Stidham Arbee

American blues singer and multi-instrumentalist whose song "My Heart Belongs to You" reached number one on the Billboard "Race Records" chart in June 1948. A tenor sax player, Stidham formed a seven-piece band named "Arbee Stidham and His Southern Syncopators" at the age of thirteen. Stidhams band backed Bessie Smith during tour stops in 1930 and 1931, appeared frequently on KARK-AM radio in Little Rock and continued to work clubs in Little Rock and Memphis, Tennessee. After playing venues throughout the south, Stidham toured with his band in Chicago, playing with Lucky Millinder during the 1930s. In the mid-1940s, Stidham moved to Chicago, where he met Lester Melrose, who signed him to a recording contract with RCA Victor in 1947. His biggest hit, "My Heart Belongs to You", was recorded at his first session. While living in Cleveland, Ohio in 1973, Stidham was the subject of The Bluesman, a short documentary film directed by Kent State University professor Robert West. Arbee Stidham died on 26 April 1988 at the University of Chicago Medical Center in Cook County, Illinois, aged 71. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less