Posted By:
Bob PomillaDon't know if anyone's familiar with the story of r&b singer Johnny Ace's death, though I have a feeling Ted might be. After a string of hits in the early 50's, Ace supposedly shot himself to death with a 22 revolver,while playing Russian Roulette, backstage at the Civic Auditorium, in Houston, on Christmas Day.
Not surprisingly, his biggest hit then became the postmortem release, "Pledging My Love", which was a huge "crossover" hit and thus, because of it's popularity with white teens, helped in developing the popularity of rock & roll.