Myron Carlton "Tiny" Bradshaw (September 23, 1907 – November 26, 1958) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues bandleader, singer, composer, pianist, and drummer. His biggest hit was "Well Oh Well" in 1950, and the following year he recorded "The Train Kept A-Rollin'", important to the later development of rock and roll; he co-wrote and sang on both records.
Myron Carlton Bradshaw was born in Youngstown, Ohio, the son of Cicero P. Bradshaw and his wife Lillian Boggess. Bradshaw graduated from high school in Youngstown. After graduating from Wilberforce University with a degree in psychology, Bradshaw turned to music for a living. In Ohio, he sang and played drums with Horace Henderson's campus oriented Collegians until the end of the 1928, Bradshaw went to New York and performed with Duncan Myer’s Savoy Bearcats, the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, and Luis Russell’s Orchestra. Marion Hardy's Alabamians had given its young front man, Cab Calloway a springboard to his fame and Bradshaw took on the legend with them as “Super Cab Calloway.”
During World War II Bradshaw was commissioned a major in the U.S. Army and led a twenty-five piece USO orchestra. After the war he kept a band together by adapting to the popularity of R&B. The band's next recording date was in 1944 for Manor Records. He recorded in 1947 for Savoy Records. The band recorded extensively for the rhythm and blues market with King Records between late 1949 and early 1955, and had five hits on the Billboard R&B chart. His most successful record at the time was "Well Oh Well", which reached no.2 on the R&B chart in 1950 and stayed on the chart for 21 weeks. Two follow-ups, "I'm Going To Have Myself A Ball" (no.5, 1950) and "Walkin' The Chalk Line" (no.10, 1951) also made the chart before a break of almost two years.
What is now Bradshaw's best known recording was "The Train Kept A-Rollin'" (1951) — not a chart hit at the time — which passed from rhythm and blues history into rock's legacy. The song was recorded by Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'N' Roll Trio in 1956 and by The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck in 1965.
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It was covered again by Aerosmith in 1974 and by Motörhead in 1978. Furthermore, Jimmy Page reported in an interview that the first song played, at the very first rehearsal of what would become the English rock band Led Zeppelin was "The Train Kept A-Rollin'".
Bradshaw returned to the R&B chart in 1953 with "Soft" (no.3), an instrumental later recorded by Bill Doggett, and "Heavy Juice" (no.9). Both of these 1953 hits featured Red Prysock on tenor saxophone.
Bradshaw's later career was hampered by severe health problems, including two strokes, the first in 1954, that left him partially paralyzed. He spent the next few years recovering in a Florida hospital. In the meantime, King tried to keep his name from disapearring altogether by releasing a single made up of previous sessions. By early 1958, Bradshaw slowly returned to touring and leading his band. His last session that year resulted in two recordings, "Short Shorts" and "Bushes" (King 5114), which proved an unsuccessful attempt to reach out to the emerging teenage record market.Weakened by the successive strokes as well as the rigors of his profession, Bradshaw died in his adopted hometown of Cincinnati from another stroke in 1958. He was 51 years old.
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Bradshaw is remembered for a string of rhythm and blues hits. As a bandleader, he was an invaluable mentor to important musicians and arrangers including Sil Austin, Happy Caldwell, Shad Collins, Wild Bill Davis, Talib Dawud, Gil Fuller, Gigi Gryce, George "Big Nick" Nicholas, Russell Procope, Red Prysock, Curly Russell, Calvin "Eagle Eye" Shields, Sonny Stitt, Noble "Thin Man" Watts, and Shadow Wilson.
(Info edited mainly from Wikipedia & Encyclopedia of Popular music)