Solomon Burke
Encyclopedia
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 unfairly overlooked singer of soul
's golden age". Burke was "the founding father of what was defined as soul music
in America in the 1960s", and "a major architect of 1960s soul, infusing post-World War II R&B with [his] gospel
roots". and "a key transitional figure bridging R&B and soul
", Burke's "sound was a bold merger of orchestrated sophistication and countryish, down-home grit, and his best singles built a Gothic sense of drama and heartbreak. These tracks bridged the gap between the more mannered mainstream rhythm and blues
of the Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller songwriting team of the 1950s, as exemplified by the Coasters
and Drifters
, and the gruffer Southern styles of the later '60s, as heard on the Stax Records
sides of Otis Redding
and Sam & Dave
. At one time considered by Jerry Wexler
to be "the greatest male soul singer of all time", Burke was "a singer whose smooth, powerful articulation and mingling of sacred and profane themes helped define soul music in the early 1960s". Burke drew from his roots: gospel, soul
, and blues, as well as developing his own style at a time when R&B
, and rock
were both still in their infancy. Artistically, Burke was influenced by the music of the church, as well as by Little Richard
. Described as both "Rabelaisian
" and also as a "spiritual enigma", "Perhaps more than any other artist, the ample figure of Solomon Burke symbolized the ways that spirituality
and commerce, ecstasy and entertainment, sex and salvation, individualism and brotherhood, could blend in the world of 1960s soul music."
During the 55 years that he performed professionally, Burke released 38 studio albums on more than 17 record label
s and had 35 songs that charted
, including 26 songs that made the Billboard
R&B charts, including "Got to Get You Off My Mind
" that was #1 in the summer of the 1965, and an additional 9 songs that were only listed on the Billboard Hot 100
chart, including 1964's seminal “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
”. Burke had over 30 songs make the Cash Box R&B charts, with "Got to Get You Off My Mind
" reaching #1, and 23 that charted on their pop chart hits, with seven making Cash Boxs Top 40. In 2001, Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
as a performer. His album Don't Give Up on Me
won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
at the 45th Grammy Awards in 2003. By 2005 Burke was credited with selling 17 million albums. Rolling Stone
ranked Burke as #89 on its 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".
On February 13, 2011, in his first live appearance at the Grammy Awards, Mick Jagger
, who had been influenced by Burke, paid tribute to Burke in the Grammy Awards
"In Memoriam' segment by singing "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
", backed by Raphael Saadiq
and his band.
; died 19 December 1954 in Philadelphia) in a row house at 3036 Mt Vernon Street, West Philadelphia
, Pennsylvania. on Thursday, March 21, 1940. Burke was the oldest child of Josephine Moore (born 1 April 1920 in Panama City, Florida
; died 27 August 1990 in Germantown, Pennsylvania
) who had been a nurse, taught kindergarten for five years on the School District of Philadelphia
, and been a concert singer, and an unknown father. At birth he was consecrated a bishop by his grandmother in the Solomon's Temple, a congregation of the United House of Prayer For All People
, founded by her in her home about 1928 in the Black Bottom section of West Philadelphia, after she had a vision indicating: "A child shall lead you." He was the godson
of Daddy Grace
. In 2006 Burke describes his birth: "I was born upstairs while church was going on downstairs. And nobody heard me, so I guess I was in tune. The band was playing. People shouting and having a good time. I have the trombones and tubas and tambourines and guitars and pianos in my soul. It’s just a normal reaction to me, to hear that rhythm, to hear that beat."
Burke credits his grandmother as his primary spiritual and musical influence: "She was my mentor, a spiritual medium directly associated with Daddy Grace and Father Divine
. She used to have a sign in her home. It read 'Jesus Never Fails.' That's when and what I began to preach." In 2005 Burke recalled: "My grandmother was born a prophet
ess and born a great seer
, and she was and still is my influence. Her words have never faded—they become stronger. Everything that she predicted in my lifetime has come true and is still coming true to this day." Burke revealed: "My grandmother told me of the things I would do in life. That I would travel the world and see things I had never seen before; that I would be able to perform for millions of people and not see them; that I would be able to go places that I had never been and may never go again; that I would have a large family." Burke also indicated: "She was my greatest encouragement. She would make me listen to the radio: classical, country, jazz, Paul Robeson
, Count Basie
. And she told me to copy them and learn to phrase and project a song. She was my teacher. I never had no music training. She gave me the promise of a new life, not just as a singer, but as a person alone in the world with nothing but Jesus. All the great singers came out of the church. Jackie Wilson
. Sam Cooke
. Brook Benton
. Your first duty is to give it to God." Burke recalled in 2005: “Ever since I was a kid, I was at home, ‘lookin’ at the radio. “My grandmother made sure we listened to two hours of music a week—the Top 40, Perry Como
, Dean Martin
and Gene Autry
, who I just loved as a kid. He’d come on the radio singing, ‘I’m back in the saddle again,’ and my grandmother would always say, ‘Listen to the pronunciation, listen to the diction — you hear every word clearly." According to Burke, his mother introduced him to Jimmy Reed
and Ray Charles
as well as that era's king of smooth, Billy Eckstein. "She played all these records on our Admiral
combination radio-record-player-TV. For that reason alone, I looked forward to doing chores – so that I could hear their music." Other musical influences included bluesmen Muddy Waters
and John Lee Hooker
, gospel queen Clara Ward
, and Big Joe Turner
.
At the age of 7 Solomon preached "He is My Life", the first of many sermonettes, in Solomon's Temple, In his youth, "he was so charisma
tic in the pulpit that he was known as the Boy Wonder Preacher", and by all accounts, "young Burke was a frantic sermonizer, spellbinding in his delivery". Influenced by Superman
, "the first sign of a royal persona
was evident in the cape that he wore only on Sundays, made from his "blankie" by his grandmother. From age 12 Burke became a pastor of the congregation, and also appeared for 15 minutes each week (later expanded to 30 minutes) on WDAS-AM (then 1400 AM) with Randy Dixon, the African-American host of "Ebony Hall of Fame". At age 12 Burke hosted a gospel
show on WHAT-AM
, an R&B and gospel
radio station, mixing both song and sermon in broadcasts from Solomon's Temple. On weekends Burke traveled with a truck and tent, to Maryland
, Virginia
, and the Carolinas
to carry on the spiritual crusade of his church.
From an early age Burke struggled with a "fondness for food" and with obesity
, indicating in 2005: "I was 160 [pounds] when I was 9", and recalled that "at nine I passed for 16."
In 1949 Vincent Burke (born 1 December 1917 in Philadelphia; died March 1978 in Philadelphia), a 130 pound Hebrew-speaking black Jew, the son of an immigrant father from Kingston, Jamaica
, who worked as a chicken plucker at Jake's Chicken Market, a kosher butcher shop at 40th and Girard, as well as a carpenter, who was a guitar player, became his stepfather. After this Sol changed his name to Solomon McDonald Vincent Burke, but was often called "Sol" by family and friends. Burke later described his stepfather: "My father was very special to me. He was a very spiritual man. He was a black rabbi
, who would go to upper Pennsylvania and purchase chicken, turkeys and ducks.” Solomon Burke had six younger siblings – a sister, Laurena Burke-Corbin (born 23 June 1946), and five brothers: Elec Edward "Alec" (born 16 February 1948), Vladimir H. "Laddie" (born 31 July 1949), Mario "Chuck" (born 13 September 1953), Daniel S. "Danny" (born 10 March 1955), and Jolester R. M. Burke (born 24 September 1958).
From an early age Burke worked to supplement his family's income. Burke recalled: "I used to deliver grocery orders in a little wagon I made out of fish boxes. When I was seven, I sold newspapers out of my own newsstand on the corner of 40th and Lancaster. I had the first 99-cent car wash, which was located at 40th and Wallace outside Al's Barber Shop. We had it there because he was the only one who would let us use his water. We could wash your car in 20 minutes. I had four or five guys, gave 'em each a nickel for each car. Another early job was as briefly as a hot dog
seller at Eddie's Meat Market, where his friend Chubby Checker
also worked.
; three future members of The Castelles
: George Grant, Billy Taylor and Octavius Anthony; Lee Andrews
; William "Sonny" Gordon, later of the Angels and The Turbans
, who lived a couple of houses from Burke; George Tindley of the Dreams; and George Pounds, Karl English, and Melvin Story of the (Cherokees. A film, Rock From the Bottom, featuring the 1954 graduation class of Sulzberger Middle School, which included Burke, should be finished by the end of 2011.
