Here’s what I remember more than anything else: those long, long legs; the dance moves, and that voice, that glorious voice.

I was probably all of about 13 or 14 years old, and my parents were indulging my increasingly enthusiastic interest in music by allowing me to go to the weekend dance parties at the “Como,” which everyone locally called the Stonington Community Center, where live bands performed for us locals.

If I recall correctly, I’d never seen a live popular music performance before, and I certainly, at that tender age, had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that, for my first night, it was a group called “The Foremost.”

The lights were low, as they always were at the Como (it took another couple of years before I figured out why that was…), and I could barely see the stage.

But, I could hear it. Man, could I hear it.

In the time it took my eyes, and ears, to adjust, I swear I heard two or three Sly & The Family Stone numbers and a couple of Stevie Wonder tunes.

I moved closer to the stage, and for the very first of many, many joyous times, I found myself face to face with the magnificent vocalist Karl Kelly.

Actually, I was more like face to knees with him. Kelly, who was six foot four, looked like a giant to me, and he was…all legs, twisting and moving to and around the beat, all the time never missing a lyric or a strut.

I sat down someplace where I could see this mountain of a man perform with his band, “The Foremost.” In the process of blowing my mind, he gave me a musical education that I have never forgotten.

For a few years at least, if Karl Kelly sang it, I went out and bought it. A musical education brought to me by a terrific performer who clearly relished being on stage and teaching a neophyte like me what inspirational music was out there.

Kelly, who died last month at the far too young age of 65, did that for fans of all ages, colors and musical interests for a more than four-decade career in southeastern Connecticut. To many of us, he was the very first “rock star” we ever saw. And, he remained one right to the end, as, in his later years, he fronted Little Anthony & The Locomotives and, finally, and appropriately, the Karl Kelly Band with just as much passion and spirit as in those early days.

Icon. Star. Showman. Soulful. Enduring. Giant. Magical. Those were but some of the descriptions of Kelly made by his fans after his passing.

He was all that. And more.

Kelly was raised in North Carolina, and moved to New London as a young boy. Soon after, he began his singing career, first at churches, then at community centers like the “Como.” By the time he was at New London High School, he had graduated to Misquamicut’s clubs, New London's fabled Lighthouse Inn, and even the odd wedding and funeral.

If there was an audience, and he could find a microphone, Karl Kelly was there to both entertain and engross his fans.

A benefit concert and tribute to Kelly was scheduled for the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, one of his favorite venues, on November 3. It’s pretty safe to say that Kelly would be looking down, grooving on the still great music, still singing his heart out, and moving those long legs to the beat.

But, don’t take my word for it. Listen to the words of another of his fans:

“If Karl Kelly was playing somewhere, I was there.”

There can be no greater tribute.