Foreman. 

Jenkins went on to promote the first Detroit Blues Festival, in 1972. His first album, The Life of Bobo Jenkins, was issued in the same year. It became known as the "red album", from the color of the record sleeve, which included a photograph of a younger Jenkins – who was then 56 years old – within a star shape. This was a tie-in with the Big Star Records name. Jenkins was one of the headline acts in the Detroit blues review part of the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival. Recordings from the festival were released by Schoolkids Records in 1995, including two tracks by Jenkins. 

In 1974, Jenkins wrote another song with political overtones, "Watergate Blues," which was included on his next album, Here I Am a Fool in Love Again. The cover design was the same as that of the previous release, but with a change in color, and the album became known as the "green album". The session musicians included artists based in Ann Arbor, such as Sarah Brown, Fran Christina and Steve Nardella. In 1976 Jenkins performed at the Smithsonian Institution, as part of the celebrations marking the United States Bicentennial. 

Detroit All Purpose Blues – the "yellow album" – was issued in 1977, with accompaniment by Detroit-based blues musicians, including Buddy Folks and Willie D. Warren. In 1982, Jenkins went to Europe with the American Living Blues Festival tour, but because of poor health he returned home after his first concert. 

Jenkins died in Detroit after a long illness in August 1984, at the age of 68. (Edited from Wikipedia)

Buddy Weed born 6 January 1918

Buddy Weed (January 6, 1918- May 25, 1997) was a prominent American jazz pianist, singer and arranger. 

Born Harold Eugene Weed in Ossining, New York, Eugene Harold Weed’s natural dexterity of the keyboard began developing at the age of four when he first faced a piano teacher. He continued his studies throughout his scholastic career and upon graduation from high school in Ossining, New York he studied arranging in classical techniques with Herman Wasserman. His first gig was at the age of sixteen when he was hired by Jack Teagarden’s Orchestra in 1934. 

By early 1939, Paul “Pops” White­man had heard Buddy, and immediately hired him. Before the war he had played with Roy Eldridge and Teddy Powell with whom he made his first recordings. In 1941 he worked in the big band of Charlie Spivak, whilst he continued to be heard in Paul White­man’s orchestra as featured solo pianist and arranger. Featured in the fifth Gershwin Memorial Concert in 1942 with a standing ovation, his Gershwin style arrangements soon became the band’s trademark. During a three-year term in the U.S. Army Special Services he also worked with the Harry Salter Orchestra. 

In the mid-forties he joined the staff of the American Broadcasting Co. (ABC) in New York, where he innovated and introduced the first piano Jazz Trio to America, while continuing to play and record at the head of his own orchestra, with which, moreover, he devoted himself more to pop music than to jazz. As musical director he dealt with such productions as “Penthouse Party” and “the Bert Parks Show.” He also had a radio show of his own. Since that time he became very much in demand as one of the most sought after pianists and arrangers in America. For the first time in 1944, he recorded several vocal numbers under his own name in a trio for MGM Records. He also played in 1945 with Sal Franzella, Ella Fitzgerald and Bud Freeman. Further sessions followed in 1946/47 for MGM and V-Disc, with Mundell Lowe and Trigger Alpert, among others. 

                                     

In the following years Buddy Weed played with Hank D'Amico, Tony Bennett, Sidney Bechet, from 1954 with Urbie Green, Neal Hefti, Richard Maltby, Larry Clinton, Peanuts Hucko, Teddi King, Joe Venuti, Charlie Shavers, Billy Butterfield and George Siravo, at sessions under his own name with Tony Mottola, among others, Eddie Costa, Arnold Fishkin, Bobby Donaldson and Bob Haggart. In 1956 he took part in a historic recording session for the Grand Award, having as illustrious partners Jack Teagarden, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Bobby Byrne, George Barnes and Johnny Mercer. In 1958, he performed alongside Gene Krupa on the Timex All Star Jazz Show. In the 1950s and 60s he was also a session and orchestral musician in the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. 

