Sounds Of Unity and Love (S.O.U.L.) was an American group founded in 1970 in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, United States. Members were Lee Lovett (bass), Gus Hawkins (sax/flute), Paul Stubblefield (drums), and Walter Winston (guitar). Larry Hancock (vocals/organ) was added in 1971 and Bernard (Beloyd) Taylor (guitar) replaced Walter Winston in 1972.''Joel Whitburn Presents Top R & B/Hip-Hop Singles, 1942-2004'' In 1970, the group won the first prize of $1,000 in Cleveland a battle-of-the-bands contest sponsored by

the May Department Stores Company The May Department Stores Company was an American holding company of department stores founded in 1877 by David May. It operated several regional department stores throughout the United States, which were managed as distinct business divisions ...

, WHK radio station, and

Musicor Records Musicor Records was a New York City-based record label, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The label was founded by songwriter Aaron Schroeder and distributed by United Artists Records. In 1965, UA employee and A&R man Arthur Talmadge (a co-fo ...

. They gained a recording contract with Musicor for their first single "Down In The Ghetto" (1971), produced by the TOP POP Recording Company 223 Kingston Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City. Two years later, S.O.U.L. were back to New York to record ''What is It'', an LP with seven tracks of covers of jazz and funk tunes, that jumped for two months on the Top 40 album spot on Billboard's soul album chart. The album was released in Europe just in the early 1990s on the BGP label. S.O.U.L. released seven singles between 1971 and 1974 for Musicor, cracking the top 50 Hot R & B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in the summer of 1973. After a successful second LP, ''Can You Feel It?'', the group split in 1975. Taylor moved to Los Angeles in 1973 with the group Mellow Thunder headed up by Melvin Ware, after which under new publishing and production contracts with Ware, he and Peter Cor, wrote 27 songs one of which was "Get Away". Wares' publishing company made the deal with

Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (abbreviated as EW&F or EWF) is an American band formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1969. Their music spans multiple genres, including jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, Latin and Afro-pop. They are among the best-selling ba ...

for "Getaway" in 1976 and his production company struck the recording deal with

20th Century Records 20th Century Fox Records (also known as 20th Fox Records and 20th Century Records, or simply 20th Century Fox Film Scores and Fox Records) was a wholly owned subsidiary of film studio 20th Century Fox. The history of the label covers three distin ...

. Hancock, also, moved to California and recorded for

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

including a duet with

Alfie Silas Alfie Silas is an American singer who has had a long career as a session singer. She has also had success as a solo artist and has had five hits on the r&b charts during the 1980s. Background Alfie Silas has been described by ''Cash Box'' as havin ...

; later he was part of the Platters. Gus Hawkins went back to college and worked as phlebotomist at the Cleveland Clinic before moving to Atlanta, Georgia. Lovett and Stubblefield continued to work in recording studios and labels. Sounds of Unity and Love was inducted into the inaugural class of the Official Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame at

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in oper ...

, in August 2013. "Burning Spear" was sampled by the Danish group ETA in 1997 on their track "Casual Sub (Burning Spear)". The song peaked at number 54 in Australia.

Albums

*''What Is It'' (Musicor Records, MS 3195 (1971); BGP Records, BPGD 1087, 1990) **Tracks **# "Down in the Ghetto" (Francis) **# "Get Ready" (Robinson) **# "Burning Spear" (Evans) **# " Express Yourself" (Wright) **# "Soul" (Hawkins/Lovett) **# "Message from a Black Man" (Strong/Whitfield) **# "Memphis Underground" (Mann) *''Can You Feel It'' (Musicor Records, MS 3230 (1972); BGP Records, BPGD 1107) **Tracks **# "Can You Feel It" (Hancock/Hawkins/Lovett/Stubblefield/Winston) **# "Tell It Like It Is" (Hancock/Hawkins) **# "Do What's Never Your Want to Do" (Hancock/Hawkins/Lovett) **# "Peace of Mind" (Hancock/Hawkins/Lovett/Stubblefield/Winston) **# " My Cherie Amour" (Cosby/Moy/Wonder) **# "Love, Peace and Power" (Hancock/Hawkins/Lovett/Stubblefield/Winston) **# "To Mend a Broken Heart" (Hancock) **# "Sleeping Beauty" (Hawkins)

References

External links

* *
''Get Ready'' on YouTube

Yourself'' on YouTube

''Burning Spear'' on YouTube

''Soul'' on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sounds of Unity and Love 1970 establishments in Ohio American soul musical groups Musical groups from Cleveland Musical groups established in 1970