Ronnie Dyson: A Transitional Soul Figure Lost To Time

Morning Edition's series One-Hit Wonders / Second-Best Songs focuses on musicians or bands whose careers in the United States are defined by a single monster hit, and explains why their catalogs have much more to offer.

In this installment, Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University and the author of What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture, makes a case for Ronnie Dyson. He got his start in musical theater, giving voice to one of the most familiar themes in rock opera history when he was only a teenager and scored a hit in 1970 with "(If You Let Me Make Love to You Then) Why Can't I Touch You?" Read Neal in his own words below, and hear the radio version at the audio link.