Bobby Bland, the American blues singer, died in Memphis on Sunday, June 23 following complications from an ongoing illness. He was 83, The Telegraph said.

Bland was born in Rosemark, Tennessee in 1930. Known as The Lion of The Blues, he was a contemporary of blues and soul icons BB King and Ray Charles, and joined blues group the Beale Streeters when he first moved to Memphis in 1947. Fifty years later, he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to music.

Bland's chart success came during the Fifties and late Sixties, at the point he mastered the smooth and dynamic vocals that made his name. He topped the charts with hits That's the Way Love Is and I Pity the Fool. A handful of Bland's other tracks – Turn on Your Love Light, Call on Me and Ain't Nothing You Can Do – made the Top 40.

However, Bland's music influenced rock acts in the Sixties, including The Grateful Dead, who covered Love Light during their live shows and Van Morrison, who covered Ain't Nothing You Can Do.

The singer's distinctive voice developed over time – Bland spent the early Fifties mimicing King's falsetto. But he later attributed his more gravelly tone to Aretha Franklin's father, Rev CL Franklin, saying he "got [his] squall from" his sermons.

King and Bland's musical relationship continued late into Bland's life – the pair collaborated on two albums in the 1970s and occasionally toured during the 1980s.