As an eleven-year-old Darnell achieved local fame as a gospel singer, and left home at 15 years of age to work as a dancer with a burlesque road show, the Brownskin Models.[2] In New Orleans he gained steady employment as a singer at the Dew Drop Inn.[2] In 1949, he was signed up by Fred Mendelsohn for the Regal label in New Jersey.[2] His first two recordings, "I'll Get Along Somehow" and "For You My Love", both hit the R&B charts in November 1949, with "For You My Love", written by Paul Gayten, staying at the number 1 spot for eight weeks.[3]
The follow-ups "I Love My Baby" and Louis Prima's "Oh Babe!" were also hits, and Darnell's powerful and passionate voice contributed to the development of a trend in popular music soon marketed nationwide as rock and roll. Darnell was the top selling R & B artist of 1950.[4] However, after Regal collapsed in 1951, his records became less successful. By now known as "Mr. Heart & Soul", he appeared in the 1955 movie Harlem Rock & Roll Revue, and spent the rest of the decade recording for various labels.[3]
In 1969, he made his final recordings, for the Instant label in New Orleans.[2] Receding from professional activity, he continued to sing in church and at charitable events.[2] In April 1979, while en route to sing at a funeral in Akron, Ohio, he was mugged by a gang, and received severe injuries. The doctors operating on him to save his life discovered he had lung cancer, from which he died in 1983.[4][3]
