Herbie Goins
Encyclopedia
Herbie Goins is an American
rhythm & blues singer. He worked mainly in England
in the 1960s, notably with Alexis Korner
and then as the leader of Herbie Goins & The Night-Timers (or Nightimers). He later continued his career based in Italy
.
, and sang in his local church as a child before forming his first blues
group, The Teen Kings. He later moved to New York City
and continued his singing career, opening for such acts as B. B. King
, Bobby Bland
and Sam Cooke
. He was draft
ed in the late 1950s and served as a GI in Germany
, before leaving the US Army and joining the band led by Eric Delaney
, with whom he travelled to England. Goins then joined the Chris Barber
Band for a time, before, in late 1963, becoming the featured singer in Alexis Korner's band, Blues Incorporated
. In February 1964, he sang on the Blues Incorporated album Live At The Cavern, and later in the year on their album Red Hot From Alex alongside such musicians as Dick Heckstall-Smith
, Danny Thompson
and Art Themen
.
In 1965, Goins left Korner to front another band, the Nightimers (or, sometimes, Night-Timers) (formed July 1964), after their singer Ronnie Jones left. The group quickly gained a reputation, especially among Mods, as one of the hottest R&B bands in the UK. Band members included Mick Eve (tenor saxophone) (born Michael Eve, 21 September 1937, Walthamstow
, East London
), Mike Carr
(keyboards), Harry Beckett
(trumpet), David Price (bass), Bill Stephens (drums), and Speedy Acquaye (congas). In 1966, Herbie Goins and the Night-Timers recorded "No. 1 In Your Heart", written by Clyde Wilson (who recorded as Steve Mancha) and Wilburt Jackson, and first recorded by Motown group The Monitors. Goins' single, released on the Parlophone
label, was not a hit but remained popular among Mods and later Northern soul
fans. He and his band, which in 1966 featured John McLaughlin
on guitar, toured the UK supporting Otis Redding
. They also regularly played at top clubs in London
, including the Flamingo
and the Marquee
, on bills with Jimi Hendrix
, John Lee Hooker
and others, as well as touring in Europe. An album released under the title of Soul Soul Soul, or alternatively No. 1 In Your Heart, was released in some countries and featured tracks recorded in 1966-67. In the late 1960s they briefly merged with Mick Weaver
's band Wynder K Frog, before travelling to Italy where they worked until 1971. After some of their equipment was stolen, Goins stayed in Italy when the rest of the band returned to England.
Goins then worked in Italy as a songwriter and record producer, and in television. He released several funk
records in Italy in the 1980s, including "You Don't Love Me" (credited as "Herbie") and "Scrap Rap" in 1983, "Hold On" (1984), and "I Feel Good" (1986). He also collaborated with Italian blues guitarist Guido Toffoletti on several albums. He resumed performing in the late 1980s, leading the Herbie Goins Soul Band, mainly at festivals in Europe but also in the US and Britain, and also occasionally reunited for shows with Barber and Heckstall-Smith. In 2009 he toured the UK with Cliff Bennett, Chris Farlowe
and the Norman Beaker
Band. He also leads a gospel
vocal group, Stars of Joy.
Many of Goins' 1960s recordings were reissued on the Zonophone CD No. 1 In Your Heart in 2008.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rhythm & blues singer. He worked mainly in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the 1960s, notably with Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
and then as the leader of Herbie Goins & The Night-Timers (or Nightimers). He later continued his career based in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Life and career
He was born and grew up in Ocala, FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and sang in his local church as a child before forming his first blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
group, The Teen Kings. He later moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and continued his singing career, opening for such acts as B. B. King
B. B. King
Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...
, Bobby Bland
Bobby Bland
Robert Calvin Bland better known as Bobby "Blue" Bland, is an American singer of blues and soul. He is an original member of the Beale Streeters, and is sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues"...
and Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
. He was draft
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
ed in the late 1950s and served as a GI in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, before leaving the US Army and joining the band led by Eric Delaney
Eric Delaney
Eric Delaney was an English drummer and bandleader, popular in the 1950s and early 1960s.-Career:Delaney was born in Acton, London. Aged 16, he won the Best Swing Drummer award and later joined the Bert Ambrose Octet which featured George Shearing on piano...
, with whom he travelled to England. Goins then joined the Chris Barber
Chris Barber
Donald Christopher 'Chris' Barber is best known as a jazz trombonist. As well as scoring a UK top twenty trad jazz hit he helped the careers of many musicians, notably the blues singer Ottilie Patterson, who was at one time his wife, and vocalist/banjoist Lonnie Donegan, whose appearances with...
Band for a time, before, in late 1963, becoming the featured singer in Alexis Korner's band, Blues Incorporated
Blues Incorporated
Blues Incorporated were a British R&B band in the early 1960s, led by Alexis Korner and featuring at various times Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts, Terry Cox, Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, Ronnie Jones, Danny Thompson, Graham Bond, Cyril Davies, Malcolm Cecil and Dick Heckstall-Smith.-History:Korner ...
