Willie Albert Goodman (March 31, 1943 – July 26, 2010) was an American singer and writer who performed as part of the musical trio

Ray, Goodman & Brown Ray, Goodman & Brown is an American R&B vocal group. The group originated as The Moments, who formed in the mid-1960s and whose greatest successes came in the 1970s with hits including "Love on a Two-Way Street", "Sexy Mama", and "Look at Me ( ...

, a group that was earlier called The Moments and was known for their songs "

Love on a Two-Way Street "Love on a Two-Way Street" is a soul ballad written by Sylvia Robinson, Lezli Valentine and Bert Keyes in 1968. The song was originally recorded by Lezli Valentine, an artist signed to All Platinum, the record label that Sylvia Robinson co-owne ...

", "Sexy Mama" and "

Look at Me (I'm in Love) "Look at Me (I'm in Love)" is a 1975 single written by, Al Goodman, Walter Lee Morris, and Harry Milton Ray , and performed by The Moments. The Moments would later change their name to Ray, Goodman & Brown Ray, Goodman & Brown is an American R& ...

" as The Moments and later, " Special Lady" after changing their name to Ray, Goodman and Brown.

Singing career

Goodman was born on March 31, 1943, in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

and started singing

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

while he was in high school. He headed to New York City at 19 and got a job with record producer

Sylvia Robinson Sylvia Robinson (née Vanderpool; May 29, 1935 – September 29, 2011) was an American singer, record producer, and record label executive. Robinson achieved success as a performer on two R&B chart toppers: as half of Mickey & Sylvia with ...

All Platinum Records All Platinum Records was a record company started in 1967 by singer/writer/producer Sylvia Robinson and her husband, businessman Joe Robinson, who had previously worked in the recording industry. All Platinum and its subsidiary labels, includin ...

at her studio in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from por ...

, where Robinson first noticed him while he was singing to himself on the job.via

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

"Soul singer Al Goodman dies at 67"
''

The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to ''The Jersey Journal'' of Jersey City, ''The Times'' of Trenton and the '' Staten Island Advance'', all of wh ...

'', July 30, 2010. Accessed July 30, 2010. Robinson revamped the group The Moments on her Stang Records label, teaming Goodman's bass with the falsetto of Billy Brown and sole surviving original member John Morgan after an earlier incarnation of the group scored its first R&B chart hit in 1968. One of their early songs, the ballad "Love On A Two-Way Street" reached number one on the

Billboard R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

and hit third place on Billboard's pop chart. Months after their first album release, Sylvia's brother-in-law Johnny Moore, a swift replacement for John Morgan, was replaced with Harry Ray. Together, Ray, Goodman and Brown as The Moments went on to record such hits as "All I Have" and "Sexy Mama".Hevesi, Dennis
"Al Goodman, R&B Singer, Dies at 67"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', July 29, 2010. Accessed July 30, 2010. The Moments left Stang Records in 1979, citing creative differences with Joe and Sylvia Robinson, and signed up with

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

as Ray, Goodman & Brown, due to Stang Records owning the rights to the group's original name. With Polydor, the trio again had a chart-topping R&B hit with "Special Lady". ''The Billboard Book of American Singing Groups'' credited the group as having "left a noticeable mark on contemporary soul music" with 28 songs making the R&B charts and 11 hits on the pop charts. Terry Stewart of the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music an ...

credit them as "one of those transitional tight-harmony love-ballad groups from the '60s that paved the way out of the doo-wop era to become one of the leaders of R&B for nearly two decades". The group recorded many of their songs at the Sugar Hill Records (formerly All Platinum) studio in Englewood, which was gutted by a fire in 2002 that destroyed many of the master tapes of their recordings. Goodman said the fire cost him $500,000 saying "I just stood there and watched 30 or 40 years of my life go by". A resident of Englewood, New Jersey, Goodman died at age 67 on July 26, 2010, of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

after undergoing surgery at

Hackensack University Medical Center Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) is a 781-bed non-profit, research and teaching hospital providing tertiary and healthcare needs located seven miles (11 km) west of New York City, in Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey. As ...

Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack is a city in and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.New Jers ...

.Kerwick, Mike
"Soul singer Al Goodman, baritone for the Moments"
''

The Record (Bergen County) ''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and P ...

'', July 30, 2010. Accessed July 30, 2010. He was survived by his second wife, the former Henrietta Young, as well as by two daughters Linda and Rhonda Goodman, three sons James, William, and Brandon Goodman a daughter-in-law Stephanie Goodman and a grandson Aidan Albert Goodman. His earlier marriage to Alice Lewis ended in divorce.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodman, Al 1943 births 2010 deaths American rhythm and blues singers People from Englewood, New Jersey Musicians from Jackson, Mississippi Singers from New Jersey