Rock 'n' Soul
Encyclopedia
Rock 'n' Soul is a 1964 studio album
by Grammy Award
winning musician Solomon Burke
. The album contained seven top 100 hits. Originally released on LP
on Atlantic Records
, #5009, in November 1964, it was subsequently reissued in March, 1997, on the Sequel Records imprint, #RSACD 861. The album was also reissued in 1998 on the Collectables Records
label in conjunction with a June, 1963, Burke album as If You Need Me/Rock 'n' Soul.
and soul music
, telling Jet
in 1963 that "without soul, there'd be no rock, and without rock, there'd be no soul." He was also uncomfortable being associated with rhythm and blues
, which he believed had "a stigma of profanity", because of his clean lifestyle and strong spiritual beliefs. Burke's coronation
as the "King of Rock 'n' Soul" at the Royal Theatre
in Baltimore was reported in Jet in January, 1964.
hits, including "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)", "Cry to Me
", "Can't Nobody Love You", "If You Need Me", "You're Good For Me", "Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)", and "He'll Have to Go
". The New Rolling Stones Album Guide singles out Burke's version of the 1959 hit "He'll Have to Go" here as "a heartbreaking interpretation" and his version of Woody Guthrie
's "Hard, Ain't It Hard" as a "lively stab". Allmusic notes that Burke's version of "Cry to Me" is "vaguely Caribbean in rhythmic feel", contributing to an "upbeat tempo" that stands "at odds" from the "solemn" lyrics.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winning musician Solomon Burke
Solomon Burke
Solomon Burke was an American singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, mortician, and an archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People. Burke was known as "King Solomon", the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", and as the "Bishop of Soul", and described as "the Muhammad Ali of soul", and as "the most...
. The album contained seven top 100 hits. Originally released on LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
on Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, #5009, in November 1964, it was subsequently reissued in March, 1997, on the Sequel Records imprint, #RSACD 861. The album was also reissued in 1998 on the Collectables Records
Collectables Records
Collectables is a reissue record label founded in 1980 by Jerry Greene. Greene was previously associated with New York City's Times Square Record Shop, Philadelphia's Record Museum retail chain, and the Lost Nite and Crimson record labels....
label in conjunction with a June, 1963, Burke album as If You Need Me/Rock 'n' Soul.
Title
The album's title refers to Burke's rank as the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", a label Burke embraced because of the interconnectedness of the musical forms of rock and rollRock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
and soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, telling Jet
Jet (magazine)
Jet is an American weekly marketed toward African-American readers, founded in 1951 by John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois...
in 1963 that "without soul, there'd be no rock, and without rock, there'd be no soul." He was also uncomfortable being associated with rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, which he believed had "a stigma of profanity", because of his clean lifestyle and strong spiritual beliefs. Burke's coronation
Coronation
A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
as the "King of Rock 'n' Soul" at the Royal Theatre
Royal Theatre (Baltimore)
The Royal Theatre, which first opened in 1922 as the black-owned Douglass Theatre, was the most famous theater along West Baltimore City's Pennsylvania Avenue, one of a circuit of five such theaters for black entertainment in big cities...
in Baltimore was reported in Jet in January, 1964.
Songs
The album contained seven top 100 BillboardBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
hits, including "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)", "Cry to Me
Cry to Me
"Cry to Me" is a song written by Bert Russell a/k/a Bert Berns, first recorded under the production of Bert Berns by Solomon Burke, reaching #5 on the R&B charts in 1962....
", "Can't Nobody Love You", "If You Need Me", "You're Good For Me", "Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)", and "He'll Have to Go
He'll Have to Go
"He'll Have to Go" is an American country and pop hit recorded on October 15, 1959 by Jim Reeves. The song, released in the fall of 1959, went on to become a massive hit in both genres early in 1960.-Background:...
". The New Rolling Stones Album Guide singles out Burke's version of the 1959 hit "He'll Have to Go" here as "a heartbreaking interpretation" and his version of Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
's "Hard, Ain't It Hard" as a "lively stab". Allmusic notes that Burke's version of "Cry to Me" is "vaguely Caribbean in rhythmic feel", contributing to an "upbeat tempo" that stands "at odds" from the "solemn" lyrics.
| Charting song | Charting year | Black Singles Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
Pop Singles Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
Adult Contemporary Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" | 1961 | #7 | #24 | #6 |
| "Cry to Me" | 1962 | #5 | #44 | |
| "Can't Nobody Love You" | 1963 | #66 | ||
| "If You Need Me" | 1963 | #2 | #37 | |
| "You're Good for Me" | 1963 | #8 | #49 | |
| "Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)" | 1964 | #33 | #33 | |
| "He'll Have to Go" | 1964 | #51 | #51 |
Track listing
- "Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)" (Wes FarrellWes FarrellWes Farrell was an American musician, songwriter and record producer, who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s...
, Bert Russell) - 3:16 - "Cry to MeCry to Me"Cry to Me" is a song written by Bert Russell a/k/a Bert Berns, first recorded under the production of Bert Berns by Solomon Burke, reaching #5 on the R&B charts in 1962....
" (Russell) - 2:27 - "Won't You Give Him (One More Chance)" (Joe MartinJoe MartinJoe Martin may refer to:*Joe Martin , character on All My Children*Joe Martin , American football linebacker for Baltimore Ravens*Joe Martin , American cartoonist...
, Winfield ScottWinfield ScottWinfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....
) - 2:31 - "If You Need Me" (Robert BatemanRobert BatemanRobert Bateman may refer to:people* Robert Bateman , painter, sculptor, naturalist, and scholar* Robert Bateman * Robert Bateman , Canadian wildlife artist and naturalist...
, Wilson PickettWilson PickettWilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
, Sonny Sanders) - 2:29 - "Hard, Ain't It Hard" (Woody GuthrieWoody GuthrieWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
) - 2:45 - "Can't Nobody Love You" (James MitchellJames Mitchell-Arts, entertainment, and sports :*James Mitchell , American actor who played Palmer Cortlandt on All My Children*James Mitchell , American athlete who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics...
) - 2:30 - "Just Out of Reach" (Virgil Stewart) - 2:46
- "You're Good for Me" (Don CovayDon CovayDon Covay is an American R&B/rock and roll/soul music singer and songwriter most active in the 1950s and 1960s, who received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1994...
, Horace Ott) - 2:45 - "You Can't Love Them All" (Bert BernsBert BernsBertrand Russell Berns , most commonly known as Bert Berns as well as Bert Russell and Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s...
, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) - 2:40 - "Someone to Love Me" (Burke) - 2:59
- "Beautiful Brown Eyes" (Burke, Russell) - 3:42
- "He'll Have to GoHe'll Have to Go"He'll Have to Go" is an American country and pop hit recorded on October 15, 1959 by Jim Reeves. The song, released in the fall of 1959, went on to become a massive hit in both genres early in 1960.-Background:...
" (Audrey Allison, Joe AllisonJoe AllisonJoe Marion Allison was an American Hall of Fame songwriter, a radio and television personality, a record producer, and a country music business executive....
) - 3:16