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I have been re-reading Peter Guralnick’s (yes, him again) Sweet Soul Music. Afterwards, I played Al Green Gets Next To You and heard it in a new light.
In researching for our musical exhibit of Tupelo artists for the Oren Dunn City Museum we ran across the music of Jay B. Loyd.
Loyd was born in Tupelo in 1937 and died in Collierville, Tennessee, in 2003. Except for some YouTube videos of his 45s, we donât know much about him, except what comes from an October 2009 post in Rockabillyville blog by a Welshman, who doesnât identify himself. The blog highlights Loydâs musical career, such as it was.
The blog claims Loyd had three singles issued between 1958 and 1961. Apparently, Loyd sang at a party thrown by Elvis Presley, which landed the lesser-known, quiff-coiffed singer a record contract with ABC-Paramount for a single, âCross My Heartâ and âYouâre Just My Kind.â The tunes, sung much in the Elvis style emanated from the pens of the late Clyde Otis, also a Mississippian, and Otis Blackwell, who wrote many songs for Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis.