Benson was christened Jo Jo Benson by a record company who thought his birth name awkward.
He loved singing in church as a child, and at 14 he sneaked in the back door of a club and convinced the band to let him sing with them. They asked him back.
He went on to tour with Chuck Willis and met greats like B.B. King and Smokey Robinson but it was his meeting in 1968 with 17-year-old, Peggy Scott of Florida that would change the 27-year-old vocalist's life.
"Lover's Holiday" was their first recording together. It was done in one take, and went gold. In less than two years they would add two more gold singles - "Pickin' Wild Mountain Berries" and "Soulshake."
The duo stopped singing together in 1971 and a reunion album in 1984 received little fanfare.
All along, Benson toyed with the idea of going back into a studio. In 1999 he headed over to a Birmingham studio, where he crafted an album of spirited traditional soul that he called "Reminiscing in the Jam Zone." some of the songs are a cappella, and some have just piano accompaniment, but most are full-band arrangements with warm horns. On "Dark End of the Street," he sings again with Peggy Scott-Adams. The collection of soul and rhythm and blues standards has been placed "among the finest soul albums of the year - indeed, of the decade" by Living Blues magazine.
From article in
Ledger-Enquirer
Columbus, GA
January 30, 2000
by Brad Barnes
Next Bio