From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Mar 5, 2002  1:18 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Tommy Tucker
 
TOMMY TUCKER

Born Robert Higginbotham, 5 March 1933, Springfield, Ohio
Died 22 January 1982, Newark, New Jersey

Tucker first recorded with The Cavaliers, a doo-wop group he had formed
in 1955 as The Dusters. After a move to Dayton, Tucker (or rather his
manager, Johnny Smith) got the Hi, Atco and Sunbeam labels to each
record and release one Tucker single, but all three discs fared poorly.
But aided by former Atlantic co-owner Herb Abramson, a demo of
Tucker's self-penned, guitar-heavy single, "Hi Heel Sneakers" was leased
to Checker Records in 1963. Issued as a single in its demo form, the song
was a big pop (# 11) and R&B hit in early 1964. Several more Checker 45s
were released, but only "Long Tall Shorty" (# 90) met with success.
Four later versions of "Hi Heel Sneakers" also made the Billboard Top 100,
including a live version by Jerry Lee Lewis.
Tucker left music in the late sixties, taking a position as a real estate
agent in New Jersey, though he returned to the Chess studios in 1979 for
a collaboration with Bo Diddley. He died of poisoning. Reports vary as to
the precise cause of his death : either food poisoning or inhalation of
carbon tetrachloride while refinishing the wood floors of his home.