Buddy Weed Trio

Buddy Weed’s piano styles were ingenious and extra­ordinarily refined. His imagination and interpretations of the popular music of his time still remain as one of the most indelible contributions to music. A pianist of unquestionable technique, he was extremely efficient with his piano flourishes using them only as incidental decoration, and not as part of the basic purpose. His treatment of a song was to convey the basic melodic content in the essential blending of these two attributes. Around all of his arrangements, Buddy skillfully built upon the many subtle moods in which the two governing factors were of the personalities of the composer and those of the performer. There was never a clash between the two. The results were an incredible smoothness, which prevailed in all his arrangements. Combined with the unbe­lievable dexterity of his playing, Buddy’s music has endured throughout the decades. 

His discography can still be as­sembled from the archives of Capitol, RCA, Coral, Decca, Repertory, and Gemini. After his retirement in 1970 as Director of Music for ABC, he became a much sought-after soloist as well as with his trio in Arizona, and continued to appear on radio and television and in nightclubs with undiminished success. In the 1970s, he performed regularly in Phoenix. His trio would later team up with vocalist Margo Reed. His last recordings were made in the 70s and early 80s with singer Peter Dean, with whom he also performed in a duo at the New York Hilton Hotel.  In the field of jazz, Weed was involved in 92 recording sessions from 1940 to 1980.  

Buddy Weed passed away in Tempe, Arizona on May 25, 1997 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 79, His undeniable style and techniques have left his indelible imprint on American music.

(Edited from article by Gene Weed, Daily Green & Wikipedia)

Wild Bill Davison born 5 January 1906

Wild Bill Davison (Jan. 5, 1906 —Nov. 14, 1989) was an American jazz cornet player who recorded some 800 songs and traveled extensively in his 70-year career. 

William Edward Davison was born in the northwest Ohio town of Defiance. The son of Edward Davison, an itinerant worker, and Anna Kreps Davison, a homemaker, he was raised by his maternal grandparents from the age of seven on. Davison displayed a love for music, as well as a natural ability to master musical instruments, at an early age. He first learned to play the mandolin, guitar, and banjo. He joined the Boy Scouts mostly because it provided an opportunity for him to learn the bugle. At age 12 he graduated from the bugle to the cornet. The sharper tones of the trumpet never really appealed to Davison, and he stayed with the cornet for the entirety of his musical career. His ear for music was so keen that after hearing a song only once he could reproduce its melody perfectly and elaborate on it with perfect chord progressions and harmonic improvisation. His ability to read music was limited, but it was a skill that he really did not need for the style of music that most interested him. 

From his very early teens through the age of 17, Davison played with the Ohio Lucky Seven, an experience that helped to strengthen his musical skills. But, more importantly, he spent much of his spare time studying the playing styles of other horn players he admired. Among his early musical influences were Louis Panico, a trumpet soloist with the Isham Jones Orchestra, Bix Beiderbecke, and Louis Armstrong. From 1923 to 1925, Davison was the featured soloist with the Chubb-Steinberg Orchestra of Cincinnati, moving in 1926 to the Detroit- based Seattle Harmony Kings, with which he played until 1928. When not playing gigs with these groups, he led smaller jazz bands that he put together with musicians who enjoyed the same type of music as he did. 

Davison earned an enviable reputation in Midwest jazz circles, eventually winning a featured solo position with Chicago's Benny Meroff Orchestra in 1928. The four-beat, swinging jazz that Davison and other white jazz musicians of the era were playing fell more into the category of swing than the two- beat Dixieland—or New Orleans style—jazz. It came to be known as "Chicago-style" jazz, mostly because it was a sound associated with jazz musicians in the Windy City. In the early 1930s, a number of Chicago area musicians—most notably jazz guitarist Eddie Condon—left the Midwest for New York City, taking with them the label of "Chicago-style" jazz. 