Burke attended a succession of high schools: William Shoemaker Middle School, West Philadelphia High School
, Overbrook High School
, and the Roman Catholic High School for Boys
, where he played American football
, and finally John Bartram High School
in Philadelphia, where he graduated.
At the age of 14 Burke fathered his first child.
called the Gospel Cavaliers, who were inspired by the music of the R.H. Harris
-led Soul Stirrers, and by the Mighty Clouds of Joy
and the Dixie Hummingbirds. Burke recalled: "I did "Ship of Zion
" and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand". On Thanksgiving Day 1954 his grandmother gave him his first guitar, a Stella
acoustic guitar
with "King Solomon" embroidered on it, as an early Christmas gift. In response Burke wrote his first song, "Christmas Presents From Heaven", which he recorded in the local penny arcade
and played for her on 18 December 1954, the day before her death at the age of 54. On the day his grandmother died she prophesied that "he would have cars, women and money but also descend to the pits of hell".
After Burke sang at her funeral on 24 December 1954, some local church people asked him to perform at their Christmas program.
In December 1955 Burke and the Gospel Cavaliers performed at the Liberty Baptist Church, at 5944 Larchwood Avenue, West Philadelphia, and so impressed Viola Williams, wife of Kae "Loudmouth" Williams
, a prominent African American
Philadelphia deejay
. that she insisted they return in a few days to hear the Dixie Hummingbirds, and enter a gospel talent contest, which offered a recording contract as a prize. Despite agreeing to enter the competition, the other members of the Gospel Cavaliers, who were "disheartened by their belief they were getting nowhere fast", refused to enter. Burke decided to go to competition, which was held at the Cornerstone Baptist Church at 2117 North 33rd Street, Philadelphia, but was forced to borrow a jacket from his uncle, shoes from his stepfather, and pants from his other uncle. As he had left his guitar at his bass player's house, Burke borrowed a guitar borrowed from a member of the Welcome Travelers, a competing group. Burke sang "The Old Ship of Zion
", defeating the other 11 competitors. Burke recalls that Bess Berman, the owner of Apollo Records
, an independent label with national distribution; Jimmy Bracken of Vee-Jay Records
; and Don Robey
of Peacock Records
of Texas, all wanted to sign him to their label. Viola Williams convinced Burke to sign a personal management contract with her husband, Kae Williams, who was also managing Lee Andrews & the Hearts
at that time. Kae Williams added four years to Burke's age to avoid having to get the approval of Burke's parents (thus creating confusion about his age for decades), and introduced him to Bess Berman, who signed him to her label. In addition to Burke, Williams also managed
the Sensations
, the Soul Satisfiers (Apollo Records), Jimmy Young
(Ember Records
), Rollie McGill (Mercury
), and Nicky Lee
(K&M Records), which was owned by Williams and his cousin, Mitch
Thomas.
Mahalia Jackson
, Apollo's primary star, had left for Columbia Records
, accusing Apollo of cheating her out of her royalties, and the owner, Bessie "Bess" Berman (born June 3, 1902 in New York
; died October 29, 1997), of "having a plantation attitude toward Negroes". Berman, known as "Queen Bee", was a formidable Jewish woman of Austrian and German ancestry, who had been president of Apollo Records since May 1948, attempted to transform Burke into a pop crooner
, and is reported to have said, "Let's take this church boy and make him the next Harry Belafonte
."
From 2.30pm on December 22, 1955 Burke made his first recordings for Apollo Records, six songs, in their studios at 457 West 45th Street, Manhattan, debuting with his own song "Christmas Presents" b/w "When I'm All Alone" (Apollo 485), which debuted on DEcember 24, 1955 and became a minor hit. Burke released nine singles and sixteen different sides on Apollo, and his style at that time was compared to that of Roy Hamilton
, Billy Eckstine
, Al Hibbler
, Ivory Joe Hunter
and even Harry Belafonte
. While Burke wrote or co-wrote many of those songs, he confessed: "I couldn’t write music or read music. I just created songs on the spot. I could just stand there and hum the music to the musicians". At Apollo he recorded with saxophone legends King Curtis
and Lester Young
behind him. In 2002 Burke recalled: "Listen to 'Have a Dream'. It still haunts me. Not only did I make the song up on the spot, Lester made up his solo just by filling in my spaces."
Burke's other Apollo recordings, which included "I'm in Love" b/w "Why Do Me That Way?" (Apollo 487), "I'm All Alone" b/w "To Thee" (Apollo 491), and "No Man Walks Alone" b/w "Walking in a Dream" (Apollo 500), didn't sell well.
In 1955 Burke, on his first tour to the American South, was stopped by police in a borrowed yellow 1955 Cadillac convertible near Hallandale, Florida on suspicion that he and his pianist had stolen the vehicle. In early 1956 Burke made his first stop on the Chittlin circuit, and his first nightclub
appearance at Jim Toomer’s The Tippin' Inn, a black-owned establishment in Berlin, New Jersey
, on Cushman Avenue, about 20 miles southeast of Philadelphia, "that sported a grand showroom and featured some of the country’s best known African-American entertainment".
" called "You Can Run (But You Can't Hide)" b/w "A Picture of You" (Apollo 505), although it didn’t chart nationally. Written by Burke and Charles Merenstein, the vice-president of Apollo Records, co-writing credit for this song was also assigned to ex-heavyweight champion Joe Louis
, who had used the saying to refer to challenger Billy Conn
in 1946. According to Burke: "The song was not written by Joe Louis. Mr. Bernstein and other writers wrote the song for me, and they used the title without the permission of Joe Louis’ agency. We were sued by Mr. Louis. His wife was his attorney and manager, and we had to relinquish the copyright to him. The deal was that he would travel with me for one year and promote the record, and we would pay him to do that." While Louis helped promote the song in exchange for the credit, even appearing on TV's The Steve Allen Show
with Burke on 4 January 1957, he forgot Burke's name, and introduced him as Argentinian Dick Haymes
, who had covered the song on Decca Records
.
In April 1957, Burke, who was at this time promoted as "Lord Solomon", appeared on an all-star show at Chicago's Regal Theater
with Screamin' Jay Hawkins
, The Dells
, The Spaniels
, Big Maybelle
, Little Esther Phillips, The Sensations
, Junior Parker
, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Nappy Brown
, Annie Laurey, and bassist Al Smith's Orchestra. Burke claimed that he appeared on American Bandstand
, the first episode hosted by Dick Clark, which would be on 5 August 1957. In 1957 Burke played the Apollo Theatre
in Harlem, New York for the first time, but he was dropped from the show after two nights.
, Burke became convinced that his manager Kae Williams was cheating him out of most of his performance fees. After a confrontation, which resulted in Burke shooting Williams, Burke terminated his relationship with Williams. Williams, who was by this time managing The Silhouettes
, ensured that Burke's Apollo contract was terminated and that he was "blackballed" from the industry. Burke recalled in an interview in 2002: "I knew I wasn't being paid what I was owed. I'm 17 years old making $350 a night, three nights a week. I thought that was a lot of money. It turns out that I was actually being paid $3,500 a night, or more accurately, my manager was being paid $3,500 a night. It was comical. But when I left him he told me I would never work again, and he did get all my records pulled off the air. It was a drastic time in my life. There were a couple years there when I lost everything and everybody, and I learned to live on the streets of Philadelphia." After his departure Apollo released "I Need You Tonight" b/w "This is it" (Apollo 511), and "For You and You Alone" b/w "You Are My One Love" (Apollo 512), in 1957 and "They Always Say" b/w "Don't Cry" (Apollo 522), and "My Heart is a Chapel" b/w "This is It" (Apollo 527) in 1958. Apollo reissued an album "Solomon Burke" (ALP-498) in 1962. Despite his departure from Apollo, in 1992 Burke recalled: "Bess and Ike Berman ... were two of the greatest people in the world. I mean, the most sweetest, original, the real deal people. You know, the kind of people who say I don't need a contract. Very up front with us. Very honest with us. Never had a problem with our royalties. Just beautiful people".
