NOTEWORTHY DEATH

Blues singer, founder of Beale Streeters

GRENADA, Miss. - Bobby “Blue” Bland, a singer who blended Southern blues and soul in songs such as “Turn on Your Love Light” and “Further On Up the Road,” died Sunday. He was 83.

Rodd Bland said his father died of complications from an ongoing illness at his Memphis home.

Bland was known as the “the [Frank] Sinatra of the blues” and was heavily influenced by Nat King Cole, often recording with lavish arrangements to accompany his smooth vocals. He even openly imitated Sinatra on the Two Steps From the Blues album cover, standing in front of a building with a coat thrown over his shoulder.

Bland was a contemporary of B.B. King’s, serving as the blues great’s valet and chauffeur at one point, and was one of the last of the living connections tothe roots of the genre. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

Born in Rosemark, Tenn., he moved to nearby Memphis as a teenager and became a founding member of the Beale Streeters, a group that also included King and Johnny Ace.

He scored his first No. 1 on the rhythm-and-blues charts with “Further On Up the Road” in 1957, and it was around that time he got his nickname, taken from his song “Little Boy Blue,” because his repertoire focused so closely on lovelorn subject matter. Beginning with “I’ll Take Care of You” in early 1960, Bland released a dozen rhythm-and-blues hits in a row. That string included “Turn On Your Love Light” in 1961.

Some of his best-known songs included “Call on Me” and “That’s the Way Love Is,” both released in 1963, and “Ain’t Nothing You Can Do” in 1964.