Jo Jo Benson

Joseph M. Hewell, better known under his stage name Jo Jo Benson (April 15, 1938 – December 23, 2014) was an American R&B singer, best known for his recordings in the late 1960s with Peggy Scott.

He was born in Phenix City, Alabama, and began singing in nightclubs when in his teens. He joined Chuck Willis as a backing singer in the early 1960s, before joining forces with fellow singer Peggy Scott, who previously backed Ben E. King, in a duo. The pair were heard and encouraged by record producer Huey Meaux, and were recruited by Shelby Singleton's SSS International label in Nashville, Tennessee, in order to record duets. Their first recording for the label, "Lover's Holiday", reached #8 on the Billboard R&B chart and #31 on the pop chart in 1968, eventually becoming a gold record. They followed it up with "Pickin' Wild Mountain Berries", which was also a hit and for which they were nominated for a Grammy. Benson and Scott had two more hits in 1969, "Soulshake" and "I Want to Love You Baby", and released two albums together, Lover's Heaven and Soulshake.

The pairing of Benson and Scott split up in 1971. Benson later owned several nightclubs in the Chattahoochee Valley, and was seriously wounded in a shooting incident in 1979. He and Scott temporarily reunited in the mid-1980s for a reunion album, and in 1999 Benson recorded a solo album, Reminiscing in the Jam Zone, which Living Blues magazine called "among the finest soul albums of the year -- indeed, of the decade". He followed up in 2001 with the album Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha.

In December 2014, Jo Jo Benson was found dead at a motel in Columbus, Georgia. The coroner's office stated that he died of natural causes.