After being dropped by Apollo Records, and blackballed by Williams, Burke found it difficult to get any of his songs played on the radio, or to get club dates. Burke recalled in 2002: "My life was shattered. I was so disillusioned that I didn't want to sing anywhere except in church." After an argument with his mother, with whom he had an often volatile relationship, Burke was evicted from his home and began living on the streets of North Philadelphia in 1957. Burke had "a lump the size of half a golf ball on his shaven head: the result, he says, of being 'whacked by a frying pan. Your mother tells you to do something, you do it.'" Burke recalled: “My mother was so angry. She threw me out of the house. My dad stood by me, would meet me down the street and give me $10. But that’s where I lived for a year or two. In abandoned cars. There was no place I could turn. I was shamed. I was a bum.” Burke recalled: "People laughed at me because I still had my gold tuxedo pants on, and my patent leather shoes, and my beautiful ruffled shirt."
After being hit by a motor vehicle outside the Galaxy Bar on the corner of 16th and Ridge Streets, Philadelphia, Burke was taken into the Germantown home of the driver, Lathella Thompson, a recently widowed doctor, who feared losing her driver's licence.
Burke remained in her home for the next eighteen months, and often accompanied her to work. During this period Burke met Brother Rashish, who became his mentor, taught him the Islamic faith
, as well as Arabic. In August 1958 it was also reported that Burke converted to Islam, and had married, however it only lasted two months before being annulled by 1958. Soon after Burke married Delores Clark, Mrs Thompson's niece, and he soon had six children.
Needing to work to support his growing family, Burke resumed training as a mortician at Eckels College of Mortuary Science, which was located at 231 North Sixteenth Street, Philadelphia, graduating with a doctorate of mortuary science, and joining the AV Barkley funeral home at 634 North 38th Street, Philadelphia, which was owned and operated by his widowed aunt, Anna Rebecca Barkley (born March 6, 1991; died November 19, 1991). Burke later had his own mortuary business in Los Angeles.
, founder of the newly established Triumph Records, signed Burke to a recording contract
, with an eye on the pop market. However, Burke was unable to record for Triumph as it was discovered that his contract with Apollo Records had not expired. Abramson recommended Burke contact Miriam Bienstock, Abramson'e ex-wife, who was an owner of Atlantic Records
, about his songs.
convertible
if Burke would agree to a management contract with him. Chivian arranged for Burke to be signed to Singular Records, a Philadelphia-based label that was owned by WPEN
disc jockey Edwin L. "Larry" Brown (born September 10, 1921 in New York City; died March 24, 2005), and vocal coach Arthur "Artie" Singer
(born February 1, 1919 in Toronto, Ontario; died May 2, 2008 in Pennsylvania), who had a distribution deal with Chess Records
.
Burke released two singles on the Singular label: "Doodle Dee Doo" b/w "It's All Right" (Singular 1314) in December 1959, and "This Little Ring" b/w "I'm Not Afraid" (Singular 1812; and Mala 420) in May 1960, but neither single charted.
In 1960 Burke toured the American South with Dee Clark
, the Drifters
, the Crystals
, Little Esther, Dionne Warwick
, and the Upsetters
Band.
style, whereas the slow "Always Together" is closer to budding soul music
." There was also another single by Little Vincent "Honk, Honk, Honk" b/w "Honk, Honk, Honk (part 2)" (Apollo 748), but that was an instrumental without any input from Burke.
was struggling as two of their major stars, Bobby Darin
and Ray Charles
, who were responsible collectively for one-third of Atlantic's revenues, had left for other record lablels – Darin for Capitol Records
, and Charles for a "mega-deal" with ABC Records
. According to Cliff White, "In 1960 the company was at its most vulnerable. Ray Charles and Clyde McPhatter
had left them for other companies, Chuck Willis
was dead, and Big Joe Turner
’s brand of rocking city blues was just not selling anymore. Their major girl singers, Lavern Baker
and Ruth Brown
were waning, and two of their three big group acts, the Coasters and The Clovers
, were also past their best". Atlantic Vice-President and producer Jerry Wexler
admits that by this time he was feeling creatively exhausted, and feared the company might not survive. According to Alex Halberstadt, "Salvation arrived in the person of Solomon Burke, a soul singer of overwhelming charisma and remarkable stylistic range. ... Wexler and Burke created a string of hits that carried the label financially and represented the first fully realized examples of the classic soul sound". Burke helped keep Atlantic Records solvent from 1961 to 1964 with his steady run of hit records. According to Wexler: "Solomon Burke was the infusion of fresh energy I needed. ... Solomon came along at a moment when the British Invasion
was gearing up. We had nothing like the Dave Clark Five or Herman's Hermits
, let alone the Beatles. Solomon Burke carried Atlantic by selling a load of records – and they were terrific."
In November 1960 Burke and his manager, "Babe" Chivian, visited the 56th Street offices of Atlantic Records, hoping to interest Atlantic in songs that Burke had written. Later that day Burke signed a "handshake deal
" with Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun
to record with Atlantic. Meeting Burke "was not purely kismet
", as Wexler and Ertegun were aware of Burke and his talent, as "Wexler’s former mentor at Billboard, Paul Ackerman
, had been urging him to sign Burke for several years", but were waiting for Burke's contract with Apollo Records to expire. By this time Burke was considered one of the "greatest showmen and a classic gospel-inspired singer". According to Burke, Atlantic "had just released Ray Charles from the label; he hadn’t been gone a week. I walked into Jerry’s office that day, and 30 minutes later he was hollering for them to bring me a contract." In 2007 Burke recalled: "I met Ertegun
and Jerry Wexler
together. It was the day Ray Charles had left the label, and we walked in and 10 minutes later we were signed to the label. Jerry said, "I think we're gonna make a deal," and Ahmet just says "Hey, baby, sign it. Sign it, baby'".
In his eight years with Atlantic Records
from 1960, Burke released 32 memorable singles. These included six Top Ten R&B hits, four of which crossed over to the pop Top Forty
: "Cry to Me
" (#5 R&B), "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" (#7 R&B, #24 pop), "Got to Get You Off of My Mind" (#1 R&B, #22 pop), "You’re Good for Me" (#8 R&B), "Tonight’s the Night" (#2 R&B, #28 pop) and "If You Need Me" (#2 R&B, #37 pop). On his singles for Atlantic, Burke "brought a country influence into R&B, with emotional phrasing and intricately constructed, melodic ballads and midtempo songs.... While Burke wasn't the only one pursuing this path, not many others did so as successfully". Though well-received by both peers and critics, and attaining a few moderate pop
and several major R&B
hits while at Atlantic, Burke never broke through into the mainstream as did Sam Cooke
or Otis Redding
, who covered Burke's "Down in the Valley
" for 1965's Otis Blue. However, unlike Aretha Franklin
or Wilson Pickett
, Burke was unable to expand his R&B base into a huge pop following as well, never having a top 20 pop hit in his career.
Almost immediately Wexler and Burke clashed over his branding
and the songs that he would record. According to Burke, "Their idea was, we have another young kid to sing gospel, and we’re going to put him in the blues bag." As Burke had struggled from an early age with "his attraction to secular music on the one hand and his allegiance to the church on the other", when he was signed to Atlantic Records he "refused to be classified as a rhythm-and-blues singer" due to a perceived "stigma of profanity" by the church, and R&B's reputation as "the devil's music". Burke indicated in 2005: "I told them about my spiritual background, and what I felt was necessary, and that I was concerned about being labeled rhythm & blues. What kind of songs would they be giving me to sing? Because of my age, and my position in the church, I was concerned about saying things that were not proper, or that sent the wrong message. That angered Jerry Wexler a little bit. He said, ‘We’re the greatest blues label in the world! You should be honored to be on this label, and we’ll do everything we can – but you have to work with us.’" To mollify Burke, it was decided to market him as a singer of "soul music" after he had consulted his church brethren and won approval for the term. When a Philadelphia DJ said to Burke, "You're singing from your soul and you don't want to be an R&B singer, so what kind of singer are you going to be?", Burke shot back: "I want to be a soul singer." Burke's sound, which was especially popular in the South, was described there as "river deep country fried buttercream soul". Burke is credited with coining the term "soul music", which Burke confirmed in a 1996 interview.
