Benjamin William Lattimore (born September 7, 1939), known professionally as Latimore, is 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 R&B singer, songwriter and pianist. In 2017, Latimore was inducted in to the

Blues Hall of Fame The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum located at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1 ...

Life and career

Latimore was born in Charleston,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, and was influenced by

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

, his Baptist

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

, and the blues. His first professional experience came as a pianist for various Florida-based groups including

Steve Alaimo Charles Stephen Alaimo ( born December 6, 1939) is an American singer who was a teen idol in the early 1960s. He later became record producer and label owner, but he is perhaps best known for hosting and co-producing Dick Clark's ''Where the Act ...

. He first recorded around 1965 for Henry Stone's Dade

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at t ...

Florida Florida is a U.S. state, state located in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia (U.S. state), Geo ...

. In the early 1970s, he moved to the Glades label, and had his first major hit in 1973 with a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

y reworking of

T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...

's "

Stormy Monday "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)" (commonly referred to as "Stormy Monday") is a song written and recorded by American blues electric guitar pioneer T-Bone Walker. It is a slow twelve-bar blues performed in the West Coast blu ...

", which reached No. 27 on the 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 ...

. Latimore's first national hit was "If You Were My Woman," a gender-modified cover of " If I Were Your Woman" (written by

Pam Sawyer Pamela Joan Sawyer (born 1938) is a British songwriter/lyricist, who started writing songs in the mid-1960s and whose credits as a co-writer at Motown included " Love Child", " If I Were Your Woman", " My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left ...

, Clay McMurray and Gloria Jones and first popularized by

Gladys Knight & the Pips Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B, soul and funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades starting from the early 1950s. Starting out as simply ...

), which reached No. 70 on the R&B chart. His biggest success came in 1974, with " Let's Straighten It Out", a No. 1 R&B hit, which also reached No. 31 on the US '' ''Billboard'' Hot 100'' chart. He followed it up with more hits, including "Keep The Home Fire Burnin'" (No. 5 R&B, 1975) and "Somethin' 'Bout 'Cha" (No. 7 R&B, 1976). The hits dissipated in the late 1970s. Latimore moved to

Malaco Records Malaco Records is an American independent record label based in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, that has been the home of various major blues and gospel acts, such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, Mel Waiters, Z. Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle, ...

in 1982, releasing seven albums of modern blues music with that label. He briefly left the label in 1994 and released a song for the J-Town label, ''Turning Up The Mood'', before returning to Malaco in 2000 with ''You're Welcome To Ride''. Next, Latimore recorded an album with Mel Waiters' label, Brittney Records, called ''Latt Is Back''. Later, Latimore collaborated with Henry Stone on a new record label called LatStone; which released his first new album in six years, ''Back 'Atcha''. He has continued to work as a session pianist. He appeared most recently on

Joss Stone Joscelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987), known professionally as Joss Stone, is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to prominence in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, '' The Soul Sessions'', which made the 2004 Me ...

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 ...

s, '' The Soul Sessions'' (2003) and '' Mind Body & Soul'' (2004), along with fellow Miami music veterans

Betty Wright Bessie Regina Norris (December 21, 1953 – May 10, 2020), better known by her stage name Betty Wright, was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter and background vocalist. Beginning her professional career in the late 1960s as a teena ...

, Timmy Thomas and Willie Hale, and made an appearance in May 2014 on ''

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon that airs on NBC. The show premiered on February 17, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. It is the seventh incarna ...

''. In 2017, Latimore was inducted in to the

Discography

Albums

:1973 ''Latimore'' :1974 ''More, More, More Latimore'', ''(Let's Straighten It Out)'' - Black Albums No. 13 :1975 ''Latimore III'' - Black Albums No. 49 :1976 ''It Ain't Where You Been...It's Where You're Goin - Pop Albums No. 181, Black Albums No. 47 :1978 ''Dig a Little Deeper'' - Black Albums No. 51 :1980 ''Getting Down to Brass Tacks'' :1982 ''Singing in the Key of Love'' - Black Albums No. 61 :1983 ''I'll Do Anything for You'' - Black Albums No. 66, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 67 :1985 ''Good Time Man'' :1986 ''Every Way But Wrong'' :1987 ''Slow Down'' :1991 ''The Only Way Is Up'' - Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 34 :1993 ''Catchin' Up'' :1995 ''Best of Latimore: Sweet Vibrations'' :1995 ''Straighten It Out: The Best of Latimore'' :1996 ''Turnin' Up the Mood'' :1998 ''All You'll Ever Need'' :2000 ''You're Welcome to Ride'' :2003 ''Latt Is Back'' :2004 ''Sweet Vibrations: The Best of Latimore'' :2005 ''The Early Years'' :2007 ''Back 'Atcha'' :2009 ''All About the Rhythm and the Blues'' :2010 ''Live in Vienna'' :2011 ''Ladies Choice'' :2012 ''Henry Stones's Best Of: Latimore'' :2013 ''Latimore Remembers Ray Charles''

Charted singles

*1974: "If You Were My Woman" - Black Singles No. 70 *1974: " Let's Straighten It Out" - Black Singles No. 1, Pop Singles No. 31 *1975: "Keep the Home Fire Burnin'" - Black Singles No. 5 *1975: "There's a Red-Neck in the Soul Band" - Black Singles No. 36 *1976: "Qualified Man" - Black Singles No. 43 *1977: "I Get Lifted" - Black Singles No. 30 *1977: "Let Me Live the Life I Love" - Black Singles No. 49 *1977: "Somethin' 'Bout 'Cha" - Black Singles No. 7, Pop Singles No. 37 *1979: "Dig a Little Deeper" - Black Singles No. 42 *1979: "Goodbye Heartache" - Black Singles No. 82 *1979: "Long Distance Love" - Black Singles No. 75 *1980: "Discoed to Death" - Black Singles No. 68 *1986: "Sunshine Lady" - Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks No. 76

References

External links

The complete Latimore Story at Soul Express
{{DEFAULTSORT:Latimore, Benny 1939 births Living people People from Bradley County, Tennessee Malaco Records artists 20th-century African-American male singers 21st-century African-American male singers