Melvin Davis never scored the crossover hit that would have made him a star, but few artists on Detroit's soul music scene had a more impressive résumé than Davis, a singer, songwriter, drummer, and bandleader who worked with everyone from Smokey Robinson and David Ruffin to Wayne Kramer and Dennis Coffey. Davis was born on August 29, 1942, and as a child, his family moved back and forth between Detroit and Milledgeville, Georgia, where his grandparents had a farm. As a boy, he developed a passion for music, seeing Little Richard perform at a juke joint near the family farm an...