Harold Edwin Burrage (March 30, 1931 – November 26, 1966)
was an American
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
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
singer, pianist, songwriter, and record producer.
Biography
Born in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, Burrage did
session work as a pianist in the 1950s and 1960s as well as recording under his own name.
He released singles on
Decca Decca may refer to:
Music
* Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label
* Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group
* Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label
* Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...
,
Aladdin
Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...
,
States, and
Cobra in the 1950s, and for
Vee-Jay
Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
The label was founded in Gary, Indiana in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, a ...
and M-Pac in the 1960s.
Burrage's backing bands included the likes of
Otis Rush
Otis Rush Jr. (April 29, 1934 – September 29, 2018) was an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. His distinctive guitar style featured a slow-burning sound and long bent notes. With qualities similar to the styles of other 1950s art ...
,
Willie Dixon
William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...
,
Wayne Bennett, and
Jody Williams
Jody Williams (born October 9, 1950) is an American political activist known for her work in banning anti-personnel landmines, her defense of human rights (especially those of women), and her efforts to promote new understandings of security i ...
, while Burrage supported
Magic Sam
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
* Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic
* Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
,
Charles Clark, and others as a pianist.
Burrage's first recording was "Hi-Yo Silver", written by Burrage and
Claude Trenier
The Treniers (pronounced /trəˈniərz/) were an American R&B and jump blues musical group led by identical twins Cliff and Claude Trenier. They were originally billed as the Trenier Twins, who performed alongside the Gene Gilbeaux Quartet, b ...
,
for
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...
in 1950, backed by
Horace Henderson
Horace W. Henderson (November 22, 1904 – August 29, 1988), the younger brother of Fletcher Henderson, was an American jazz pianist, organist, arranger, and bandleader.
Henderson was born in Cuthbert, Georgia, United States. While later a ...
's band.
Burrage's only national hit as singer was the 1965
Chicago soul
Chicago soul is a style of soul music that arose during the 1960s in Chicago. Along with Detroit, the home of Motown, and Memphis, with its hard-edged, gritty performers (see Memphis soul), Chicago and the Chicago soul style helped spur the a ...
song "Got to Find a Way",
which reached number 31 on the
US ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
R&B chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
. The following year Burrage died in Chicago, aged 35, from heart failure at the home of
Tyrone Davis
Tyrone Davis (born Tyrone D. Fettson or Tyrone D. Branch, October 3, 1937 – February 9, 2005) was an American blues and soul singer with a long list of hit records over more than 20 years. Davis had three number 1 hits on the ''Billboard'' R ...
,
a musician Burrage influenced.
Got to Find a Way
at AllMusic
Discography
From ''The Soul Discography''
Additional recordings
*''Pioneer Of Chicago Soul'', P-Vine Special PLP 9003 (1979)
*''Messed Up! The Cobra Recordings 1956-58'', Westside WESM 634 (2001)
References
External links
Harold Burrage Discography on Discogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burrage, Harold
1931 births
1966 deaths
20th-century African-American male singers
American session musicians
American soul singers
Singers from Chicago
Cobra Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Decca Records artists