Despite his initial reluctance, like several former gospel singers Aretha Franklin
, and Wilson Pickett
, Burke was "molded into a more secular direction when he signed with Atlantic in the '60s", and became one of "the "backsliders", artists who "preferred a secular acclaim to the gospel obscurity", after deciding eventually that "secular music was not the anithesis of the church but, rather, 'a new avenue, a new dimension to spread the gospel'". Despite this, "leaving gospel for secular music, as well as integrating secular music into gospel performances, was controversial". Noted blues scholar Paul Oliver maintains that when Sam Cooke and Burke "turned from gospel singing to the blues", unlike others who had sone so previously, "they took the gospel technique with them", with "even the words often secularized gospel songs" coupled with a "screaming delivery, the exploitation of emotional involvement, [and] the frenetic displays of dancing singers". For Burke, "gospel influences were pervasive. Gospelly chord progression
s, organ accompaniment and a style of singing which can only be described as "preaching" have now spread widely into much black popular music." Music critic Mark Deming described Burke as having: "one of the finest voices in popular music, that possessed a churchly authority that was the ideal match for his material which balanced the pleasures of the flesh with the price of the transgression".
"Burke sounded like a Baptist preacher in a country church, and for [Jerry] Wexler he was the first and possibly the greatest of all '60s soul men." Wexler, who considered Burke to be "the greatest male soul singer of all time", pronounced him a "vocalist of rare prowess and remarkable range. His voice is an instrument of exquisite sensitivity". Wexler also describing the young Burke's vocal style as "churchy without being coarse". In 2000 Wexler indicated: "Solomon was beautiful, baby. He sounded just like Dean Martin
." In 2003 Wexler assessed Burke: "I rate him at the very top. Since all singing is a trade-off between music and drama, he's the master at both. His theatricality. He's a great actor." Despite his admiration for Burke, Wexler also described Burke as "a piece of work: wily, highly intelligent, a salesman of epic proportions, sly, sure-footed, a never-say-die entrepreneur", while also branding him "a card-carrying fabulist. Solomon has told so many versions of the same happening that it's unreal."
, Manhattan, New York on 13 December 1960, he was given four songs, including his first Atlantic release, "Keep the Magic Working", which was a flop, and "Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)", a cover
of a country song written and recorded by Virgil "Pappy" Stewart, that had been a minor hit for Faron Young
in 1953 (#10 C&W), and later for Patsy Cline
. Burke figured this did not portend a long future with Wexler and Atlantic: "Here’s the greatest R&B label in the world, and they give me country songs to sing. What are they trying to tell me?". In 2005 Burke recalled: "I started out as a cowboy on Atlantic Records – without a horse! I was the only singing cowboy with a corned-beef-and-pastrami sandwich on white with mayonnaise". Despite his reservations, Burke, "accompanied by smooth backing vocals and an arrangement equal parts Nashville and Nat King Cole
, gave it his best." Burke: "I like country music but I don't think it was deliberate. I think it was something we just accidentally happened onto. By my being versatile. By my being able to sing different songs – being able to change my tone quality, having the different octaves. You must remember, I was capable of singing anything."
Burke recalled: "They weren’t happy with my rendition, because I felt I had to talk. We did it several times and I kept talking on the record. Mr. Wexler said 'I don’t think that’s gonna work'. At that time Mr. Paul Ackerman
and others said 'leave it in. We don’t know what we’re doing anyway. This is something new we’re trying. No black artist has ever done country music before, so let’s see what’s gonna happen'. That was the turning point of my career – after that, international artist worldwide." When recalling Burke's first recording session at Atlantic, Wexler added in 2002: "There was a blizzard
the morning we were to do the first recording session with Solomon and I didn't know if I would be able to get into New York. The trains weren't running, but I made it in that morning and there was Solomon, who had come up from Philadelphia. We did four songs in three hours, including 'Just Out of Reach'. After we finished recording, I went into the control room
to listen to the playback. I looked around for Solomon, but he was heading out the door. He said he had to get back to Philadelphia while it was still light because he had a job shoveling snow. I think he was getting paid $3.50 an hour. He already had something like eight kids." According to Tony Cummings, "Despite the use of a different arranger at each session Solomon conquered all. His rich, vibrant, baritone
voice brought the full majesty of the gospel tradition to a series of intense, moody ballad
s and laid down the solid groundwork of the soon-to-follow soul music explosion.
Released in August 1961, after the earlier uncharted release of "Keep the Magic Working" b/w "How Many Times?" (Atlantic 2089), "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" (Atlantic 2114) was Burke's first hit
, selling over a million copies, and subsequently spent 19 weeks on the R&B charts while climbing to #7, as well as crossing over into the pop top 40, reaching #24 on November 20, 1961. This song, which was "fundamental to the emergence of soul music", was "especially well received down South", "successfully appealed to white consumers by using tidy tone quality, minimal improvisation, and standard, middle-American dialect
", "instantly established Burke as a huge presence ... [and] "also introduced Burke's slightly country-tinged voice that melded R&B and country music and set the template that Ray Charles
would follow years latter with his classic Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
". Burke "summed up the underlying connection between the musics of the black and white South: 'Gospel is the truth. And country music is the truth'". In 2003 Burke's recording of "Just Out of Reach" was ranked #223 on a list of country music's 500 greatest singles.
Concert promoters in Mississippi
, South Carolina
, and Alabama
, who were unaware that Burke was an African-American, accidentally booked him to sing at Ku Klux Klan
picnics and rallies, with up to 30,000 hooded Klansmen in attendance. In a 2002 interview Burke recalled: "Way down in the South somewhere, I showed up and the promoter said to me, "Is Solomon Burke here yet?" I said, "Yeah, I'm right here." His eyes grow wide and he walks away. The guy comes back with the sheriff and he says, "Boy, don't play games. Show me some I.D." So he looks at it and pulls the promoter aside and says, "You got a problem. You can't let him go out there." So they called the doctor and had him cover my face in bandages and made it look like I had an accident. That's how I performed that night".
By May 1961 Burke had reconciled with his former manager, Kae Williams, appearing at Williams' Northwest Athletic Club in Philadelphia for several nights. Burke performed as part of a financially unsuccessful all-star bill organized by Sid Bernstein
at the Medinah Temple
in Chicago from 26–31 December 1961, with Dion
, Frank Gari
, Johnny Tillotson
, Eddie Hodges
, Freddie Cannon, Brenda Lee
, Vicki Spencer, The Marvelettes
, Clay Cole
, Ral Donner
, and Clarence "Frogman" Henry.
", "an ode to loneliness and desire" "one of the first songs to unify country, gospel and R&B in one package", that is considered "the paradigm
for Southern soul
ballads". "Cry to Me" was written (as Bert Russell) and produced by Bert Berns
, "a roly-poly white New Yorker with a deep love and empathy for black music despite a formal music education at the Juilliard School Of Music and a music background far removed from the searing soul in which, by 1963, he specialised", with whom Burke had a difficult relationship. Burke "distrusted the young producer", and often spoke of him disparagingly, but later acknowledged Berns as "a genius", and "a great writer, a great man". Cissy Houston, who provided backing vocals on several of Burke's songs that were produced by Berns, believed "Burke changed his mind about Bert as soon as Sol started working with him in the studio. Bert's emotion-charged songs and Sol's gospel delivery was a marriage made in heaven". Although Burke recognized Berns's skill for crafting hit records, he rejected two Berns compositions, "Hang on Sloopy
" (later recorded by (The McCoys
), and "A Little Bit of Soap
", a recent hit for The Jarmels
. Burke explained in 2004: "I felt a little unsafe about it, because they were pushing me in an ethnic market, so why would I want to say that (about soap) to my people? It didn't have the meaning it needed to have." In frustration after Burke had rejected his song choices, Berns offered him a final song, "Cry to Me", which Berns sang to him very slowly. According to Burke in a 2008 interview: "I said 'That's terrible. It's just too slow for me, I don't like slow songs.' And Mr Wexler says, 'Listen this guy writes for you, you're pissing him off. You're pissing me off, too.' (Laughs) I tried to sing it a couple of times that way, couldn't even feel it. Then I asked the young man in the studio, the engineer Tommy Dowd
, 'Could we have them speed this up?'"
Released in 1962, "Cry to Me" b/w "I Almost Lost My Mind" (Atlantic 2131) became Burke's second entry in the US charts, peaking at #5 on the R&B charts (and #44 Pop). On 20 March 1962 Burke sang "Cry to Me" on American Bandstand
, and performed at Chicago's Regal Theater
on May 23 on a bill with Lloyd Price
, Eddie Holland, the Crystals, the Corsairs, Gene Chandler
, Jimmy McCracklin
, Aretha
and Erma Franklin
.
