Reese Francis Clifford III, known by the stage name Buzz Clifford, was an American pop singer and songwriter born on 8 October 1941 in Berwyn, Illinois. He began playing guitar as a child and won several talent competitions as a teenager. At age 15, he signed to Bow Records, releasing a few singles without significant success. His breakthrough came with Columbia Records when he released the single "Baby Sittin' Boogie" in 1961, which peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. This success led to appearances on TV shows like American Bandstand and tours with artists such as Freddy Cannon and Dion. Despite this initial fame, his subsequent singles failed to chart, leading to a lack of recording contracts. He then served in the National Guard and moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a songwriter for various artists, including Keith Barbour, Petula Clark, and Lou Rawls. In the 1960s, he worked with bands like Carp and Hamilton Streetcar, releasing albums on Epic Records and Dot Records, respectively. Notable posthumous recognitions include Beck sampling "I See, I Am" for his album Midnite Vultures, and Method Man & Redman featuring a sample of his song "Echo Park" on their track "Four Minutes to Lock Down." Buzz Clifford died on 26 January 2018, at the age of 76.
