Don Downing | it

Downing enrolled in the famed performing arts high school Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York. The high school had one of the strongest performing arts programs in the city and included among its alumni singers Barbra Streisand and Stephanie Mills, and record company executives Clive Davis, who founded Arista Records, and Kedar Massenburg, who later became president of Motown Records.[1] Downing, who eventually recorded for Motown, graduated with Massenburg in the class of 1981. Downing then attended college at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. In the mid-1980s he moved back to New York City worked on albums...

Al Downing (January 9, 1940 – July 4, 2005), later known as Big Al Downing, was an entertainer, singer, songwriter, and pianist. He received the Billboard's New Artist of the Year and the Single of the Year Award in 1979. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and was a frequent performer at the Grand Ole Opry. .