“Ain’t no love, in the heart of the city,” may be a famous chorus in a Jay-Z song, but it’s soul and blues balladeer Bobby (Blue) Bland
we should thank for it.Bland, who helped modernize blues music, died from complications of an on-going illness in Memphis, the New York Times reports
. He was 83.Although hardcore music heads likely know Bland’s name, he never achieved the popularity of contemporaries Ray Charles and B. B. King. His greatest success was always in the rhythm-and-blues market, where he charted with a total of 63 singles from 1957 to 1985.
Bland was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 1997, according to te Times.