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J. W. Alexander (musician)
James Woodie Alexander II (January 21, 1916 – July 8, 1996), was an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and entrepreneur who was a key figure in the development of gospel and soul music, most notably through his close association with Sam Cooke. Biography Alexander was born in Hamilton, Mississippi, but by his early teens was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and started singing with local gospel groups. At the age of 18 he joined and began managing the Silver Moon Quartet, from Independence, Kansas, who toured around the Midwest. He also played professional baseball for a time, for the Ethiopian Clowns who became the Indianapolis Clowns, and worked as an extra in Hollywood. In 1942 he joined the Southern Gospel Singers, and in 1945 began singing as first tenor in, and managing, another gospel group, the Pilgrim Travelers. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gospel Music
Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Gospel music is characterized by dominant vocals and strong use of harmony with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century. Hymns and sacred songs were often repeated in a call and response fashion, heavily influenced by ancestral African music. Most of the churches relied on hand-clapping and foot-stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done a cappella.Jackson, Joyce Marie. "The changing nature of gospel music: A southern case study." ''African American Review'' 29.2 (1995): 185. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. October 5, 2010. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Arista Records, and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, classical, rock, hip hop, afrobeat, electronic, R&B, blues, jazz, and country. Its name is derived from the initials of its defunct parent company, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA Records was fully acquired by Bertelsmann in 1987, making it a part of Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and became a part of Sony BMG Music Entertainment after the 2004 merger of BMG and Sony; it was acquired by the latter in 2008, after the dissolution of Sony/BMG and the restructuring of Sony Music. RCA Records is the corporate successor of the Victor Talking Machine Company, founded in 1901, making it the second-oldest record label in American his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solomon Burke
Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke (born James Solomon McDonald, March 21, 1936 or 1940 – October 10, 2010) was an American singer who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues as one of the founding fathers of soul music in the 1960s. He has been called "a key transitional figure bridging R&B and soul", and was known for his "prodigious output". He had a string of hits including "Cry to Me", "If You Need Me", "Got to Get You Off My Mind", " Down in the Valley", and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love". Burke was referred to honorifically as "King Solomon", the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", "Bishop of Soul", and the "Muhammad Ali of soul". Due to his minimal chart success in comparison to other soul music greats such as James Brown, Wilson Pickett, and Otis Redding, Burke has been described as the genre's "most unfairly overlooked singer" of its golden age. Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler referred to Burke as "the greatest male soul singer of all time". Burke's most famous recor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Womack
Robert Dwayne Womack (; March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career spanned more than 60 years and multiple styles, including rhythm and blues, R&B, jazz, soul music, soul, rock and roll, doo-wop, and gospel music, gospel. Womack was a prolific songwriter who wrote and originally recorded, (with his brothers, the Valentinos), the Rolling Stones' first UK number one hit ("It's All Over Now") and New Birth (band), New Birth's "I Can Understand It". As a singer, he is most notable for the hits "Lookin' for a Love", "That's the Way I Feel About Cha", "Woman's Gotta Have It (song), Woman's Gotta Have It", "Harry Hippie", "Across 110th Street (song), Across 110th Street", and his 1980s hits "If You Think You're Lonely Now" and "I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much". In 2009, Womack was induc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Junior Parker
Herman "Junior" Parker (March 27, 1932November 18, 1971) Little Junior Parker, ''Mississippi Blues Trail'' Retrieved October 14, 2016 was an American blues singer and musician. He is best remembered for his voice which has been described as "honeyed" and "velvet-smooth". One music journalist noted, "For years, Junior Parker deserted down home harmonica blues for uptown blues-soul music". In 2001, he was inducted into the . Parker is also inducted into the |
Bobby Bland
Robert Calvin Bland (born Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer. Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was described as "among the great storytellers of blues and soul music... hocreated tempestuous arias of love, betrayal and resignation, set against roiling, dramatic orchestrations, and left the listener drained but awed." He was sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues" and as the "Sinatra of the Blues". His music was also influenced by Nat King Cole. Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as "second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis's Beale Street blues scene". Life and career Early life Bland was born Robert Calvin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Valentinos