"Cry to Me" was covered in 1963 by Betty Harris
(Pop #23, R&B #10), and by the Rolling Stones in July 1965, before becoming a #28 UK hit for The Pretty Things
in December 1965. It was a hit again in 1987, when it was used in the film, and appeared on the soundtrack for, Dirty Dancing
.
After "Cry to Me", Burke became one of the first performers to be called a soul artist. In "Cry to Me", and in his "most popular recordings from 1962 onward, elements of the African-American folk-preaching style", which incorporated "the fusion of speech and song", "the use of repetition or elongation for emphasis", and the improvisation of "hollers
and vocal melisma
s", the "flowers and curlicue
s of gospel singing", are salient. Burke always had his pulpit
in the recording studio. About March 1962 Burke performed again at the Apollo Theatre.
" (#20 R&B; #71 Pop) (Atlantic 2147). For "Down in the Valley", Burke borrowed from a traditional folk song Down in the Valley
, that was written as ealy as 1800, and sung by The Andrews Sisters
in the 1944 film Moonlight and Cactus, and by Patti Page
in 1951. In August 2008 Burke told Mojo magazine: "I wrote that on the train, 'cos I had no song and I started thinking on old songs that I could do uptempo and I thought, (sings Gospel song pacier, with horn arrangement) so I had to keep that in my head 'til I got to the studio. I said, 'Can I have a tuba like I have in my church?' In my church we got the tuba and the trombones. Got to get that New Orleans sound
. They loved it." Burke recalled: "I put my own feelings and words to it, and was lucky enough by the grace of God to capture the song, when it was in P.D.
, able to have a copyright on it." "Down in the Valley" debuted in the US charts on May 26, 1965, and peaked at #20 in the R&B charts, #71 in the Pop charts, and at #19 in the Adult Contemporary charts. The song was later covered by Otis Redding
on his 1965 album Otis Blue, and was featured in the 1996 film 2 Days in the Valley
, and generated income for Cassandra Berns, who inherited the publishing rights from her father, Bert Berns
, who was credited as co-writer, along with "Babe" Chivian, and Joseph C. Martin.
Later in April Burke joined the Supersonic Attractions tour, which was organized by Henry Wynn, an African American
who owned the Royal Peacock in Atlanta
. and featured Sam Cooke
, Dion
, B.B. King, Dee Clark
, and the Drifters
, which toured the American South in April 1962. Burke returned to the studio on June 25, 1962, and recorded four songs, including "I Really Don't Want to Know" (#93 Pop) b/w "Tonight My Heart Is Crying" (Atlantic 2157) and "I Can Make It If I Try" (Atlantic 2185). On August 13, 1962 Burke returned to New York to record four songs, but only two were released, and neither charted. Burke recorded four more songs on October 17, 1962, but none would chart.
On October 26, 1962 Burke appeared on the bill at the Apollo Theatre that headlined James Brown
, and was recorded and released as The Apollo Theatre Presents In Person The James Brown Show (King 826) in May 1963.
In March 1963 Burke appeared again at Chicago's Regal Theater with Roy Hamilton
, Ben E. King
, Rufus Thomas
, Jimmy Witherspoon
, The Orlons
, The Five Du-Tones
, and The Four Dancing Ebonites. Later in the Spring of 1963 Burke toured on Henry Wynn's Supersonic Attractions Tour with Sam Cooke
, Jerry Butler
, Dee Clark
, The Crystals
, The Drifters
, Little Esther Phillips, Dionne Warwick
, Johnny Thunder
, "Little Julius" High (later known as "Lotsa Poppa"), with The Upsetters
Band and Theophilous Odell George (known as "Gorgeous George"), who was emcee, to mostly mixed white and black audiences, including a concert at Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park
, two concerts on April 28, 1963 at the Montreal Forum
in Shawinigan, Quebec
,
and a concert on May 3 at Pittsburgh's Syria Mosque
.
for Lloyd Price
's Detroit-based Double L Records
, which had been rejected by Wexler, but who had purchased the publishing rights
. According to Burke, Pickett gave the song to him on a tour bus: "Wilson sang the song for me in a bus on a tour. I loved it so much that I got Wilson to do it. Atlantic refused to sign him at that time, so we got Wilson to release the song on the Lloyd-Logan label. We were the best of friends. As a matter of fact, I promoted his record and he promoted mine." However, Pickett claims Wexler lifted it from demo tapes he had sent Atlantic. Burke recalled in 2003: "I was furious when Wexler rejected Pickett", and "when radio personality the Magnificent Montague
started spinning Pickett’s original version, Wexler rushed out Burke’s, with both in Billboards "Singles Review" column on April 13. and both featured on Billboard's "Artists' Biographies" on May 4, 1963. Although Burke ultimately won the chart war, Burke broke rank and supported his rival: “I would go to the radio stations and say, ‘Hi, I’m Solomon Burke, and I’m here promoting the new record “If You Need Me”…by Wilson Pickett.’” Despite his efforts, Burke's version jockeyed with Pickett's for position in the Hot 100, before "beating Pickett to the punch" because of "Solomon’s popularity and Atlantic’s distribution". Both versions had Cissy Houston
singing backup vocals. Despite his anger, in 1964, Pickett signed with Atlantic because he needed the "bread
". While Burke's version spent 5 weeks at #2 in the R&B charts in the American summer of 1963, kept from the number one position by Jackie Wilson
's "Baby Workout
" and Sam Cooke
's "Another Saturday Night
", Pickett's original stalled at #64 in the Pop charts and #30 on the R&B chart. "If You Need Me" was "the first of several great preaching scorchers": "Can’t Nobody Love You", "You’re Good For Me", and "Goodbye Baby, Baby Goodbye", which were all arranged by Gary Sherman, the man behind many Garnet Mimms
hits".
and Horace Ott
, who also arranged it. Debuting in November 1963, "You're Good for Me" b/w "Beautiful Brown Eyes" (Atlantic 2205) peaked at #3 in the R&B charts, and at #49 in the Pop charts.
On October 8, 1963, Burke and Sam Cooke
were arrested by local white police in Shreveport, Louisiana
for seeking service in a segregated restaurant next to the Castle Inn, their motel, but released them after taking them to the local fire station, stripping them naked, and forcing them to sing their greatest hits.
Fred Robinson, known professionally as "Rockin' Robin", who also gave him a cape and crown that he always wore on stage. Burke accepted the appellation the "King of Rock 'N' Soul", indicating "without soul, there'd be no rock and without rock, there'd be no soul". The ceremony was repeated each night during the week Burke performed in Baltimore.
According to Gerri Hirshey: "Title agreed upon, Solomon added the trappings: a crown, a scepter, a cape, robe, dancing girls, and colored lights". Burke's crown was an exact replica of "the crown jewels of London
" and the cape was trimmed with real ermine
. Burke, whose shows were tours de force of riveting soul and unashamed hokum
", "ticked every box from low comedy through country pleading to the kind of magisterial rock'n'roll that brought the house down", and he "became known as much for his showmanship as he did his voice. He would often take the stage in a flowing, 15-foot-long cape and bejeweled crown, his stage theatrics predating those of such legendary showman as James Brown
. According to David Hepworth, Burke "once employed a midget
who was secreted under his cape. When it was thrown off the cape would disappear stage left as of its own volition". After the success of his "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
" in late 1965, James Brown
, believing he deserved to be crowned "King of Soul", hired Burke to perform for one night in Chicago, but ended up paying not to perform but rather to watch him perform instead, expecting Burke also to surrender his crown and title to him. According to Burke, "He paid me $7,500 to stand onstage and hand him my robe and crown. It was a great gig: I got paid and I didn't have to sing a note." Burke accepted Brown's money, but retained his title and regal paraphernalia.
