Charles E. Allen (May 1, 1942 – May 7, 1990) was one of the founding members of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and rock outfit

Pacific Gas & Electric The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...

and the vocalist for the group. By 1968, the group consisted of Charlie Allen, Frank Cook, Tom Marshall, Brent Block, and guitarist

Glenn Schwartz Glenn W. Schwartz (March 20, 1940 – November 2, 2018) was an American guitarist who first came to the attention of rock music audiences as the original guitar player of the James Gang, based in Cleveland, Ohio. Career Schwartz left the Jame ...

. Besides being remembered for his association with Pacific Gas & Electric, Allen is perhaps best remembered for the

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

" Are You Ready?" that he co-wrote with John Hill which besides being a hit for Pacific Gas & Electric has been

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, and

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Band Pacific Gas & Electric

Allen was originally the drummer for the Pacific Gas And Electric Blues Band. His vocal abilities meant that he was destined to be the band's

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

so he was placed up front and Frank Cook, the former drummer for

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, became the drummer. Allen would remain the front man for the band right up until the breakup of the group. The group became popular and appeared at many concerts along with other big name bands. They also appeared in, and contributed music to the

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...

directed film ''

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'' starring

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and

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in an early role. Allen displayed some promising songwriting skills. On their third album, self-titled, he wrote "Bluesbuster", "Miss Lucy", "My Women" with Tom Marshall, and along with John Hill "Death Row #172". Another song with the same kind of theme written by Allen was "Mother, Why Do You Cry?" on the ''Are You Ready?'' album, a tale about a young man in jail coming to terms with his fate. The group went through a series of personnel changes and when the fourth album was released the name was shortened to PG&E. In 1973 the last album ''Pacific Gas & Electric starring Charlie Allen'' was released on the Dunhill label. By this time he was the only original member, and the album was more or less Allen's debut solo album.

Personal

Allen died in 1990, six days after his 48th birthday.

Discography

*''Pacific Gas & Electric Starring Charlie Allen'' – Dunhill DSX-50157 **"Gumbo Jones" (Allen, Hill, Michlin) 4:43 **"Roll Georgia" (Allen, Hill, Michlin) 5:16 **"Somebody You Love" (Dino, Sembello) 2:49 **"Hold On" (Allen, Hill, Michlin) 2:59 **"Dancin' in the Fire" (Allen, Hill, Michlin) 4:49 **"Good Gospel Music" (Allen, Hill, Michlin) 5:44 **"I Hear the Trumpets" (Calling Allen, Hill) 2:46 **"Some Kind of Feelin'" (Allen, Hill, Michlin) 4:43 **"I Got a Thing About You, Baby" (White) 2:37 **"Sunshine Embrace" (Allen) 2:53 **"Niggers in the Woods" (Allen, Hill, Michlin) 2:03

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Charlie 1942 births 1990 deaths African-American rock musicians 20th-century African-American male singers American blues singers American blues drummers American soul singers Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Place of birth missing