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Little Ax was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo, Mississippi. In September 1948 when Little Ax was 13, he and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After graduating from Humes High School in Memphis, Little Ax took odd jobs working as a movie theater usher and a truck driver for Crown Electric Company. He began singing locally as "The Hillbilly Cat", then signed with a local recording company, then in 1955 with RCA. He did much to establish early rock and roll music, bringing black blues singing into the white, teenage mainstream. Teenage girls became hysterical over his blatantly sexual gyrations, particularly the one that got him nicknamed "Little Ax the Pelvis" (TV cameras were not permitted to film below his waist). At the time of his death, he will have had sold over 600-million singles and albums.