Peggy Scott, Jo Jo Benson

In the late 1960s the duo of Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson reached the pop Top 40 on three occasions, climbing even higher on the R&B charts, thanks to a series of upbeat Southern pop/soul numbers. The team was assembled by semi-legendary producer Huey Meaux, already known for his work with Barbara Lynn and Doug Sahm, who also oversaw their initial 1968 recordings in Jackson, Mississippi. After quick successes arrived with “Lover’s Holiday” and “Pickin’ Wild Mountain Berries,” Shelby Singleton assumed production duties and recorded the pair in Nashville. Several of those tracks blended soul with country elements and spotlighted Nashville veterans Jerry Kennedy on guitar and, more unusually, steel guitarist Pete Drake, one of the earliest white country players to appear on a soul session. Though capable, Scott and Benson never developed a truly distinctive or memorable approach, leaving the country leanings and occasional sitar-like guitar textures as their most striking features. Singleton guided them to a third hit inside a year with what may have been their strongest cut, “Soul Shake,” yet only one additional minor success, “I Want to Love You Baby,” followed before they departed SSS International for Atco. With their partnership already fraying, the act issued a handful of little-noticed singles in the early 1970s and then faded. Almost twenty-five years afterward, Scott, now recording as Peggy Scott-Adams, resumed her career with several albums on the Miss Butch label.