[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15016]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING MR. TYRONE DAVIS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 16, 2012

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a 
remarkable blues artist, Mr. Tyrone Davis.
  Tyrone Davis was born as Tyrone Fettson on May 4, 1938, in 
Greenville, Mississippi. Through his blues career, he was first known 
as Tyrone the Wonder Boy, then later as Tyrone Davis.
  Tyrone moved with his father to Saginaw, Michigan, before relocating 
to Chicago, Illinois in 1959. He then became a valet/chauffeur for 
blues singer Freddie King. He befriended the likes of Bobby ``Blue'' 
Bland, Little Milton, and Otis Clay, among others, and began to pursue 
his own singing career in the clubs on the city's West and South Sides. 
While working for King, he started singing in local clubs where he was 
discovered by record executive/musician Harold Burrage. This became the 
start of his career as a blues singer called ``Tyrone the Wonder Boy''.
  His records for small labels under ``Tyrone the Wonder Boy'' did not 
bring him much success. In 1968, a successful Chicago record producer 
Carl Davis signed him to a new label, Dakar Records, that he was 
starting as part of a distribution deal with Atlantic, and suggested 
that he use the stage name Tyrone Davis. A Texas DJ flipped his first 
release over and started playing the B-side, ``Can I Change My Mind.''
  Teamed with producer/arranger Willie Henderson, who masterminded 
``Can I Change My Mind'', Tyrone Davis capitalized on his breakthrough 
with a string of orchestrated hits that emphasized his new, smoother 
style, and helped point the way for Chicago soul into a new decade. 
``Is It Something You've Got'' reached the R&B Top Five in 1969, and it 
was followed in 1970 by the sublime ``Turn Back the Hands of Time.'' It 
was his second R&B number one, and also his biggest hit on the pop 
charts with a peak at number three.
  Tyrone Davis hit the R&B Top 40 with steady regularity over the next 
few years, including the Top Tens ``Could I Forget You,'' ``I Had It 
All the Time,'' ``Without You in My Life,'' and ``There It Is.'' In 
1975, he scored his third number one R&B hit with ``Turning Point,'' 
but left Dakar for Columbia the following year.
  Tyrone Davis' ballad mastery was a main selling point for Columbia, 
which made his backing orchestrations even lusher than before, but he 
also made the occasional concession to contemporary dance trends, which 
informed his debut Columbia hit ``Give It Up'' a number two R&B single 
from 1976. Further successes followed in ``This I Swear'' (1977), ``Get 
On Up'' (1978), and the slinky ballad ``In the Mood'' (1979). Tyrone 
Davis recorded his final album for Columbia in 1981, then switched to 
Highrise, where he promptly landed a Top Five R&B hit--his last, as it 
turned out--with ``Are You Serious'' in 1982. Short stints with Ocean-
Front and Prelude followed before Tyrone Davis settled in with Future 
for the latter half of the 1980s. He spent the first half of the 1990s 
on retro-soul label Ichiban, recording several albums, and then moved 
to Southern soul imprint Malaco in 1996 for an equally productive stay 
that lasted into the new millennium. Tyrone Davis continued to release 
new albums every year or two, and toured the soul/blues circuit as 
restlessly as ever. Tyrone Davis suffered a stroke in October of 2004 
and remained hospitalized until his death in February of 2005.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Mr. Tyrone 
Davis, a great blues legend from Mississippi's Second Congressional 
District.

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