Peggy Scott-Adams

by John BushThe former Peggy Scott, who toured with Ben E. King as a teenager and hit the Top 40 three times as a duet act with Jo Jo Benson in the 1960s, came back strong in the late 90s after decades of inactivity with Bill, a wildly popular contemporary blues song about a woman whose man has been fooling around — with another man. Scott had been out of the music business since the late 60s, working as a lounge singer in Pensacola until she moved to California and married a Compton city commissioner in 1988. Persuaded to return to the studio by songwriter/producer Jimmy Lewis, Scott-Adams recorded Help Yourself in mid-1996. One of Lewis songs was a novelty track which twisted the common complaint of a wife keeping her man faithful. Released as a single initially just to blues radio stations, it also began getting airplay at urban radio and soon gained most-requested status at several larger stations. Help Yourself began selling well, prompting the release of Contagious later in 1997, and Undisputed Queen in 1999. Scott-Adams continued to belt out bawdy and topical contemporary blues in the 2000s with Live in Alabama & More (2000), Hot & Sassy (2001) and Busting Loose (2003). In 2004, she balanced her hot-blooded topical repertoire with a gospel album, God Can, And He Will.