Little Willie John (1937–1968) was an American R&B singer who recorded ‘Fever’ first, in 1956, when he was still a teenager. His version was a genuine smash — an R&B No. 1 and a million-seller — yet within a couple of years Peggy Lee’s cover had eclipsed it almost entirely. He died in prison at 30, and it is a quiet cruelty of pop history that the song he took to the top is now filed under someone else’s name.