Some musicians throw everything that comes to them against the wall, hoping for success, hoping for praise but content merely to experiment.

Paul Davis made the absolute most of his gift.

The soft rock icon of the 1970s and early 1980s died today, and while he had only a handful of hits, every one of them was brilliant. From the perspective of a vocalist, a musician, a songwriter, the long-haired Mississippian was great at creating great music.

Considering I was never even near a radio until 1982, 12 years into my young life, it was understandable that I had yet to hear of "I Go Crazy," which set the standard for chart consistency back in 1977, staying something like 40 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100.

However, Tammi Zwirtz was sure I'd remember "65 Love Affair.

No, she and I did not have a love affair in the sixth grade. My infatuation, as the entire city of Muskogee knew, was clearly on one Heather Casey. On the other hand, Tammi was really good at roller skating, and I recall that she really liked this song.

It's funny how memories get lodged in our brains, but for 26 years, I have associated Davis' 1982 hit with somebody I only knew for a handful of months. And with reference to something (skating) that I cannot do at all.

And neither of these had anything to do with "Freeze Frame," by the J. Geils Band, which is the actual all-time best skating song ever. For people who know how to skate.

When I saw that Davis had really, really long hair, I had this sense of dissonance about him, like it wasn't quite right. Most of his music, I could tell at even this young age, had a soulful element to it, much like contemporaries like Kenny Loggins and Leon Russell and, heck, even Dan Fogelberg.

As I got older and especially today, I realize how stupid it is to pigeonhole how somebody should look relative to his or her style of music. However, that's just maturity taking hold.

What never changed over the years though is my appreciation of Davis' music, in particular a song from that same year, 1982, that got to No. 11 on the Billboard charts. "Cool Night" was a staple on Tulsa's KRAV 96.5 for years and on favorites playlists I'd put together.

Love how he just kept on changing keys at the end of this. However, it was never Davis' complexities that attracted fans worldwide, it was his simplicity. He kept music simple and soulful.

Loved Fogelberg, but he most certainly got his due and his tributes and whatnot after he passed. This guy, Paul Davis, I fear not enough folks will even notice he's gone.

So, thought I'd do my part to ensure Google search gets a big blog dosage of the late and definitely great Paul Davis.