                                     

Despite his obvious talent and formidable reputation as a jazz stylist, Davison stayed behind in the Midwest when many of his contemporaries from the region migrated to the big time in New York. Whether it was a lack of self-confidence or ambition that held him back is unclear, but for most of the 1930s he played clubs in Chicago and Milwaukee, rarely venturing outside the region. Leaving the Meroff Orchestra in 1931, Davison formed a 12-piece band of his own, building the ensemble around his cornet and the woodwind brilliance of Frank Teschemacher, who played both the clarinet and the alto saxophone. Based in Chicago, Davison's band quickly earned the admiration of fellow musicians, both white and black. Davison's moniker of "Wild Bill," which accurately described the musician's lifestyle off the bandstand, was first used by a Chicago-area promoter who billed him as "Wild Bill Davison, the White Louis Armstrong." 

In 1932 he was driving the car in which Teschemacher was killed (his auto was blindsided by a taxi), after which Davison spent the remainder of the 1930s in exile in Milwaukee. By 1941, he was in New York and in 1943 made some brilliant recordings for Commodore (including a classic version of “That’s a Plenty”) that solidified his reputation. After a period in the Army, Davison became a regular at Eddie Condon’s club in New York City, where he performed from 1945 to 1957. In the 1950s, he was quite effective on a pair of albums with string orchestras, but most of his career was spent fronting Dixieland bands either as a leader or with Condon. until his last concert at the New School for Social Research in New York in April 1972 . 

Davison played with over 100 bands and made more than 20 albums between 1965 and 1975. During his later years, he fronted his own band and toured often in the United States and in Europe. He recorded constantly, had a colorful life filled with remarkable episodes, and was active up until his death in Santa Barbara, California, on November 14th 1989.at the age of 83, which came after surgery for an abdominal aneurysm, performed shortly after his return from a concert tour to Japan. Davis was cremated, and his ashes were buried in his hometown of Defiance. 

More than a decade after Davison died, record companies continue to reissue some of the more than 800 songs he recorded during his 70-year career.  (Edited from AllMusic, Britannica, All About Jazz & Wikipedia)

Tommy McClennan born 4 January 1905

Tommy McClennan (January 4, 1905 – May 9, 1961) was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist. 

McClennan was born in Durant, Mississippi, and grew up in the town. He is shown with his mother Cassie and his siblings in the 1910 census in Carroll County, and in 1920 the family was living on a plantation near Sidon in Leflore County. McClennan and his wife Ophelia were also enumerated in the 1930 Leflore County census, with his occupation listed as teamster. His name was variously spelled McClinton, McLindon, McCleland, and McClenan on these documents, although the McClennan spelling was used on all of his recordings. 

Ishman Bracey

While growing up, he taught himself to play guitar influenced by Delta masters Rubin Lacy, Charley Patton, Ishman Bracey and Tommy Johnson. At a young age he began to play on the streets of Greenwood, Mississippi for nickels and dimes, while working the cotton fields during the day. Later he worked in juke joints and for dance parties, playing both the guitar and the piano Other bluesmen remembered him from elsewhere in the Delta, including Bolivar County and Vance, but he was best known around Greenwood, where Booker Miller, a protege of Charley Patton, knew him as “Sugar,” and Yazoo City, where local resident Herman Bennett, Jr., and others called him “Bottle Up,” after his most popular song, “Bottle It Up and Go.” When Miller quit playing in 1937, he sold his guitar to McClennan. 

Honeyboy Edwards

In the Greenwood area, McClennan’s performing partners included Robert Petway and Honeyboy Edwards. When Samuel Charters traveled to Yazoo City doing research for his book “The Country Blues” in the 1950s, he learned that McClennan had lived on the Sligh plantation and liked to hang out on Water Street at the Ren Theater, an adjacent barroom, and a pool hall. Bennett also recalled him from the Cotton Club, a popular blues spot on Champlin Avenue. 

                                    

McClennan began his recording career in 1939 after white Chicago record producer Lester Melrose came looking for him. Big Billl Broonzy recounted that Melrose had to make a hurried exit when his presence angered locals who thought he was recruiting laborers to leave Mississippi. In Chicago McClennan, “one of the most ferocious blues singers to get near a microphone,” in the words of Charters, unleashed his gruff, unbridled blues in the studio, sometimes further energizing the recordings with lively comments urging himself on. Among McClennan’s most notable numbers were “Bottle It Up and Go,” “Cross Cut Saw,” “Travelin’ Highway Man,” and “New Highway No. 51 Blues.” McClennan, famed for his raucous, uninhibited singing and guitar playing, frequented this section of Yazoo City when he lived on the nearby J. F. Sligh plantation. 

