Jerry Jeff Walker (born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, New York, on 16 March 1942; died 23 October 2020) was an American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known for writing the 1968 song "Mr. Bojangles". During the late 1950s, Crosby was a member of a local Oneonta teen band called The Tones. The band traveled to Philadelphia to audition for Dick Clark's "American Bandstand", but were turned down. Members of the band found Dick Clark's