Tommy Tucker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the 19th century baseball player, see Tommy Tucker.
- For the nursery rhyme character, see Little Tommy Tucker.
Tommy Tucker (born Robert Higginbotham, 5 March 1933 - 22 January 1982[1]) was an American blues singer and pianist. He was born in Springfield, Ohio. He is best known for the 1964 hit song, "High Heel Sneakers", that went to number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Contents |
[edit] Hi-Heel Sneakers
- (His most famous song)
[edit] Other output and life and career
Tucker's follow-up release, "Long Tall Shorty", was less successful. Nevertheless, famous musicians that have played on his albums include Louisiana Red, Willie Dixon and Donny Hathaway.
Tucker co-wrote a song with Atlantic Records founder executive Ahmet Ertegün, called "My Girl (I Really Love Her So)". Tucker left music in the late 1960s, taking a position as a real estate agent in New Jersey, he also did freelance writing for a local newspaper in East Orange, N.J. writing of the plight and ignorance of black males in America and the gullibility and exploitation of African Americans in general by the white dominated media. [1] Tucker currently has four albums selling in Europe and over the Internet, through the Red Lightnin' record label.
Tucker is also the father of an up and coming blues artist, Teeny Tucker (real name Regina Westbrook); and a cousin of his is Joan Higginbotham, a U.S. female astronaut who launched in November 2006 on the space shuttle, Discovery.
He was also friends with Davey Moore, the featherweight who died following a boxing contest with Sugar Ramos; and Johnny Lytle, the renowned vibraphonist.
[edit] Death
Tucker died in 1982 at the age of 48 at College Hospital in Newark, New Jersey from inhaling carbon tetrachloride while refinishing the hardwood floors of his home; his death has been alternately attributed to food poisoning. [2]