Big Bill Broonzy

According to Broonzy, McClennan was chased from a Chicago party when revelers objected to the controversial lyrics McClennan sang in “Bottle It Up and Go.” McClennan’s friend Robert Petway also recorded sixteen songs for Bluebird. Petway (aka Petaway or Pettiway) shared a similar, if less rough-hewn and exuberant, performing style with McClennan. They were of similar diminutive height with McLennan standing just 4 feet 10 and weighing somewhere around 133 pounds, and were sometimes taken to be brothers. Their recording careers both ended in 1942,  At this point, Lester Melrose of Bluebird Records had decided to release McClennan from his services, citing his unreliability and alcoholism, although Bluebird and RCA Victor continued to release McClennan singles for several years. McClennan moved to Chicago but there are few reports of him performing there. 

Robert Petway

Honeyboy Edwards would  later recall in his biography running into McClennan again, in 1962. Destitute and living in a truck trailer he had converted into a makeshift house, Edwards attempted to bring McClennan back to the stage. His unskilled guitar playing was now clearly absent, but his mighty vocals remained. And McClennan's constant desire for alcohol had not diminished either; a fact that rekindled the word of his unreliability and ultimately brought forth an end to this second opportunity at fame. 

Edwards returned him to his life in the slums, and shortly afterwards, McClennan took sick and was hospitalized in Chicago. Unable to speak at all, McClennan died there of bronchopneumonia on May 9, 1961 alone and penniless, although blues researchers have been unable to agree or confirm the date or circumstances of his death. Throughout his life, he was a sickly man, who may have suffered from tuberculosis, and he was definitely plagued by chronic alcoholism. 

In retrospect McClennan's music can now be considered as some of the most compelling and important of its period, alongside the recognized legends, Son House, Robert Johnson, and Charley Patton. 

(Edited from Mississippi Blues Trail and Casscade Blues Association)

Victor Borge born 3 January 1909

Victor Borge (January 3, 1909 – December 23, 2000) was a Danish-American actor, comedian, and pianist who achieved great popularity in radio and television in both North America and Europe. His blend of music and comedy earned him the nicknames "The Clown Prince of Denmark," "The Unmelancholy Dane," and "The Great Dane." 

Born Børge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen, Denmark, into a Jewish family, his parents, Bernhard and Frederikke Rosenbaum, were both musicians. His father was a violinist in the Royal Danish Chapel, and his mother played piano.Borge took up piano like his mother at the age of 3, and it was soon apparent that he was a prodigy. He gave his first piano recital when he was 8 years old, and in 1918 was awarded a full scholarship at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, studying under Olivo Krause. Later on, he was taught by Victor Schiøler, Liszt's student Frederic Lamond, and Borge played his first major concert in 1926 at the Danish concert-hall Odd Fellow Palæet (The Odd Fellow Mansion).

After a few years as a classical concert pianist, he started his now famous "stand up" act, with the signature blend of piano music and jokes. He married American Elsie Chilton in 1933, the same year he debuted with his revue acts. Borge started touring extensively in Europe, where he began telling anti-Nazi jokes. When the Nazis occupied Denmark during World War II, Borge was playing a concert in Sweden, and managed to escape to Finland. He traveled to America on the USS American Legion, the last passenger ship that made it out of Europe prior to the war, and arrived August 28, 1940 with only 20 dollars, three of which went to the customs fee. 

Even though Borge didn't speak a word of English upon arrival, he quickly managed to adapt his jokes to the American audience, learning English by watching movies. He took the name of Victor Borge, and, in 1941, he started on Rudy Vallee's radio show, but was hired soon after by Bing Crosby for his Kraft Music Hall. From then on, it went quickly for Borge, who won Best New Radio Performer of the Year in 1942. Soon after the award, he was offered film roles with stars such as Frank Sinatra (in Higher and Higher). 

