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

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, 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 department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many ch ...

, 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 ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

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 (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million re ...

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 dis ...

. 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. 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 ...

including a duet with Alfie Silas; 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. 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 operation since 1923. ...

, 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 (S.O.U.L.) 1970 establishments in Ohio American soul musical groups Musical groups from Cleveland Musical groups established in 1970