Turley Richards (born Richard Turley, June 12, 1941) is an American singer and guitarist. Richards was born in

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...

, United States. He was blinded in the left eye at the age of four in an

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

accident and lost sight in the right eye as well at the age of twenty-nine. He began playing in a group called The Five Pearls while still a teen in the 1950s. His first appearance on record was in 1959, a single titled "All About Ann", released on label

Fraternity Records Fraternity Records is a small record label based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was started by Harry Carlson and silent partner Dr. Ashton Welsh in 1954. The first recording to be released on Fraternity was Jerri Winters' "Winter's Here". The first hit ...

. "Makin' Love With My Baby", also released by Fraternity Records, followed later that year. Richards is listed in the

Rockabilly Hall of Fame The Rockabilly Hall of Fame is an organization and website launched on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relating to the artists and personalities involved in rockabilly. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennesse ...

as a Rockabilly Legend for this song. He moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

with an ensemble in the early 1960s, but his band failed and he returned to West Virginia. Later in the 1960s he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He played the uptown East Side local Bar's (Malachy's II) and eventually found success. He released his debut album on

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

in 1970. He scored two minor

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' ...

s in the early 1970s. Further releases followed later in the decade, as did a third hit in 1980. Richards made the first recording of

Tom Snow Thomas Righter Snow (born 1947 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American songwriter. Biography Snow has written songs for Gayle McCormick "( Even a Fool Would Let Go" with Kerry Chater – a song covered by a number of artists including Kenny ...

and Nan O'Byrne's "

You Might Need Somebody "You Might Need Somebody" is a song written by Tom Snow and Nan O'Byrne, and first recorded in 1980 by American singer and guitarist Turley Richards. The following year, American jazz and R&B singer Randy Crawford released her version which char ...

", which was subsequently a UK hit twice, reaching number 11 for

Randy Crawford Veronica "Randy" Crawford (born February 18, 1952) is an American jazz and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 as a solo artist. However, she has ap ...

in 1981 and number 4 for

Shola Ama Shola Ama (born 8 March 1979) is a British singer from London, who scored her biggest hits with "You Might Need Somebody" (1997), a cover of Randy Crawford's 1981 hit, " You're the One I Love" and "Still Believe" (1999) which was one of the fi ...

in 1997.

Discography

Albums

*1965 - ''The Many Souls of Turley Richards'' (

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

) *1970 - ''

Turley Richards Turley Richards (born Richard Turley, June 12, 1941) is an American singer and guitarist. Richards was born in Charleston, West Virginia, United States. He was blinded in the left eye at the age of four in an archery accident and lost sight in ...

'' (

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

) *1971 - ''Expressions'' (Warner Bros.) *1972 - ''From Darkness to Light'' (Silba) - solo concert, rare release *1973 - '' Because I Am'' (Clearlight Productions) - featuring one song *1976 - ''West Virginia Superstar'' ( Epic) *1979 - ''Therfu'' (

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 an ...

) *2007 - ''A Matter of Faith'' (Kiongazi Music) *2007 - ''Back to My Roots'' (Kiongazi Music) *2008 - ''Blindsighted'' (Kiongazi Music)

Singles

*1959 - "All About Ann" / "Makin' Love with My Baby" (

Fraternity A fraternity (from Latin language, Latin ''wiktionary:frater, frater'': "brother (Christian), brother"; whence, "wiktionary:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal ...

) *1959 - "I Wanna Dance" / "Since I Met You" (Fraternity) *1964 - "Since You Been Gone" / "What's Your Name" (

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

) *1966 - "Crazy Arms" / "I Just Can't Take It Any Longer" ( Columbia) *1966 - "I Feel Alright" / "I Can't Get Back Home to My Baby" (Columbia) *1978 - " Under the Boardwalk" (Epic) *1984 - "Skin Fever" (Vitag Records)

Charting singles

*"I Heard the Voice of Jesus" (1970) - US #99

Billboard Singles A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large out-of-home advertising, outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboard ...

Allmusic.com, ''passim''. *"

Love Minus Zero/No Limit "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" (read "Love Minus Zero over No Limit", sometimes titled "Love Minus Zero") is a song written by Bob Dylan for his fifth studio album '' Bringing It All Back Home'', released in 1965. Its main musical hook is a series of ...

" (1970) - US #84, AUS #96 *"Child of Mine" (1970) - AUS #83 *"

" (1980) - US #54

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Turley Singers from West Virginia American male singers Musicians from Charleston, West Virginia Living people Blind musicians 1941 births The Kingsmen members