[3] Stewart made the transition to secular music by filling in occasionally for the Rainbows, a D.C. area vocal group led by the future soul star, Don Covay.

Rock and roller Bo Diddley has been credited with discovering Stewart playing piano in Washington, D.C., and inviting him to be one of his backup musicians.

26 Pop), which featured his brother Johnny Stewart as one of the backing vocalists with his partner James English, and "Sitting in the Park" (No.

The first single released from that album was Stewart's radical interpretation of the George Gershwin song, "Summertime", a Top 10 hit on both the pop and R&B charts.

The accident happened when the Ford Thunderbird that Stewart was driving approached a bridge across the Neuse River near Smithfield, North Carolina (presumably on US 301, since I-95 was not yet completed in that area at that time, terminating in Rocky Mount prior to 1973).

The other victims in the accident were members of Stewart's band: Norman P. Rich, 39, of Washington, D.C.; William Cathey, 32 of Charlotte, N.C.; and Rico Hightower, 22 of Newark, New Jersey.

[13] His musical legacy is also being kept alive by several talented family members in his hometown of Washington D.C. Cousins Grace Ruffin who is a member of the '60s group The Four Jewels, singer and musician Calvin C. Ruffin Jr. and local Washington, D.C., independent recording artist Dane Riley, continue to perform several of his hits during their concerts.

In Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Billy Stewart's "Summertime" is featured in a scene where Brad Pitt's character, Cliff Booth, leaves his home and erratically drives off into the twilight.