Joe Hicks is an American R&B and

soul blues Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s that combines elements of soul music and urban contemporary music. Origin African American singers and musicians who grew up listening to the electric blues by ar ...

singer and songwriter. He hailed from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and found limited success in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hicks recorded an album for a subsidiary

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. Stax was ...

Career

His 1968 recording, "Don't It Make You Feel Funky", was produced by

Pat Vegas Patrick "Pat" Vasquez-Vegas (born March 17, 1941) is a Mexican-American musician of Yaqui/Shoshone descent, vocalist, writer, and producer of Redbone, known for their hit singles "Come and Get Your Love", "The Witch Queen of New Orleans", "Magg ...

and released by AGC Records; it later appeared on the 1995

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

, ''A Treasure Chest of Northern Soul''. In 1969, he recorded the

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, "I'm Goin' Home" b/w "Home Sweet Home - Part II", which was written and produced by

Sly Stone Sylvester Stewart (born March 15, 1943), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the ...

, and released on the latter's Stone Flower label. His joint compositions with

Delaney Bramlett Delaine Alvin "Delaney" Bramlett (July 1, 1939 – December 27, 2008) was an American singer and guitarist. He was best known for his musical partnership with his wife Bonnie Bramlett in the band Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, which included a wi ...

, "Sound of the City" and " I Know Something Good About You", were featured on Delaney & Bonnie & Friends' 1972 album, ''

D&B Together ''D&B Together'' (originally titled ''Country Life'') is the sixth album by Delaney & Bonnie and Friends and their first for Columbia Records. It was their last album of new material, as Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett would divorce soon after its r ...

''. With

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 guit ...

, Hicks co-wrote "Simple Man" and "Ruby Dean" (which both appeared on Womack's 1972 ''

Understanding Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to use concepts to model that object. Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object o ...

'' album), plus Womack's

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' ...

, " That's The Way I Feel About Cha". In 1973, Hicks recorded the

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''Mighty Joe Hicks'', which was released by Enterprise Records (a subsidiary label of

Stax Streaming API for XML (StAX) is an application programming interface ( API) to read and write XML documents, originating from the Java programming language community. Traditionally, XML APIs are either: * DOM based - the entire document is read i ...

). It included the track, "Ruby Dean". He is not to be confused with a similarly named, Missisissippi raised,

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

drummer and singer, who performed with the Fieldstones.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Hicks songs and videos at NME.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hicks, Joe Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Soul-blues musicians American rhythm and blues singers American male singers Songwriters from San Francisco Singers from San Francisco American male songwriters