As he increased in weight, "Burke’s sheer bulk meant that he could never be a dancer like James Brown, but like Brown, his act was full of showmanship". Consequently, over the years Burke "evolved a fervently demonstrative stage act", that were often compared with religious revival meeting
s. Burke and black performers like James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Wilson PIckett, "would adopt the 'house-wrecking' tactics of black preachers, and their shows functioned in much the same way as black religious events in that performer and audience became immersed in the music, arriving together at an ecstatic state that allowed them to feel a deep intensity of experience". According to Weldon McDougal, Burke "turned theatres like the Apollo and the Uptown
into churches, he had folk running down the aisles to be saved by his music". Cliff White described a show in the UK where "with head thrown back and one hand cupped to his mouth like an Alpine yodeller he cried out with such overwhelming passion that he left the spellbound audience wrung out and exhausted like so many limp rags."
On December 12, 1963 Burke recorded three songs at Atlantic's New York studios, including "He'll Have To Go" (#51 Pop) (Atlantic 2218), an early version of "Goodbye Baby Goodbye" (#33 Pop), and "Someone To Love Me" (Atlantic 2226), with the Sweet Inspirations
: (Estelle Brown, Cissy Houston
, Sylvia Shemwell, and Dee Dee Warwick
) providing backing vocals.
Burke performed again at The Regal Theater in Chicago with Dee Clark
, Dionne Warwick
, and Freddie King
in February 1964. In June 1964 Burke toured with James Brown
, Otis Redding
, Joe Tex
, and Garnett Mimms on the Summer Shower of Stars Tour, and performed on June 20 at the Donnelly Theater in Boston, Massachusetts.
" (Atlantic 2241), that was also written by Burke (but also credited to Bert Berns
and Jerry Wexler), which was Burke's most prominent bid for an enduring soul standard. Burke claims he was the sole writer on the song but was talked into sharing credit by Wexler and Berns. In an interview Burke recalled the song's origins: "I used to do it in church when I was a kid and it was a march for the offering. We would play it with tubas, trombones and the big bass drum and it sounded really joyful. I played it to Jerry Wexler and Bert Berns,who thought that it was too fast, and had the wrong tempo
." In 1997 Burke recalled: "When I did it for Jerry Wexler and Bert Burns (sic), they told me that song would never make it. I said, 'Well, I tell ya what—I'll give you a piece of it.' They said, 'That's the way we'll get the record played, so we'll take a piece of it.' In those days, they took a piece of your songs—a piece of the publishing—but in the end, you didn't have any pieces left. Even now, I'm still struggling to get the publishing, the royalties, and that'll never happen." Wexler maintained in 2002: "I know Solomon is upset about that, and I wrote him a long letter explaining how we wrote the song together and that he has always gotten his share of the royalties
. I know that because I get royalty checks for the song. The whole process of making a record is a collaborative affair and the issue of who does just what on a song sometimes gets confusing, but not on that song. We wrote it in Bert's apartment. Bert had a guitar and we wrote it together."
In August 2008 Burke recalled that he'd hired musicians from Charlotte, North Carolina
, to play at a gig in Long Island
and he drafted them in to play the instrumental riff
on "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love". The riff was the money march he did at church where the congregation marches down the aisle to the front to make offerings. Burke continued: "Got the band cooking, get a bit of echo, we went through it, came back out, said to Jerry [Wexler], 'Whaddya think?' He said, 'Too fast. Doesn't have any meaning.' (Engineer) Tommy (Dowd) says, 'What can we lose? His band's here, let's just cut it.'" In this song, Burke employs the style of a black preacher, in "which he begins by delivering his message in a style of a sermon, and offering salvation". Dave Marsh explains that in this song, "the porcine, gilt-fingered lay preacher testifies from the top but what you ought to hear is writ large between the lines, especially in the stentorian
opening sermon. That is, when Burke sings "[There's a song I sing, and I believe] If everybody was to sing this song, it could save the whole world." Burke's version, while later ranked #429 on the Rolling Stone
magazine's 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
, and ranked #447 in Dave Marsh's book, In The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, which was released in July 1964, and was in the US Pop Charts for 8 weeks, but only reached #58. "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" was covered by The Rolling Stones
almost immediately in January 1965, by Wilson Pickett
in 1966, and again a decade and a half later, was a hit because of its appearance in the 1979 film The Blues Brothers
. In 1989 it was released as a single in the UK, backed by "Think" and it peaked at #12.
great Teacho Wilshire and produced by Bert Berns
. "The Price" was inspired by the deterioration of his marriage with his wife, Delores. According to Burke: “The song was written live at the Apollo Theater. It’s a dramatic, drastic story. It wasn’t something that was prepared. I had received some uncomfortable news from Philadelphia concerning my wife, my family. I had to go on stage at that moment. I could not respond to what was going on and I just told my band just to play the vamp and I would think of something.” In 2008 Burke admitted to serial infidelity during his marriage: "I was young. Girls were coming from every angle. I couldn't love them all. But I tried." In 2002 Burke explained: "God is in everything good. I love beautiful women, and I'm not going to tell anyone different. Sam Cooke was packing out churches at the same time as me, but when he was singing sacred songs, the young girls were thinking, 'Lord, Jesus, if I could just get with that Sam Cooke. Brother Sam, come over and pray for me one time!' All of that was in the room, it's what life is about. You can't separate it." In 1997 Burke explained: "We all have God inside us, as well as a little bit of the devil. We activate the God because that's the good to fight the devil, because he's always workin' on us. He's constantly got something going, ya know? That's his job. He does a very good job too, but not good enough."
From October 16 to November 9, 1964 Burke again toured the South on Henry Wynn's Supersonic Attractions Tour with Sam Cooke
, Jackie Wilson
, BB King, Chuck Jackson
, and Hank Ballard
and the Midnighters, with Jimi Hendrix
a temporary member of his band. Burke, Don Covay, and Wilson Pickett, performed at the Apollo Theater on October 21, 1964, which was recorded by Atlantic Records engineers, but neither of Burke's songs were released. In November 1964 Burke released Rock 'n' Soul (Atlantic Records 5009), an album which contained seven top 100 Billboard hits.
" (Atlantic 2276), which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
would later call "one of the premier soul hits of the 1960s". Written by Burke and his then wife, Delores Burke, and John "J.B." Moore, "a vengeful song about getting past someone who has found a new lover, and ... inspired by Burke's marital strife", it "features his smooth, solid voice lamenting the death of a love affair", "Got to Get You Off My Mind" was started on 11 December 1964, just hours after Burke heard that his friend Sam Cooke
had been murdered, just after Burke ate with him in a Los Angeles restaurant, and on the same day his third wife, Delores, the mother then of 11 of his children, informed him by mail that she wanted a divorce. Burke explained the origin of "Got to Get You Off My Mind": “It was written in California the night of Sam Cooke’s death. I learned of Sam Cooke’s death after leaving him two hours prior to that. At the same time I learned about my wife wanting a divorce. A special delivery letter
was at the desk waiting for me in the hotel... so all of these things came about very quickly and very drastically.” Burke completed the song on the train back to Chicago for Cooke's funeral, On 2 April 1965, it became his only #1 hit, where it remained for three weeks.
In early 1965 Burke again toured with Henry Wynn's Supersonic Attractions, performing in the newly-opened 50,000-seat Atlanta Stadium
, headlining with Jackie Wilson
, and backed by B.B. King's band. In the Spring of 1965 Burke played 30 one-nighters
with Sam Cooke, Dee Clark, Wilson Pickett, Dionne Warwick, The Drifters, and Lotsa Poppa at venues such as the Uptown Theatre in Philadelphia
, the Apollo Theatre in New York City, and the Howard Theatre in Washington DC
. On April 2, Burke performed in a Rhythm and Blues concert at the Cow Palace
in San Francisco, that featured Jackie Ross
, The Supremes
, The Temptations
, Alvin Cash and the Crawlers
, Walter Jackson
, The Chi Lites, The Artistics, The Marvelettes
and Bobby Freeman
.
to write a followup, "Tonight's the Night" (Atlantic 2288). In 2005, Burke told The Independent on Sunday: "I'd sit with Don Covay
writing those songs and just cry. I'd say Don you have such a beautiful wife but mine is probably out somewhere slashing my tires because I was off with some chick. I was a young man, girls were coming from every angle. I couldn't love 'em all, but I certainly tried." "Tonight's the Night" was recorded on April 28, 1965 in New York, and was released backed with a cover of Bob Dylan
's "Maggie's Farm
", that he been recorded on April 8, 1965,
making Burke "one of the first black singers to record a Bob Dylan song". Burke's version was released just prior to Dylan's own single release, and outperformed it on the charts. "Tonight's the Night" was another big hit (#2 R&B; #28 Pop) for Burke in the summer of 1965.
