Biography: Otis Clay, Otis Day, Otis Leavill, Otis Redding, Otis Rush, Otis Smokey Smothers, Otis Spann, Otis Taylor, Otis Williams, Otto Virgil,

Browse Celebrities by Category

Video Clips

Celebrities A-Z

Celebrities - o

Otis Clay made most of his best-known records in Memphis during the early ’70s, but he’s still universally hailed as Chicago’s deep soul king In a city filled to overflowing with legendary blues artists, Clay has become the proud standard-bearer for Chicago’s enduring soul tradition

A quarter of a century after they were brought together to perform in the John Belushi-starring film Animal House, Otis Day & the Knights continued to live up to their claim as “the number one party band in America

Otis Leavill Biography, Photos, Pictures

Friendly, talented Otis Leavill Cobb was born February 8, 1943, in Dewey Rose, GA The Cobb family moved to Chicago two years later and settled in the Londale area on the Westside

Otis Redding Biography, Photos, Pictures

One of the most influential soul singers of the 1960s, Otis Redding exemplified to many listeners the power of Southern “deep soul” — hoarse, gritty vocals, brassy arrangements, and an emotional way with both party tunes and aching ballads

Breaking into the R&B Top Ten his very first time out in 1956 with the startlingly intense slow blues “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” southpaw guitarist Otis Rush subsequently established himself as one of the premier bluesmen on the Chicago circuit

Otis Smokey Smothers Biography, Photos, Pictures

The Chicago blues scene boasted its own pair of Smothers Brothers, but there was nothing particularly amusing about their tough brand of blues music The older of the two by a decade, Otis “Big Smokey” Smothers was first to arrive in the Windy City from Mississippi in the mid-’40s

An integral member of the non-pareil Muddy Waters band of the 1950s and 1960s, pianist Otis Spann took his sweet time in launching a full-fledged solo career But his own discography is a satisfying one nonetheless, offering ample proof as to why so many aficionados considered him then and now as Chicago’s leading postwar blues pianist

Bluesman Otis Taylor never skirted tough subject matter in a career that took him from the Folklore Center in Denver to a brief stay in London, England, to retirement from music in 1977 to operate as a successful antiques broker and since 1995 back again to the blues

Otis Williams Biography, Photos, Pictures

A Cincinnati vocal group, Otis Williams & the Charms landed a number-one R&B hit for almost ten weeks in 1954 with “Hearts of Stone,” a song that remains among the most enduring doo wop anthems

Mississippian Otto Virgil (his last name actually appears to have been Virgial) recorded two single 78s in Chicago for Bluebird Records on Halloween in 1925, “Little Girl in Rome” b/w “Bad Notion Blues” and “Got the Blues About Rome” b/w “Seven Year Itch

Browse by Genre