Chuck Willis, Sheik of the Blues

Blues/Rhythm & Blues artist Chuck Willis, routinely wore a turban on stage when he performed (he reportedly owned 54 of them), and so was known as "Sheik of the Blues." (Some claim he was known as the Sheik of Shake and Sheik of the Stroll.) Best known for his 1957 hit, "C.C. Rider." He recorded for Atlantic Records starting in 1956. (Atlantic of course was co-founded by the Turk Ahmet Ertegün--who was secular and of course did not wear a turban.) Willis died of peritonitis, at the age of thirty, in 1958.