Due to the popularity of Burke's two last major ‘pop’ hits, "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
" and "Got to Get You Off My Mind
", Burke toured England, including performing at London's Marquee Club
, and Europe in 1965 and again in 1966. While in England Burke appeared live on British television for the first time. Burke performed on BBC2's Gadzooks! It's All Happening hosted by Peter Cook
on June 14, 1965. On June 18, 1965, Burke performed on Ready Steady Go!
, with Van Morrison and Them
, and the Marvelettes. Burke appeared on Thank Your Lucky Stars
on June 26, 1965 with The Midnights, Dusty Springfield
, The Marvelettes
, The Searchers
, Mike Hudson, Eden Kane
, Them
, and The Pretty Things
, whose cover of Burke's "Cry to Me" would reach #28 on the UK charts in 1965. On 29 June 1965 Burke appeared on Discs a Go-Go with the Fortunes
and The Moody Blues
.
After his return from Britain, Burke re-entered the studio and recorded three more songs on June 25, 1965, including two minor hits, "Someone Is Watching" (Atlantic 2299) (R&B #24, Pop #89), and "Only Love Can Save Me Now" (Atlantic 2308) (#94 Pop). On November 5, 1965, Burke recorded three more songs, including "Baby Come On Home" b/w "Can't Stop Lovin' You Now" (Atlantic 2314) (R&B #31, Pop #96).
In 1965 Atlantic released Burke's fifth album, The Best of Solomon Burke, which peaked at #22 on the US charts.
, Wilson Pickett
, Otis Redding
, James Brown
, Marvin Gaye
, the Temptations
, and Stevie Wonder
) were "solidifying their respective stardoms". According to David Cantwell, in this period, "Burke quickly became a King without a kingdom".
From an early age Burke was "always an enterprising personality". In addition to his recording career, Burke ran funeral homes, owned two drugstores and a popcorn business in Philadelphia, and later had the first Mountain Dew
franchise in Philadelphia. Burke's entrepreneurial activities included cooking and selling barbecued chicken sandwiches backstage, and even demanding and operating the concessions at the Apollo Theatre
when he performed there in 1966, which was very profitable for him but so enraged the owner Frank Schiffman that he was banned from performing at the Apollo Theater for life. After playing at the reopening of The Cavern Club
in Liverpool in July 1966, Burke said: “The Cavern was a great place to play. The groove was there, the people were there, and it was wonderful. I remember them selling hot Pepsi
s. What a mistake – you gotta put ice in those things. Think of how many more they could have sold with ice in them". Burke sold fried chicken and sandwiches backstage at concerts, and well as sandwiches, soft drinks, and fried chickens at increasingly inflated prices to other performers who were refused service at restaurants on the Chitlin' circuit
in the "Jim Crow" South. According to Sam Moore of the soul duo Sam & Dave
, "He gave me one pork chop, one scoop of macaroni and cheese
, and one spoonful of gravy. I said, ‘Is that it?’ And he’d say, "That’s it, brother. I’m doing you a favor, so take it or leave it." Trombonist Fred Wesley
was one who was critical of Burke's business practices.
After failing to crack the top ten for a couple of years, by the beginning of 1968 Burke was no longer a major artist at Atlantic Records, who were producing hit records for other performers on their label including Wilson Pickett
and Aretha Franklin
, and were also reaping the rewards of their distribution deal with Stax
on artists like Otis Redding
and Eddie Floyd
. In March 1968 Atlantic sent Burke with Tom Dowd
and Arif Mardin
to Memphis to record what would be his final Atlantic album, I Wish I Knew, at Chips Moman
's American Sound Studio
." This album included several songs that failed to chart, including "Save It", and Allen Toussaint
's "Get Out Of My Life Woman", as well as a cover of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", his first recording that provided social commentary, which was released as a single (Atlantic 2507) just before Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in April 1968. Burke, who had met fellow preacher King several times, agreed to Atlantic Record assigning 5% royalty on this single to the family of King. Despite this, the single peaked at #32 on the R&B chart, and only reached #68 on the Pop chart.
While in Memphis in June 1968, Burke worked at the Sun Studios with Tamiko Jones (born 1945 in Kyle, West Virginia
, who was later both his manager and fiancée, on her album I'll Be Anything for You (A&M SP3011), arranging several songs, including his own composition, "Suddenly"; singing duets with Jones on her cover of The Temptations
' "Please Return Your Love To Me
" and Marvin Gaye
's "Try It Baby
"; and providing a vocal on "There's Got To Be A Better Way". Soon after Jones contracted polio, which forced her to suspend her career for 18 months.
, Don Covay
, Otis Redding
, and Joe Tex
to form a coalition called The Soul Clan. In a 1992 interview Burke indicated that The Soul Clan asked Atlantic to advance $1 million to them. "I remember one time we walked in and asked for a million dollars. It was Otis Redding, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett, Don Colay, Ben E. King and myself. We all went in together. We were all on the charts. We all asked for a million dollars for a real estate project, as an organization, as a soul clan. We intended to buy up a lot of property in the South, in the ghetto
areas and re-modeled them and built homes. And, we needed a million dollars to put this project together. We walked into Atlantic asking for that and wound up being put on the back shelf. ... All of us together were asking for a million. You and I know of course that all of us together at that time made millions and millions for Atlantic. Their idea was "to pool their talents and resources, and become a positive force within the black community. They envisioned things like buying ghetto
real estate and refurbishing it, providing jobs, building schools, and creating black-owned restaurant franchises that would knock the McDonald's
and KFC
s out of the box... the possibillities were endless." Burke explained the purpose of this alliance: "We wanted to interlock ourselves as a group, to express to the younger people how strong we should be and to help one another, work with one another and support one another". While "Burke saw the collaboration as a stepping stone toward building an autonomous African-American business empire, ... Covay, more successful as a songwriter than a performer, hoped to promote his own career alongside those of his friends." About this time Burke, Redding and James Brown had discussed forming an organization to provide health care benefits and pensions for older black musicians.
Recording had been delayed initially while Redding underwent throat surgery and recuperated. After Redding died in a plane crash in December 1967, Arthur Conley
replaced him, and after Pickett dropped out "supposedly uncomfortable with Burke's grandiose financial plans", he was replaced by Ben E. King
. For Burke, Soul Clan was "an expression of solidarity and mutual support by five pillars of soul music". From February 6, 1968, The Soul Clan recorded a single "Soul Meeting" b/w "That's How It Feels" (Atlantic 2530), and a 1969 album, The Soul Clan, featuring both sides of the single and several solo tracks from the individual Clan members. In Sweet Soul Music, Peter Guralnick said "the singers never did get to actually meet in the studio... but instead recorded their vocals separately to a backing track
which Covay had put together with Bobby Womack
at the Wildwood Studio in Hollywood."
According to Burke, the project fizzled when the power structure realized these guys, requested an advance of $1 million to invest in the Black communities in the South, and wanted to do more than make a record. Although the "Soul Meeting" single made it to #34 on Billboard's soul singles chart in July 1968, Burke alleges "the record was stopped and banned...we were going against the grain of what black entertainers are supposed to do. We were all just supposed to go out and buy red Cadillac
s. We weren't supposed to go out and start talking about spending millions of dollars on building and developing... We were supposed to talk about having parties and good times and eatin' barbecue ribs. You know, pork chops." Soon after Burke left Atlantic Records.
