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 Starting
in May 2006 Otis is featured on a National TV commercial for
AQUA FINA WATER.
National Lampoon and Universal celebrate 25 years of "Animal
House". The Party Began in 1978 and Nobody's Gone Home
Yet! "Otis, my man!" Again, voted America's #1 Party
Band. Come on and shout. Hear all the hits: "Shout",
"Louie Louie", "Money", "What I Say",
"Shamma Lamma Ding Dong".
At seven, a battered station wagon pulled into the Delta front
yard. It was royal blue, had mud flaps and bore on its side
the legend OTIS DAY & THE KNIGHTS. Boon rushed to the
door and watched in near ecstasy as the station wagon poured
out Negroes. Cool city black guys were rare as chocolate egg
creams in Fuber, Pennsylvania. Two of them were wearing do-rags.
- National Lampoon's Animal House
Ask anyone named Otis. Ask him if he is not routinely hailed
as "Otis, my man!" by virtually all who know him.
Otis Wilson, Otis Jennings, Ottis Anderson - all have become
Otis-My-Mans. Otis Campbell, the town drunk from Mayberry
R.F.D., Otis Elevators. But the original Otis-My-Man is not
really an Otis at all. DeWayne Jessie was part of Universal
Studios' stable of character actors when he was offered the
role of Otis Day, the roadhouse rhythm and blues singer in
Animal House - National Lampoon's occasionally raunchy but
unfailingly funny tribute to college fraternity life. Now
he's Otis - for life. "He's taken over," Jessie
admitted. "He's taken over as far as performing goes.
But when I get my bills, it's DeWayne Jessie."
 Released
in 1978, Animal House became one of the top 50 grossing movies
of all time - though not all the grossing was done at the
box office. And though it lasted just two scenes, Jessie's
role was among the most memorable - first for the Knight's
toga-party rendition of "Shout!" and then for their
appearance at the Dexter Lake Club, where an alert freshman
pledge noticed that, "We're the only white people here."
There, one of the Delta road-trippers hailed from the bar,
"Otis, my man" - only to get a stony stare in return.
American race relations have never been summed up so succinctly.
"About two days after the film was released, I got a
call from a guy in Rhode Island wanting us to come out on
the road," Jessie said. "I didn't go, but then his
manager called and said 'Let's give it a try'"! The rest
is Rock n' Roll history. Otis toured to sold out crowds immediately.
In fact, in Galveston, Texas he drew 375,000 to his Mardi
Gras concert. "It was done in reverse," states management.
"First we toured successfully (over 260 concerts the
first year alone), then we did a feature full length video.
Now we have a new album on MCA Records produced by George
Clinton."
Jessie's career started at age 17 when he played a student
who couldn't read in Halls of Anger, a Jeff Bridges vehicle.
He kept busy in the '70's with roles in Car Wash, Thank God
It's Friday, Where the Buffalo Roam and The Bingo Long Traveling
All-Stars and Motor Kings, which starred Billy Dee Williams
as the ace of a barnstorming black baseball team. "I
won a Image award for that - Billy won best actor and I won
best supporting actor (he played Rainbow, a mute)," he
said. "That night Universal offered me Animal House.
At first I said no, but before I walked out the door, something
hit me in the back of the head and said, 'Fool, you better
take it.' "I had a ball. And John Belushi, contrary to
popular belief, was not the kind of person you've read about
in Wired, as far as his work goes. He was a professional.
He was flying from Eugene to New York to do 'Saturday Night
Live' all the time. I thank God I met him, because he taught
me a lot about control."
 Jessie
claims to have done "a little singing" before tackling
Otis, but he based his character on his brother, Obie, who
had a group, called The Slayers. "I don't know if they
were similar," Jessie said. "I really can't say...
yeah. I would say... no, they were a lot different."
The Jessie / Day concert repertoire is about what you'd expect
movie favorites "Louie, Louie," "Shout!"
and "Shamalama Ding Dong" mixed in with old standards
like "Function at the Junction". Plus, of course,
an all great dance set!.
Listen to Otis My Man!
Money
Takin' Care of Business
Louie Louie
 If
you like this Artist we recommend:
Linwood Peel's A Tribute To The Drifters
The Cornell Gunter Coasters
The Marvelettes
The Platters
Bridging The Glory Days of
the 1940s and 1950s: Starring The Platters with the NYC BIg
Band
The Hall of Fame Show, starring:
Linwood Peel's A Tribute To The Drifters; The Cornell Gunter Coasters and
The Marvelettes
Les Musiques de Broadway
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