He was, by all accounts, one of the most charismatic performers of the 1960s. George Clinton and the Rolling Stones studied his act, and he was signed to a record deal by Donny Hathaway and Curtis Mayfield. When this mountainous dancing machine collapsed in October 1970, the newspapers noted that he was the third major rock star to die within weeks. One headline read, "Jimi, Janis, Baby Huey."

Baby Huey? That was the stage name of James Thomas Ramey, the round mound of funky sound who borrowed his alias from the overgrown comic-book duckling of the same name. Baby Huey's band took the name the Babysitters, and they played it up: In their early promotional materials, the rotund lead singer posed in schoolboy clothes, hugging teddy bears.

But Baby Huey and the Babysitters were no mere novelty act. By the mid-'60s, they were one of the most exciting draws on the fertile Chicago scene, regularly packing an obscure Northside club called the Thumbs Up with their radically reworked Beatles and Motown covers.

As their reputation grew, the band shared stages with the Yardbirds, Muddy Waters and the Isley Brothers. But although they scored a regional hit with a song called 'Monkey Man,' they were too busy gigging to focus on recording a proper debut. In 1967, they traveled to Paris to play a private party for the Rothschilds, and the band ended up staying for three months. When they got back, they took over New York City, staying as Mama Cass' houseguests and welcoming special guest Miles Davis.

But the group squandered its tremendous promise. With a gland problem that pushed his weight past 400 pounds, Baby Huey was never in great health, and his growing heroin addiction soon became a serious problem. While working on their overdue debut for Mayfield's Curtom label, two key band members left the group over a contract dispute. The breakup may have contributed to Huey's downward spiral; several months after an unsuccessful detox attempt, he was found dead on a motel floor.

Though some said his funeral in his native Richmond, Ind., was bigger than the mayor's, Huey's local stature never translated into widespread stardom. The Babysitters made a brief attempt to carry on with a new singer -- the bass player's young wife, whose name was Chaka Khan -- before calling it quits. Meanwhile, Mayfield and his staff pieced together an album, 'The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend,' from live and studio tapes, including a nine-minute version of Sam Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come' and a live jam on Mayfield's own 'Mighty Mighty (Spade & Whitey).' The release went all but unnoticed.

Eventually, however, Huey's habit of conversational freestyling ("I'm 400 pounds of soul!") would make him an honorary hip-hop pioneer to a new generation of hard-soul fans. Reviewers had routinely commented on his impromptu "raps"; one called him a "guru on the whereabouts of life." Years after his death, his songs were sampled by Public Enemy, Eric B. and Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest and many other rap acts. When Huey's former manager bumped into Diddy at Mayfield's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, the hip-hop mogul was amazed to meet a man who'd represented one of his idols. "You have no idea how important Huey was," Diddy said.

No doubt about it: Baby Huey could have been big.