Sidney Selby (July 28, 1931 – September 23, 2020), known as "Guitar Crusher" and formerly as "Bone Crusher", was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer and guitarist, for many years based in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany. Primarily a singer, billed as "The Big Voice from New York", he also played guitar and blues

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

Life and career

Selby was born at Lake Landing, in Hyde County,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. He sang

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

in the Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church and on the radio as a schoolboy. At the age of 15 he went to live with his mother in New York. He started a band ''The Midnight Rockers'' and performed in colleges and clubs in the NY area. In the 1960s he recorded a number of singles on

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

and other labels. He also toured with artists such as

Ben E. King Benjamin Earl King (né Nelson; September 28, 1938 – April 30, 2015) was an American soul and R&B singer and record producer. He is best known as the singer and co-composer of " Stand by Me"—a US Top 10 hit, both in 1961 and later i ...

The Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/Soul music, soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, f ...

and

The Isley Brothers The Isley Brothers ( ) are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades, ...

. Biography, ''Allmusic.com''
Retrieved 8 November 2016 In 1982, he went to Berlin, Germany with New York guitarist Nick Katzman, and began to attract an audience. With the new ''Midnight Rockers'' they soon performed in clubs and on major festivals all over Europe. Their repertoire included Selby's originals, R&B standards, ballads and soul classics. On his recordings and live gigs he was backed by artists such as

Katie Webster Katie Webster (January 11, 1936 – September 5, 1999), born Kathryn Jewel Thorne, was an American boogie-woogie pianist. Career Webster was initially best known as a session musician behind Louisiana musicians on the Excello and Goldband rec ...

, Eb Davis, "Detroit" Gary Wiggins, Christian Rannenberg, Tyree Glenn Jr.,

Alvin Lee Alvin Lee (born Graham Anthony Barnes; 19 December 1944 – 6 March 2013) was an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the lead vocalist and lead guitarist of the blues rock band Ten Years After. Early life He w ...

, Charles 'Honeyboy' Otis,

Wild Jimmy Spruill James Edgar Spruill (June 9, 1934 – February 3, 1996), also known as Wild Jimmy Spruill, was an American New York based session guitarist, whose guitar solos featured on many rhythm and blues and pop hits of the 1950s and 1960s. Biograp ...

Benny Bailey Ernest Harold "Benny" Bailey (August 13, 1925 – April 14, 2005) was an American jazz trumpeter. Biography A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Bailey briefly studied flute and piano before turning to trumpet. He attended the Cleveland Conserva ...

, Calvin Owens, Marcos Coll, Thomm Jutz and Hans McMinamin and many others. Originally known as "Bone Crusher", Selby's name changed to "Guitar Crusher" after he smashed his guitar over the head of an unruly customer in a club during his show. He was called a " living legend" by the press in Germany several times. Selby was married to Mara von Hartz-Selby. His grandson is rapper

Desiigner Sidney Royel Selby III (born May 3, 1997), better known by his stage name Desiigner, is an American rapper and singer. In December 2015, his debut single "Panda" reached number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In 2019, he was released fr ...

Discography

Singles

* Guitar Crusher & the Houserocking Mellotones: I've Got to Know / Cuddle Up (USA 1962) * Guitar Crusher & the Houserocking Mellotones: I Feel the Pain / I Once Loved You Baby (USA 1962) * Guitar Crusher & the Houserocking Mellotones: Itch With Me / the Monkey (USA 1962) * Guitar Crusher: Better Days Ahead / Weak for Your Love (USA 1963) * Guitar Crusher: I Can't Help It / Why Oh Why (USA 1963) * Guitar Crusher With Jimmy Spruill: Since My Baby Hit the Numbers / Hambone Blues (USA 1968) * Guitar Crusher: I'll Catch Your Tears / Goin' Down Slow (USA 1969)

Albums

* Live at Quasimodo Berlin (CD) Sidney Selby and Orchestra Feat. Benny Bailey trumpet (Ger 1989) * I Can Do Bad by Myself (Lp) Jack McDuff, Bruce "Bud" Revels Jr., Melvin Sparks Hassan (USA 1990) * Blues From the Heart (CD) Originals Live + Studio Recordings (Ger 1990) * Googa Mooga (CD) New York "Wild" Jimmy Spruill, Charles "Honeyboy" Otis, W.Bridges a.o. (Bel 1993) * Message to Man (CD) Black Cat Bone, Feat. Alvin Lee, C.Owens ( Ger 1995) * How I Feel (CD) Rolling Dollar, Feat. Tyree Glenn Jr. Ten.sax, T.Harris Dr. a.o. (Ger 1999) * Sidney "Guitar Crusher" Selby (CD): Live at Yorkschlösschen - Soul Session With the Rudy Stevenson Band (Ger 1999) * Blues With a Feeling (CD) Guitar Crusher & the Kloeber Bros. (Ger 2004) * Blast From the Past (CD) (Ger 2009) - a Stereophonic 45 Compilation * Cooking Live! (CD) Guitar Crusher Meets Blossbluez (Ger 2018)

Compilations

* In Our Own Way... Oldies But Goodies (Lp) (UK 1970) * Boogie on Broadway (Lp) (198? Hol ) * Lookey Dookey (Lp) (19?? ) * Savage Kick Vol.2 - Black Rock'n'Roll (Lp) (UK 1992) * Talking Trash! Lookey Dookey (CD) (UK 1997) * The Blue Horizon Story 1965–1970, Vol.1 (3-cd) (1997) * Fresh Blues, Vol.2 - The Inak Blues Connection (CD) (1998) * Shout Bamalama (CD) (UK 1999) * Old Town City Blues (CD) (Us 2000) * Stompin' 4 (CD) (UK 2001) * Rhythm & Blues Goes Rock & Roll, Vol.2 (CD) (Ger 2002)

References

External links

Official Website of Sidney Selby

Guitar Crusher at Allmusic
*
Guitar Crusher at 45.cat

Guitar Crusher

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

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Guitar Crusher

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

, BnF
Guitar Crusher Lyrics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guitar Crusher 1931 births 2020 deaths 20th-century African-American male singers African-American guitarists American blues singers American blues guitarists Musicians from North Carolina People from Hyde County, North Carolina American expatriates in Germany American male guitarists 21st-century African-American people