                                     

While hosting The Victor Borge Show on NBC from 1946, he "developed many of his trademarks, including repeatedly announcing his intent to play a piece but getting "distracted" by something or other, making comments about the audience, or discussing the usefulness of Chopin's Minute Waltz as an eggtimer. Or he would start out with some well-known classical piece like Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" op. 27 and suddenly drift into a harmonically suitable pop or jazz tune like "Night and Day" (Cole Porter)." 

Borge appeared on Toast of the Town hosted by Ed Sullivan several times during 1948, and became a naturalized citizen of the United States the same year. He started the Comedy in Music show at John Golden Theatre in New York City on October 2, 1953. Comedy in Music became the longest running one-man show with 849 performances when it closed on January 21, 1956, which feat placed it in the Guinness Book of World Records. 

After divorcing his wife Elsie, he married Sarabel Sanna Scraper in 1953. Continuing his success with several tours and shows, Borge played with some of the world's most renowned orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic and London Philharmonic. Always modest, he felt very honored when he was invited to conduct the Danish Royal Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1992. 

His later television appearances included his use of his "Phonetic Punctuation" routine on The Electric Company in a filmed sketch; He would also use it on the record to follow during the "Punctuation" song. He guest starred many times on Sesame Street and was the star guest on the fourth season of The Muppet Show. 

Aside from his musical work, Borge wrote two books, My Favorite Intermissions and My Favorite Comedies in Music (with Robert Sherman), and the autobiography Smilet er den korteste afstand ("The Smile is the Shortest Distance") with Niels-Jørgen Kaiser. Victor Borge continued to tour until his last days, performing up to 60 times per year when he was 90 years old.  

Borge died in Greenwich, Connecticut, after more than 75 years of entertaining. He died peacefully, in his sleep, the day after returning from a concert in Denmark. In accordance with Borge's wishes, he had part of his ashes interred at Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, with a replica of the iconic Danish statue The Little Mermaid sitting on a large rock at the grave site, and the other part in the Western Jewish Cemetery (Mosaisk Vestre Begravelsesplads), in Copenhagen. (Edited from Wikipedia)

 

Doris Drew born circa 1925

Doris Drew (born c. 1925) was an American pop and jazz singer in the late 1940s and 1950s. 

She was born in San Antonio, Texas. Not much is known about her earlier life until 1949 when she was the band's vocalist with Ziggy Elman in Los Angeles until 1952, performing on tracks such as "The Wedding Samba"; she has also sung with Mel Henke (La Dolce Henke) and The Pied Pipers (Favorite Christmas carols). Under her own name, she released the singles "A Rose Was a Rose" and "Singin' in the Rain" for MGM in mid-1949;  Billboard magazine described her vocals as a mix of Kay Starr and Doris Day.  

In 1951 she married comedian Larry Allen (Al Leibovitz). That same year, she recorded the song "Sweet Violets" with the Cliff Parman Orchestra and Jack Halloran Chorus; in the early 1950s, she also recorded songs such as "Beautiful Brown Eyes", "Since You Went Away from Me" and "In My Sentimental Heart" for Mercury Records. In 1956, she sang a duet with Mel Tormé on the Tennessee Ernie Ford TV show ("Tea for Two"). 

                                   

In September 1957, Drew recorded an album under her own name (Delightful Doris Drew) for Mode Records, on which she was accompanied by Don Fagerquist, Bob Enevoldsen, Herb Geller, Dave Pell, Marty Paich, Al Viola, Max Bennett and Mel Lewis, and recorded standards such as "I Only Have Eyes For You", "If I Should Lose You", "Something to Remember You By" and "There Will Never Be Another You". In the same year, she performed with Don Fagerquist Octet on the show KABC Stars of Jazz, where she performed the songs "He's My Guy" and "I Cried for You". 

 In the field of jazz, she was involved in 20 recording sessions between 1949 and 1957.  In addition, she performed on several television variety shows of the day. She also performed on stage with Frank Sinatra at one point. She then released the pop single "I'm Alone But Never Lonely"/"French Fried Potatoes" (Kahill 1025) in 1957 before retiring from the music scene. 