The Valentinos (also known as The Womack Brothers) was an American family R&B group from Cleveland, Ohio, best known for launching the careers of brothers Bobby Womack and Cecil Womack. Bobby went on to find greater fame as a solo artist while Cecil became successful as a member of the husband and wife duo of Womack & Womack with Linda Cooke. The group was well known for R&B hits such as the original versions of "Lookin' for a Love", notably covered by the J. Geils Band and later a solo hit for Bobby Womack, and "It's All Over Now", covered by the Rolling Stones. Biography Origins The foundation of the Valentinos started in church where the five Womack brothers – Friendly, Jr. (born 1941), Curtis (1942–2017), Bobby (1944–2014), Harry (1945–1974) and Cecil (1947–2013) – performed at their father Friendly's church located from the East 85th & Quincy area of Cleveland. The group started out around 1952 when eight-year-old Bobby Womack played guitar for his father af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Preston
William Everett Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter whose work encompassed R&B, rock, soul, funk, and gospel. Preston was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, during which he backed artists such as Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, the Everly Brothers, Reverend James Cleveland, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He gained attention as a solo artist with hit singles such as " That's the Way God Planned It", the Grammy-winning " Outa-Space", "Will It Go Round in Circles", "Space Race", " Nothing from Nothing", and "With You I'm Born Again". Additionally, Preston co-wrote "You Are So Beautiful", which became a #5 hit for Joe Cocker. Preston is the only non-Beatle musician to be given a credit on a Beatles recording at the band's request; the group's 1969 single "Get Back" was credited as "The Beatles with Billy Preston". He continued to record and perform with George Harrison after the Beatles' breakup, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnnie Taylor
Johnnie Harrison Taylor (May 5, 1934 – May 31, 2000) was an American recording artist and songwriter who performed a wide variety of genres, from blues, rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel to pop, doo-wop, and disco. In 2022, Taylor was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Biography Early years Johnnie Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, United States. He grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas, performing in gospel groups as a youngster. As an adult, he had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My Head", on Chicago's Vee Jay Records label in the 1950s, as part of the gospel group The Highway Q.C.'s, which included a young Sam Cooke. Taylor's singing then was strikingly close to that of Cooke, and he was hired to take Cooke's place in the latter's gospel group, the Soul Stirrers, in 1957. A few years later, after Cooke had established his independent SAR Records, Taylor signed on as one of the label's first acts and recorded "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" in 1962. However, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lou Rawls
Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American record producer, singer, composer and actor. Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably his song "You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine". He worked as a film, television, and voice actor. He was also a three-time Grammy-winner, all for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Early life Rawls was born in Chicago on December 1, 1933, and raised by his grandmother in the Ida B. Wells projects on the city's South Side. He began singing in the Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church choir at the age of seven and later sang with local groups through which he met Sam Cooke, who was nearly three years older, and Curtis Mayfield. Career After graduating from Dunbar Vocational High School, he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a gospel group, and then with the Holy Wonders. In 1951, he replaced Cooke in the Highway QC's aft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Together Let's Find Love
"Together Let's Find Love" is a song written by J. W. Alexander and Willie Hutchingson and performed live by The 5th Dimension. It reached #8 on the U.S. adult contemporary chart, #12 on the Canadian adult contemporary chart, #19 on the Canadian pop chart, #22 on the U.S. R&B chart, and #37 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1972. It was featured on their 1971 album, ''The 5th Dimension Live!!'' The song was produced by Bones Howe and arranged by Bob Alcivar and Dave Blumberg. Retrieved January 24, 2015 Sampling * O.C. sampled the song in his song "Ga Head" from his 1994 album ''[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
That's Where It's At (song)
"That's Where It's At" is a song written by Sam Cooke and J.W. Alexander. Recorded by Cooke, it was released as a single in September 1964. The song was recorded in 32 takes on August 20, 1963 at the RCA studio in Los Angeles, although not released until over a year later. The backing band on the single consisted of trumpeter John Anderson, bassist Harper Cosby, trombonist John "Streamline" Ewing, drummer June Gardner, saxophonist Jewell Grant, violinist Darel Terwilliger, and guitarists René Hall and Bobby Womack. It was not initially much of a commercial success, charting no higher than 93 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. By Cooke's personal standards it was similarly low, especially when compared to his previous and following singles ("Good Times" and " Shake", respectively), both of which were comfortably in the Top 20. However, the song has also garnered critical acclaim in the decades since. It is ranked 876th in American music critic Dave Marsh's 1989 list, ''The Heart of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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