Billy Emerson (December 21, 1925 – April 25, 2023) – Zulu (1966)

The singer/songwriter and producer who released Denise LaSalle's first singles on his own Tarpon Records label wrote and produced this funky instrumental jam.

View most updated version of this post on Substack

Search our full archives

Billy “The Kid” Emerson was a singer/songwriter, producer, and label owner. He worked as a songwriter at labels including Sun and Chess Records before founding his own label Tarpon Records in the mid-1960s, and released the legendary Denise LaSalle’s first singles.

Born in Tarpon Springs, Florida, near Tampa, William Robert Emerson was taught to play the piano at church. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and after the war returned home and played with R&B groups around the Tampa Bay area. During this time he picked up the nickname “Billy The Kid.”

Emerson joined the U.S. Air Force when the Korean War broke out, and was stationed in Greenville, Mississippi. There he met Ike Turner, who convinced him to join the Kings of Rhythm once his service was over. Turner got him a deal with Sun Records, where he recorded singles beginning in 1954 and was then hired as a staff songwriter.

One of the most well-known songs he wrote during this period was “Red Hot,” which was produced by Sam Phillips and released in 1955 on Sun. It was covered by Billy Lee Riley & The Little Green Men in 1957, and the Beatles covered it in their live sets during 1962 while they were playing several extended residencies at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany.

He was signed by Chicago’s Vee-Jay Records in late 1955, and released four singles there. By 1958 he was working for Chess Records as the label’s recording manager. He continued writing songs for himself and other Chess artists like Junior Wells, Willie Mabon, and Buddy Guy.

After leaving Chess, Emerson spent the early sixties recording for small Chicago labels including M-Pac! and USA Records. In 1965 he founded his own label, Tarpon Records, named for his hometown. The second single he released on Tarpon was the upbeat rockin’ jam “A Dancin' Whippersnapper,” which he co-wrote with Denise Craig, aka Denise LaSalle. Its B-side was “The Whip Part 2,” solely written by Emerson, who produced both sides. Original copies today sell for $300 on average on Discogs.

Tarpon’s third release was LaSalle’s debut single, which came out in 1966. He gave her the stage name “LaSalle,” named after the street in Chicago. The superb jam “A Love Reputation” was co-written by Emerson and guitarist Lee Baker, Jr., and produced by the unknown producers Rogers-Franklin (most likely a pseudonym for Emerson), with the heartfelt “One Little Thing” on the flip which Emerson wrote.

Later that same year, the label’s fourth single was issued, the funky, bluesy instrumental jam “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine.” It was co-written by Joe Seneca and James Lee aka Rose Marie McCoy.

The single’s B-side was an even funkier instrumental, “Zulu,” which Emerson wrote, arranged, and produced himself. Two years later, he recycled it as the backing track to another of his singles on Tarpon, “I Did The Funky Broadway (Parts 1 & 2)” (1968).

In the late seventies, Emerson decided to hang up his R&B career and devote himself to writing and producing gospel music (although he preferred to call it “faith music”). He became a reverend and presided over his own church in Oak Park, Illinois, right outside of Chicago. He was 97 years old when he died exactly one year ago in a nursing home back in Tarpon Springs, FL.

Rest in Peace, Billy Emerson.

Further info:

“The Second Coming of Billy The Kid,” Tampa Bay Times, August 3, 2014.

“Billy 'The Kid' Emerson, influential blues singer dead,” obituary, The Washington Post, May 2, 2023.

#soul #funk #BillyEmerson