The boy from a smog-drenched city who sang through addiction and into our hearts

blues bands before finally catching a break in 1964, when -Decca Records took him to London to record a cover of a Beatles song. He was paid just $1.50 for the session. The single went nowhere.

“Decca were very professional. That’s why they dropped me,” he later joked.

Undeterred, he left the gas board and took a job packing goods. He kept performing,continue reading …