The Soul Children was an American

vocal group A vocal group is a performing ensemble of vocalists who sing and harmonize together. The first well-known vocals groups emerged in the 19th century, and the style had reached widespread popularity by the 1940s. Types Vocal groups can come in s ...

who recorded

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became ...

for

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 ...

in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They had three top 10 hits on the U.S. ''

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 adverti ...

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

– "The Sweeter He Is" (1969), "Hearsay" (1972), and "I'll Be the Other Woman" (1973) – all of which crossed over to the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Career

The group was formed in 1968 by

Isaac Hayes Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songw ...

and David Porter of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mo ...

, after Sam & Dave, one of the label's top acts, were forced to leave Stax and return to the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

label following the termination of the Stax/Atlantic partnership. As leading

songwriters A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

and producers for the label, Hayes and Porter put together a vocal group with two male and two female singers, all of whom sang lead on some of the group's recordings. The original members were Norman West, John Colbert (a.k.a.

J. Blackfoot John Colbert (November 20, 1946 – November 30, 2011), known professionally as J. Blackfoot, was an American soul singer. A member of The Soul Children in the late 1960s and 1970s, he subsequently had a moderately successful solo career. Hi ...

), Anita Louis, and Shelbra Bennett. Colbert, who had been known from childhood as Blackfoot for his habit of walking barefoot on the tarred sidewalks of Memphis during the hot summers, had recorded solo singles before joining The Bar-Kays as lead singer, after four original band members were killed with

Otis Redding Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...

in a plane crash. Anita Louis was a backing singer on some of the records produced by Hayes and Porter. Shelbra Bennett recently had joined the label as a singer. Norman West, Jr., the last to join the group, grew up in Louisiana, and sang in church with his brothers Joe, James, and Robert. He replaced William Bell as a member of The Del-Rios in 1962, later recorded several unsuccessful solo singles in Memphis, and sang with Colors Incorporated, a rock band formed by members of

Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as " rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis mad ...

' band. The group's first record, "Give 'Em Love", produced by Hayes and Porter and released in late 1968, was a ''

hit, as were two follow-ups. Their fourth single, "The Sweeter He Is", became one of their biggest hits, reaching no. 7 on the R&B chart in late 1969 and no. 52 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The group also released ''Soul Children'', their first album, in 1969. Musicians used on the recordings included

Booker T. Jones Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known art ...

Steve Cropper Steven Lee Cropper (born October 21, 1941), sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as ...

Donald "Duck" Dunn Donald "Duck" Dunn (November 24, 1941 – May 13, 2012) was an American bass guitarist, session musician, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn was notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and as a session bassist for Stax ...

and

Al Jackson, Jr. Albert J. Jackson Jr. (November 27, 1935 – October 1, 1975) was an American drummer, producer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, a group of session musicians who worked for Stax Records and produced their ...

, of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, as well as Hayes. However, after the group had a minor hit with a slowed-down version of " Hold On, I'm Coming" in early 1970, Hayes left the project to develop his solo career. The group recorded ''Best of Two Worlds'', a second album, at

Muscle Shoals Sound Studios Muscle Shoals Sound Studio is an American recording studio in Sheffield, Alabama, formed in 1969 by four session musicians known as The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. They had left nearby FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals to create their own rec ...

, but their next few singles failed to make the charts. In 1972, they recorded another album, ''Genesis'', arranged by Dale Warren and produced by Jim Stewart and Al Jackson, which produced another hit single, "Hearsay". Written by West and Colbert, it reached no. 5 on the R&B chart and no. 44 on the U.S. pop chart. They appeared at the Wattstax concert in August 1972, and followed up with several smaller hit singles. In 1973, they recorded the ballad "I'll Be the Other Woman", written and produced by

Homer Banks Homer Banks (August 2, 1941 – April 3, 2003) was an African American songwriter, singer and record producer. Although best known by many for his songwriting for Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s, some of his own releases from the 1960s are co ...

and Carl Hampton, and with lead vocals by Shelbra Bennett, which became their biggest hit, reaching no. 3 on the R&B chart and no. 36 on the pop chart. They also recorded ''Friction'', a final album for Stax with Banks and Hampton. The Soul Children left Stax as the company went under in 1975, and Bennett left for a solo career. She changed her name to Shelbra Deane and under this recorded a few solo 45s for TK, Casino and Muscle Shoals Sound. The trio of West, Colbert and Louis signed to

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical m ...

in 1976, releasing ''Finders Keepers'', an album, and several moderately successful singles. ''Where Is Your Woman Tonight'' (1977), their second album for Epic, reunited the group with producer David Porter. Porter then signed the group to a reactivated Stax label established by Fantasy Records, and co-produced ''Open Door Policy'' (1978), another album for the group. However, it was less successful than their earlier recordings, and the group decided to split in 1979.

Later activities

After the group split, Anita Louis left the music business and later worked for FedEx, Time-Warner, and as a professional business trainer. Norman West continued working in night clubs and as a

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

singer and musician.

became a successful solo singer; his biggest hit was "Taxi" in early 1984, which reached no. 4 on the R&B chart. Shelbra Bennett recorded several singles as Shelbra Deane in the late 1970s and early 1980s; her biggest solo success was "Don't Touch Me" (no. 50 R&B) in 1977. In 2007, West and Blackfoot decided to reform the Soul Children, adding two new singers: Ann Hines and Cassandra Graham. They recorded ''Still Standing'', an album, for JEA Right Now Records. West released a single in 2008 called "Long Ride Home." J. Blackfoot died of pancreatic cancer on November 30, 2011 in

Germantown, Tennessee Germantown is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 41,333 at the 2020 census. Germantown is a suburb of Memphis, bordering it to the east-southeast. Germantown was founded in 1841 by mostly German emigrants. Th ...

. He was 65. Shelbra Bennett died on May 31, 2013, in Memphis, Tennessee. She was 66. The news was posted on the Stax Museum's website.

Original members

*Shelbra Bennett (later known as Shelbra Deane; born Shelby Dene Bennett, Memphis, Tennessee, February 12, 1947 – May 31, 2013, Memphis, Tennessee) *John Colbert (a.k.a. J. Blackfoot; born November 20, 1946,

Greenville, Mississippi Greenville is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 34,400 at the 2010 census. It is located in the area of historic cotton plantations and culture known as the Mississippi Delta. H ...

– November 30, 2011) *Anita Louis (born November 24, 1949, Memphis, Tennessee) *Norman Richard West, Jr. (born October 30, 1939,

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe (historically french: Poste-du-Ouachita) is the list of municipalities in Louisiana#List of Municipalities, eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and parish seat of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 Unit ...

)

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

The Soul Children
via Stax Records {{DEFAULTSORT:Soul Children, The American soul musical groups Stax Records artists