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 that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

singer and guitarist, for many years based in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

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

Life and career

Selby was born at Lake Landing, in Hyde County, North Carolina. He sang

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

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 a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

and other labels. He also toured with artists such as Ben E. King,

The Drifters The Drifters are an American pop and R&B/soul vocal group. 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, formed in 1959 and ...

and

The Isley Brothers The Isley Brothers ( ) are an American soul group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of the 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 re ...

, 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 guitarist, singer and songwriter, who was best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the blues rock band Ten Years After. Early life Lee was ...

, 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. Biography ...

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. He is best known for his 2015 debut single "Panda", which topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Shortly after the song gained vira ...

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 (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...

Archive
Guitar Crusher

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

, BnF
Guitar Crusher Lyrics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guitar Crusher 1931 births 2020 deaths 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American 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 musicians