The last piece of information I found is that in 1966, she had a singing role in the animated film Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (directed by Alex Lowy), and that dear music lovers is all I can find, no other information about her is available. If anyone has any more to add then please do. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Discogs & Last fm) 

If anyone has any more to add to this small bio, then please let me know.

Benny Barnes born 1 January 1936

Benny Barnes (January 1, 1936 – August 15, 1987) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his 1956 hit "Poor Man's Riches". Barnes also owned various Southeast Texas nightclubs in the 1960s and 1970s and continued recording and performing into the 1980s. 

Benjamin Milam Barnes, Jr. was born in Beaumont, Texas. After starting out playing a toy ukulele around age ten, the young Barnes eventually switched to guitar and appeared on various Beaumont-area amateur programs through his middle teen years. Following his first marriage at the age of seventeen and a subsequent series of jobs in the oilfield or related industries, Barnes was befriended and mentored by the budding country star George Jones, a hometown hero who also mentored him and had him play rhythm guitar in his road band. 

In late 1955 Barnes first came to Houston’s Gold Star Studios as an instrumentalist accompanying Jones on new recordings, at which time Jones introduced him to Starday co-owner and session producer H. W. “Pappy” Daily and suggested that Barnes audition as a prospective featured singer for the label. In March 1956 Barnes returned to Gold Star to make his debut recordings for Starday, resulting in the release of “Once Again” backed with “No Fault of Mine” on 45 rpm disc. The limited but encouraging commercial success of that record led to other sessions that spawned three minor releases on the Dixie label, also owned by Daily. 

Barnes’s big break came in August 1956 when he recorded “Poor Man’s Riches.” First issued on Starday, the song promptly became a regional bestseller and was then leased to and reissued nationally by the Nashville-based Mercury label, whereby it later peaked at Number 2 on the Billboard country charts. This led to him making appearances on the Grand Old Opry and becoming a regular on the Louisiana Hayride, but he found a follow-up hit hard to find. In 1959, he recorded ‘Gold Records In The Snow’, a tribute to Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens. 

                                   

Barnes continued to make records with Daily at Gold Star Studios through 1959, which the producer issued on various labels, including Mercury, Starday, Dixie, and D. However, despite some modest sales and radio airplay, Barnes could never replicate the phenomenal commercial success of “Poor Man’s Riches.” That trend continued through the rest of Barnes’s career as he issued additional tracks on Mercury, the most noteworthy of which, “Yearning,” crested at Number 22 in the Billboard country rankings in 1961. 

At this point, Barnes also operated The Blue Lantern in Beaumont. He ran his bar for several years, during which time he wrote a song called ‘Bar With No Beer’ which, to anybody except perhaps Barnes and his family, was literally nothing but a very slight variation of Australian Gordon Parsons’ ‘Pub With No Beer’ (a major hit, in 1959, for Slim Dusty). 

Billy made many recordings, namely for Hallway (1962-65), Musicor (1965-68), and Kapp (1968). In 1970, Barnes moved to California where he worked for a year, but he soon returned to Beaumont and bought a night club at the Houston Highway called The Benny Barnes Melody Club, where, with his band the Ranch Hands, he proved to be a popular entertainer recording for the Mega label in1972.  He kept the club until 1973. Then recorded for the Starday label and in 1976 the Playboy label where ‘I’ve Got Some Getting Over You To Do’ made the charts reaching at a modest number of 94, in 1977. 

Benny Barnes died too young at the age of 51.  A lifetime spent in smoke filled bars took its inevitable toll. When he became ill and started chemotherapy in June 1987, several musicians including Johnny Preston, Billie Jo Spears, and Jones,  performed at benefits to help pay for his medical bills.. According to Enterprise archives, Barnes spent the last three weeks of his life at St. Elizabeth Hospital. He died on Aug. 18, 1987.

One of the best honky-tonk singers was gone. Pappy Daily said of Barnes : "I thought Benny was a fine singer. He was a great artist with a fine stage act. I never could understand why he didn't make it big."

(Edited from Texas State Historical Association, AllMusic, Beaumont Enterprise, Bear Family liner notes & Wikipedia) (* some sources also give date of death as Aug 27th)