Billy Paul, who recorded...

...the No. 1 hit “Me and Mrs. Jones” in 1972, died at age 81. This was a big song when I was in eighth grade.

From his obit in the New York Times (my emphasis):

After attending the West Philadelphia Music School and the Granoff School of Music, he sang in local jazz clubs and recorded ballads for minor labels before being drafted into the Army, serving in the same unit as Elvis Presley in West Germany. With Gary Crosby, Bing Crosby’s son, he formed the Jazz Blues Symphony Band.

“We tried to get Elvis to join but he wanted to be a jeep driver,” he told the magazine Blues and Soul in March.