Little Milton was one of Chess Records’ Blues artists. He was born down in the Mississippi delta and made his first recordings at Sun Records in Memphis, having been discovered by Ike Turner.
He moved to St Louis in 1958 and set up Bobbin Records, later signing a distribution deal with Chess in 1961.
His first chart breakthrough came in 1962 with the release of the Checker single “I Need Somebody”/ “So Mean To Me”, which reached number fourteen on the Billboard R&B chart.
Checker issued around ten Little Milton singles between 1961 and 1965, which showed him moving first towards a B.B King sound and then towards a smoother Soul style. Around this time, he also started touring and working as producer for other artists including Blues guitarist Albert King and singer Fontella Bass.
When he next broke into the charts in 1965, it was with this new Soul sound, albeit with a good Bluesy feel. “We’re Gonna Make It”/ “Can’t Hold Back The Tears” finally got Little Milton some regular radio air-play, which helped the single reach number three on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart. The A-side was written by the Chess team of Billy Davis, Carl Smith and Raynard Miner. The B-side is a Little Milton original, credited under his real name of Milton Campbell. Both songs feature a strong, bouncy melody, punctuated by excellent horns. The follow-up single “Who’s Cheating Who”, another Davis, Smith, Miner composition, backed by Little Milton’s song “Ain’t No Big Deal On You” repeated the pattern, going to number four on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart.
1966 saw Little Milton moving firmly onto Soul territory with the sweet orchestration of “When Does Heartache End”, a song that he co-wrote with Caston and Anderson. The same year, he also recorded “My Baby’s Something Else”, a song written by Shena DeMell and Sugar Pie DeSanto and produced as usual by Billy Davis, which edged back to the Blues. Back on the Soul train in 1967, “The Cost Of Living” is an excellent example of Little Milton’s ability to switch between hard-edged Blues to slower, sensitive ballads. It is a song co-written by Chess writers Leonard Caston and Robert Lee Thurston, arranged by Charles Stepney and produced by Billy Davis.
Little Milton continued to turn out excellent singles every year, well-supported by the Chess arrangers and producers, alternating between Blues and Soul. For him, it didn’t really matter much how the songs were categorized: as he said, “Any category they want to put me in is fine with me as long as they accept what I do.”
Little Milton
Photo: PT Quinn (Wikimedia Commons)
Morris Dollinson’s song “Let Me Down Easy” took him back into the Billboard R&B Singles Chart in 1968, with the song reaching number twenty-seven, with the help of Charles Stepney’s powerful arrangement perfect for Little Milton’s delivery.
Following the demise of Vee-Jay Records, Calvin Carter came to work at Chess, taking over production duties and delivering a series of punchy singles, with strong horn backing arranged by Gene Barge. Typical of this phase is the Morris Dollinson song “Let’s Get Together”.
Between 1961 and 1971, Checker released over thirty Little Milton singles and four albums, three of which entered the Billboard 200 Albums Chart. Many of the artists signed by Chess didn’t stay long, but Little Milton found an interesting niche between Blues and Soul. He was one of the most successful artists who bridged that gap.
With the departure of Leonard Chess, however, things began to get more difficult for the Chess artists. Little Milton decided to move to Stax Records in Memphis, where his successful career continued.
