Arbee Stidham
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Arbee Stidham (b. Devalls Bluff, Arkansas, 9 February 1917 - d. 1988) was an American R&B singer and multi-instrumentalist most successful in the late 1940s and 1950s.
He was born to a musical family - his father played with Jimmie Lunceford and his uncle with the Memphis Jug Band - and learned to play harmonica, clarinet and saxophone as a child. Before his teens he had formed his own band, the Southern Syncopators, which backed Bessie Smith on tour in 1930-31, and played on radio and in clubs in Arkansas and Memphis.
In the mid-1940s he moved to Chicago and met Lester Melrose, who signed him to RCA-Victor in 1947. His biggest hit, "My Heart Belongs to You", was recorded at his first session, and reached # 1 on the R&B chart in June 1948. However, he spent the rest of his career trying to emulate its success, recording prolifically for various labels as a jazz-influenced blues vocalist. After a car accident made it impossible to play saxophone, he took up the guitar in the 1950s under the tutelage of Big Bill Broonzy. He continued to record occasionally up to the early 1970s, and also made many festival and club appearances nationwide and internationally. He lectured on the blues at Cleveland State University in the 1970s, and appeared in the film The Bluesman in 1973.
