Sugar Pie DeSanto was just under 5 feet tall, yet she had a powerful voice and a daring stage presence. She'd do back flips, splits, and stunts that included jumping off pianos.

Signing with Chess Records led to DeSanto collaborating with major R&B and soul artists, including Etta James and James Brown. She toured with The James Brown Revue for two years.

Her original name was Peylia Marsema Balinton, but Johnny Otis gave her a new name that was easier to pronounce.

DeSanto also was a prolific songwriter, penning over 100 songs such as "Slip-in Mules," "Use What You Got," "Soulful Dress," and her first hit "I Want To Know," which reached #4 on Billboard's R&B chart in 1960.

You can go here to listen to DeSanto sing "I Want To Know." The image in this episode's thumbnail is the cover of her album "Go Go Power: The Complete Chess Singles 1961-1966." In the chapters, there are a couple of other images: the cover of another album, "A Little Bit of Soul 1957-1962," and a photo of DeSanto performing in August 2006. The latter is credited to Michael Albov and is available on Wikimedia Commons under the license CC BY 2.0.

This tribute is one of 41 stories that Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime journalist, has written and recorded in honor of the music notables who passed away in 2024. He's written tributes for other years as well. You can listen to the ones from 2023 on Everyday Creation. We'll have the 2022 tributes available later this year.

Sheldon also is the creator of Song of the Day, a story that he sends by email to a list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation, available on YouTube and in podcast directories including Apple, Audible, iHeart and Spotify.

Mike Brewer began his music career writing songs and playing in coffee houses, eventually meeting Tom Shipley in Cleveland. They recorded their first album in 1968 and played mostly in Midwest college towns.

Their song "One Toke Over the Line" was inspired by a backstage experience involving hashish. They wrote it in an hour and never thought to include it in a concert until one time they did it as an encore. The audience loved it, so they put it on their "Tarkio" album. The song reached #10 on Billboard's Hot 100 despite the Federal Communications Commission's ban on drug-related songs.

It even made it on "The Lawrence Welk Show." You can watch here.

You can listen to Brewer & Shipley's version here.

Brewer & Shipley had two other Hot 100 hits: "Tarkio Road" (No. 55) and "Shake Off the Demon" (No. 98).

The image in this episode's thumbnail shows Brewer & Shipley in 1971. Brewer is on the right. Attributed to Nick DeWolf, the photo originally was posted to Flickr as 020313 by steve the archivist, CC BY-SA 2.0.

This tribute is one of 41 stories that Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime journalist, has written and recorded in honor of the music notables who passed away in 2024. He's written tributes for other years as well. You can listen to the ones from 2023 on Everyday Creation. We'll have the 2022 tributes available later this year.

Sheldon also is the creator of Song of the Day, a story that he sends by email to a list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation, available on YouTube and in podcast directories including Apple, Audible, iHeart and Spotify.

Tyka Nelson, Prince's younger sister, began writing songs at age 10. She and her brother wrote together when they were young, but later on, Nelson chose to establish her own identity.

She released four solo albums with moderate success on the R&B charts but was primarily a songwriter. She enjoyed singing, she said, but did not consider herself a singer.

Her most successful single was "Marc Anthony's Tune" from her "Royal Blue" album, released in 1988. The song reached #33 on Billboard's R&B chart. To listen to it, you can go here. In the comments, one person wrote, "R.I.P. Tyka! Thank you for such a perfect song!"

"L.O.V.E.," also from "Royal Blue," charted at #52.

Her other albums were "Yellow Moon, Red Sky" (1993); "A Brand New Me" (a gospel album, 2008) and "Hustler" (2011).

After Prince's death, she and her half-siblings maintained his legacy, helping to manage his estate and transforming Paisley Park into a museum.

The image in this episode's thumbnail is the cover art for her song "End of the Road," available on Apple and Amazon Music. You can hear a preview by going to the Apple Music website.

To learn more about Nelson, go to her official site.

This tribute is one of 41 stories that Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime journalist, has written and recorded in honor of the music notables who passed away in 2024. He's written tributes for other years as well. You can listen to the ones from 2023 on Everyday Creation. We'll have the 2022 tributes available later this year.

Sheldon also is the creator of Song of the Day, a story that he sends by email to a list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation, available on YouTube and in podcast directories including Apple, Audible, iHeart and Spotify.