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R&B Singer Billy Scott Dead at 70

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Classic R&B singer Billy Scott has died at 70, according the Associated Press.

The North Carolina resident died at his home in Charlotte on Saturday, reports a representative from the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. He had been suffering from pancreatic and liver cancer.

Scott was born Peter Pendleton in 1942. He grew up in Huntington, West Virgina before joining the army, where he sang with several groups.

Following his discharge in 1964, Bill recorded for many years as part of The Prophets. The garnered a hit with 1968′s “I Got the Fever,” which became a gold record. The group also performed under the name as The Georgia Prophets, releasing hits such as “California” and “Seaside Love.”

However, it was Scott’s settlement in the Carolinas that brought him to the beach music genre, a regional version of R&B.

“I kind of fell into it, it was there, and all the songs we were doing were R&B and soul and then this beach music term came up in the Carolinas and it just became a part of what we were doing,” Scott said in a 2000 interview.

For his contributions to beach music, the singer was admitted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

Read more: Julia Cox, Popular Critic

 

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