Priscilla Bowman (born Priscilla I. Mills, May 30, 1928 – July 24, 1988) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues singer who had a No. 1 hit single on the Billboard magazine R&B chart in 1955 with the song "Hands Off". She was the lead singer for the Jay McShann band.
Born the daughter of a Pentecostal minister, Priscilla made her singing debut at age seven in front of inmates at the state penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas. As a teenager she was encouraged by local pianist Roy Searcy as she began singing in area nightclubs. She has been called the city's "original rock 'n' roll mama" and was influenced by singers Ruth Brown and Annie Laurie. She joined the Jay McShann band in the early 1950s. In 1955 the band signed with Vee-Jay Records, and Bowman recorded two sessions with them. Priscilla sounded simply fabulous; her talent was on a par with the more successful R&B vocalists of the time, yet one big hit was all she would be able to muster. 'Hands Off' was a runaway smash, hitting number one on the R&B charts for three weeks in December 1955.
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She recorded three sessions for Vee-Jay and its subsidiary label, Falcon, as a solo singer between 1957 and 1959 but could not repeat her success. However, in 1958 she was the first to record the song "A Rockin' Good Way", with uncredited vocal backing by The Spaniels. The song was written with Brook Benton and became a hit when Benton recorded it himself as a duo with Dinah Washington in 1960.
Bowman continued to record through the end of the 1950s, achieving artistic and critical triumphs in the face of waning commercial success. Highlights include "I've Got News For You, the follow-up to her #1 hit (1956); "Everything's Alright," a Billboard Magazine pick (1957), and collaboration with doo-wop group The Spaniels (1958-59). However, Bowman failed to rekindle her initial success or to tap into the emerging rock 'n' roll market, a style ironically owing much to the rhythm and blues music she purveyed. Priscilla Bowman's last session for Vee-Jay, which took place on July 30, 1959, was led by Riley Hampton. It yielded her final single.
Constant touring was highlighted by engagements at Mel's Hideaway on the south side of Chicago and the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York. With marquee performances and hit records to promote, the incessant grind of the road took a toll on Bowman. On the advice of entertainer Moms Mabley, who shared the same tour bill, the exhausted and ill Bowman returned to Kansas City for much needed rest. Her career as a commercial recording artist had lasted a little over four years. By the early 1960s, Bowman had put her career on hold to get married and to raise a family.
Bowman revived her singing career in the late 1970s and was reunited with Jay McShann on more than one occasion. She continued to perform at area nightspots and festivals. Her only other recording that is known of was a limited-issue LP recorded in Kansas City by pianist Roy Searcy. Roy Searcy and Friends: Live Jam Session President Hotel in 1976. It was released, probably in early 1977, on Stage Three Sound.
Despite surgery to remove a cancerous lung during 1986, she continued to perform into 1987. She died on July 24, 1988, at the age of 60 and was honoured posthumously with a Kansas City Jazz Heritage Award (1988) and an Elder Statesmen of Kansas City Jazz
Award (2003).
In 2019 Jasmine Records issued Jay McShann & Priscilla Bowman - A Rockin' Good Way ~ 1955-1959 which virtually contains all of her records. She appears on many compilation albums mostly with the inclusion of "Hands Off" which remains one of the biggest R & B records of the nineteen fifties and for this alone Bowman remains part of the story of the music that changed everything.
(Edited mainly from Wikipedia & Priscilla Bowman Collection)
