Geno Washington (born William Francis Washington; December 1943, in Evansville, Indiana) is an American R&B singer who released five albums with The Ram Jam Band between 1966 and 1969, and eight solo albums beginning in 1976. Music career 1960s to 1980s Early to late 1960s Washington was stationed in England with the United States Air Force during the early 1960s. While stationed in East Anglia, Washington became known as a frequent stand-in at gigs around London. When guitarist Pete Gage saw him at a nightclub in 1965, he asked Washington to join his new group, that was to become Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band. Gage later formed Vinegar Joe with Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer. The band's name came from the Ram Jam Inn, an old coaching inn on the A1 (Great North Road) at Stretton, near Oakham, Rutland. The group had two of the biggest selling UK albums of the 1960s, both of which were live albums. Their most commercially successful album, Hand Clappin, Foot Stompin, Funky-Butt ... Live!, was in the UK Albums Chart for 38 weeks in 1966 and 1967, peaking at number 5 on the chart. The other album was Hipster Flipsters Finger Poppin' Daddies, which reached number 8 on the UK album chart. The group had a number of moderate UK Singles Chart hits during 1966–67 on the Pye label: "Water" (which reached no. 39), "Hi Hi Hazel" (no. 45), "Que Sera Sera" (no. 43) and "Michael (The Lover)" (no. 39). They managed to build up a strong following with the crowds due to their energetic tour performances. Like their Pye label mates and rivals Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, they became popular with the mod scene. The band broke up in the autumn of 1969, with the band members going their own ways while Geno Washington continued as a solo artist, prior to returning to the United States. Keyboard player Geoffrey K. Pullum became an academic linguist, and is today a professor at the University of Edinburgh and a well-known linguistics blogger at the Language Log and Lingua Franca websites. The 1970s Washington left the UK to return to the United States and disappeared from the music industry for a length of time. He studied hypnosis and meditation, made acquaintance with The Beach Boys and recorded some music with them that was never released. He later recorded three albums for the DJM