. In February 1964, he sang on the Blues Incorporated album Live At The Cavern, and later in the year on their album Red Hot From Alex alongside such musicians as Dick Heckstall-Smith
Dick Heckstall-Smith
Dick Heckstall-Smith was an English jazz and blues saxophonist. He played with some of the most important English blues-rock and jazz fusion bands of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...
, Danny Thompson
Danny Thompson
Daniel Henry Edward 'Danny' Thompson is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist and businessman...
and Art Themen
Art Themen
Arthur Edward George 'Art' Themen is a British jazz saxophonist .Themen was born on 26 November 1939 in Manchester. In 1958 he began his medical studies at the University of Cambridge, going on in 1961 to complete his studies at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, qualifying in 1964...
.
In 1965, Goins left Korner to front another band, the Nightimers (or, sometimes, Night-Timers) (formed July 1964), after their singer Ronnie Jones left. The group quickly gained a reputation, especially among Mods, as one of the hottest R&B bands in the UK. Band members included Mick Eve (tenor saxophone) (born Michael Eve, 21 September 1937, Walthamstow
Walthamstow
Walthamstow is a district of northeast London, England, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is situated north-east of Charing Cross...
, East London
East London
East London is a city on the southeast coast of South Africa, situated at 32.97°S and 27.87°E in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality of the Eastern Cape province. The city lies on the Indian Ocean coast, largely between the Buffalo River and the Nahoon River, and is the country's only river...
), Mike Carr
Mike Carr (musician)
Mike Carr, born Michael Anthony Carr in South Shields, County Durham, England is a jazz organist, pianist and vibraphonist...
(keyboards), Harry Beckett
Harry Beckett
Harold Winston "Harry" Beckett was a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player.-Biography:A resident in the UK since 1954, Harry Beckett had an international reputation. In 1961, he played with Charles Mingus in the film All Night Long. In the 1960s he worked and recorded within the band of bass...
(trumpet), David Price (bass), Bill Stephens (drums), and Speedy Acquaye (congas). In 1966, Herbie Goins and the Night-Timers recorded "No. 1 In Your Heart", written by Clyde Wilson (who recorded as Steve Mancha) and Wilburt Jackson, and first recorded by Motown group The Monitors. Goins' single, released on the Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
label, was not a hit but remained popular among Mods and later Northern soul
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
fans. He and his band, which in 1966 featured John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin may refer to:*John McLaughlin , Scottish professional footballer who played for Clyde, Greenock Morton, Millwall, Dunfermline Athletic and Motherwell...
on guitar, toured the UK supporting Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
. They also regularly played at top clubs in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, including the Flamingo
Flamingo Club (London)
The Flamingo Club was a nightclub that operated in Soho, London, between 1952 and the late 1960s. It was located at 33-37 Wardour Street from 1957 onwards, and played an important role in the development of British rhythm and blues and jazz....
and the Marquee
Marquee Club
The Marquee was a music club first located at 165 Oxford Street, London, England when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts.It was also the location of the first ever live performance by The Rolling Stones on 12 July 1962....
, on bills with Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
and others, as well as touring in Europe. An album released under the title of Soul Soul Soul, or alternatively No. 1 In Your Heart, was released in some countries and featured tracks recorded in 1966-67. In the late 1960s they briefly merged with Mick Weaver
Mick Weaver
Mick Weaver is a session musician best known for his playing of the Hammond B3 organ and is a much respected exponent of the Blues and Funk styles.-Career:...
's band Wynder K Frog, before travelling to Italy where they worked until 1971. After some of their equipment was stolen, Goins stayed in Italy when the rest of the band returned to England.
Goins then worked in Italy as a songwriter and record producer, and in television. He released several funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
records in Italy in the 1980s, including "You Don't Love Me" (credited as "Herbie") and "Scrap Rap" in 1983, "Hold On" (1984), and "I Feel Good" (1986). He also collaborated with Italian blues guitarist Guido Toffoletti on several albums. He resumed performing in the late 1980s, leading the Herbie Goins Soul Band, mainly at festivals in Europe but also in the US and Britain, and also occasionally reunited for shows with Barber and Heckstall-Smith. In 2009 he toured the UK with Cliff Bennett, Chris Farlowe
Chris Farlowe
Chris Farlowe is an English rock, blues and soul singer. He is best known for his hit single "Out of Time", which rose to #1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1966, and his association with Colosseum and the Thunderbirds.Outside his music career, Farlowe collects war memorabilia.-Career:Inspired by Lonnie...
and the Norman Beaker
Norman Beaker
Norman Beaker is an English blues guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and record producer, who has been involved in the British blues scene since the early 1970s....
Band. He also leads a gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
vocal group, Stars of Joy.
Many of Goins' 1960s recordings were reissued on the Zonophone CD No. 1 In Your Heart in 2008.