BIOGRAPHY
Shuggie Otis was born Johnny Otis, Jr. on November 30, 1953, in Los Angeles, the son of bandleader Johnny Otis. He began performing professionally around 1965, reportedly wearing dark glasses and applying black ink between his nose and mouth so he could pass for old enough to play clubs alongside his father. Signed to CBS, he released Al Kooper Introduces Shuggie Otis, followed by Here Comes Shuggie Otis (1970, produced by his father) and Freedom Flight (1971), which contained the original version of 'Strawberry Letter 23.' His 1974 album Inspiration Information found him playing nearly every instrument himself on jazz and Latin-inflected R&B, and was among the first records to feature an electronic rhythm box. After the Brothers Johnson's 1977 cover of 'Strawberry Letter 23' sold over a million copies and topped the R&B chart, Otis stepped back from recording for years before Luaka Bop's 2001 reissue of Inspiration Information introduced him to new listeners, leading to Live in Williamsburg (2014) and the quartet album Inter-Fusion (2018).