The Soul Clan members were poorly served by Atlantic, which failed to invest in publicity and actively sabotaged their recording schedule. As Rob Whatman explains: "Times were changing, and none of the final line-up of the Soul Clan were experimenting with, nor being encouraged to try, the new sounds of funk that might have boosted and elongated their hit careers. Atlantic Records was happy to let them fade away, while sucking up the back-catalogues and talents of regional hit factories such as Stax. No Marvin Gayes or Stevie Wonders would be nurtured in New York City." Rob Whatman, "The Soul Clan: Where you going, Joe?...", (May 13, 2006)
In July 1981 The Soul Clan officially reunited for a sold out concert at the Savoy Theater in Manhattan, New York City (with Pickett stepping in for Conley, who was in Europe at the time), but it was the last time they would work together" after a chaotic concert punctuated with a "busted sound system, dead mikes, band miscues, and 'unauthorized backstage personnel' scuttled plans for a [national] tour". The Soul Clan gathered in August 1982 at the funeral of Joe Tex.
where he released 5 singles in the next eighteen months. In 1969 Burke had a small hit with his second release for Bell, a reworking of Creedence Clearwater Revival
's "Proud Mary" b/w "What Am I Living For" (Bell 783), which was co-produced by singer Tamiko Jones (born 1945 in Kyle, West Virginia
), who was being rehabilitated after a bout of polio, and was at the time Burke's fiance and manager. Burke recalls: “We went to Muscle Shoals
and recorded Proud Mary, which they didn’t like at all. They thought it was stupid to record a song Proud Mary, which was already on the charts. I was explaining to them that it was a very big record, but it’s a very white record, a pop record. We will redo the record, open up the doors for it to get on the r&b charts and make the black stations to play the record... It was a Solomon Burke record made in Muscle Shoals. We proved that we can make a hit record without Jerry Wexler eating sandwiches with us. This record was a hit without anybody’s help. Proud Mary was only promoted by Tamiko Jones and myself.” According to Mark Denning, "While that may have seemed like a bald-faced bid for pop radio play, in Burke's hands the song became a bracing tale of life in the Deep South
as African-Americans searched for liberation aboard the ship that carried them as slaves and put them to undignified labor serving wealthy whites." John Fogerty
, the song's composer, was impressed by Burke's version of his song: "Two thousand miles away this man had crawled right up inside my head to learn what Proud Mary was all about. Sure it's great when someone sings your song, but when he understands it, you listen like it was the first time." "Reworked as a celebration of black consciousness, his potent mix of gospel and country – the kind that defined his earlier sides for Atlantic – and driven by a Southern funk-like strut, .... it returned Burke to the US R&B Top 20", with the single reaching #15 on the R&B charts and #45 on the pop charts. According to Burke in a 2002 interview: "I was in Vegas for sixteen weeks at the Sands Hotel
. I missed this record being a hit, because we weren’t there to promote the record, we had no backing. The greatest thing I ever did was tell Ike Turner
, “Hey man, you should get on this record…I think you and Tina
could tear this thing up.” On 24 May 1969 Burke sang his version of "Proud Mary" on American Bandstand
.
All but four of the tracks Burke recorded during an 18-month stay with Bell Records were packaged on the Proud Mary LP, which was released later in 1969. According to Cliff White, "Recording again in the south, Memphis
and Music Shoals
, [sic.] he did a superb job on several well known perennials, including "That Lucky Old Sun
", "What Am I Living For", and "Please Send Me Someone to Love
"". After this album and the two following singles, his own "Generation of Revelations", and the Mac Davis
song "In the Ghetto
", which had already cleaned up for Elvis Presley
, failed to chart, his contract was not renewed."
From the early 1970s Burke concentrated on his episcopal
duties, preaching from a crimson throne on the third Sunday of the month at the Prayer Assembly Church of God in Christ, his church at 226 North Market St., Inglewood, California
. Within three decades his church grew to have about 170 missions and 40,000 members). By 2000, Burke's Solomon’s Temple: The House of God for All People had over 300 ordained ministers whose job is to “feed the hungry, educate the uneducated and be God’s workers in the vineyard”, and 40,000 parishioners in close to 200 churches across the USA, Canada, and Jamaica. At the time of his death, there were about 180 churches that were established under the charter of his denomination, with Burke indicating: "We’re non-sectarian, non-denominational. Ours is an open door." In 2008 Burke acknowledged his Christian methodology differed from that of his maternal uncle, Pastor Harry R. Moore (born 1933; died 1982), the founder and pastor of Our First Temple of Faith, at Front and Susquehanna Streets, Philadelphia: "Mine was more: God, money and women, hey hey hey; truth, love, peace and get it on."
While pursuing other interests, Burke was also deeply involved in community work, assisting The Crippled Children's Foundation for blind and underprivileged children, while personally being responsible for more than 120 adopted children.
Burke owned funeral parlors in California, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, and two of his children have turned the mortuary business into a franchise. Additionally, Burke owned and operated a limousine
service Burke continued to operate companies that supplied theaters and stadiums with his own brand of fast food—Soul Dogs and Soul Corn until at least 2004.
's MGM
label, and formed MBM Productions, his own production company. According to Clif White, "The three years on MGM were by far the most erratic in Solomon’s career, from the sublime "Drown in My Own Tears" on the We’re Almost Home album, which is sung to just an acoustic guitar accompaniment, to the ridiculous "Icbyanti W.T." from the soundtrack of Cool Breeze – a full orchestra belting out the William Tell Overture
with Solomon interjecting W.C. Fields impersonations over the top." In 2008 Burke indicated: "MGM was a GREAT blessing for me. Because they took me in not just as a producer
, but also as a full-on partner for their Rhythm & Blues department. ... [I] was able to work with their artists like The Osmonds
and The Sylvers
. Plus our first MOVIE cheques came from MGM, as they opened up the doors for us. ... You know, with them we were able to perform for The President of The United States
, go on tour – and just do a lotta things we’d never done BEFORE."
Burke's record debut for MGM, "Lookin' Out My Back Door
", another Creedence Clearwater Revival
song, had disappointing sales.
, Sly Stone
, a couple of gospel numbers and some new material by his family. Despite having "unlimited space to record", the album did not chart, although the title track (MGM 14221), with its Barry White
overtones, made it to #26 in the R&B chart.
In 1971 Burke toured with a 31-piece soul band on his "Peace Revival" tour to promote his King Heavy album.
In 1972 Burke had a #13 R&B hit for MGM with "Love Street and Fool's Road" (MGM 14353).
, who provided orchestration
, in 1972 Burke wrote film soundtracks for blaxploitation
films Hammer
, and Cool Breeze, described as "a mostly black remake of The Asphalt Jungle
. Burke also scored the American versions of some Japanese and Chinese movies, and produced an unreleased variety show, Soul Search, which was centred around the United States Bicentennial
. On Monday, June 5, 1972, Burke and his chorus sang and danced on The Monty Hall Smokin'-Stokin' Fire Brigade special which aired on ABC Television.
On January 20, 1973 Burke was among those who performed at the inauguration ball of US President Richard M. Nixon at the Kennedy Center. In 1973 Burke was sued for $50,000 by Mrs. Irene Cole, who claimed she had been hit on the head by an album thrown into the audience by Burke on 1 April.
Burke sang the theme song to Love Thy Neighbor
, a short-lived comedy series about a Black couple who move in next to a bigoted white household in a white suburb in Los Angeles, that ran for a few months in June 1973 as ABC
's answer to All In The Family
.
's Wee Pals
comic strip
that was part of ABC Television
's Saturday morning lineup during the 1972–73 season, on MGM's Lion subsidiary. On April 9, 1973 Sons and Daughters of Solomon recorded four other songs in MGM's Los Angeles studio, but these were unreleased. According to Burke: "When you look back at history, and you look back at the publicity and the way we had it going, the Sons & Daughters of Solomon were going to be right there with the Jackson Five. We started the publicity, we started moving in the same direction with them, and then the devil came in and just turned that right around." As far as Kid Power, "It wasn't supposed to be a cartoon, it was originally supposed to be live. We had some problems – my children were kidnapped during that time and it just changed my whole way of thinking, from being in show business and everything else. I regret to this day, sometimes, that my children didn't get to be as famous and as popular...but God always knows best. He knows what He's doing, and sometimes we project what we can't see, but only God knows what's going to happen, and He knows the best. For all of us."
, in 1974 Burke signed with ABC Dunhill Records, where his main project was the soul concept album
I Have a Dream (Dunhill DSX 50161), a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr, where "the songs were built on key phrases from his speeches – "Now Is the Time", "Mountain Top", or from the aims of his crusade "Social Change"'. Despite the quality of individual songs, "lush orchestration and a Ray Conniff
type choir, presumably aimed at Dr. King’s predominantly middle class
following, finally destroyed a lot of the record’s potential". However, the single "Midnight and You" (ABC 4388), a "moody love song", which was written and arranged by Gene Page
, and inspired by Barry White
, attracted contemporary audiences, and helped Burke recover "from several years of ignominy, scraping the bottom of the R&B charts", ... which gave him his biggest hit for half a decade", reaching #14 in the R&B charts.
. Burke recorded two albums for Chess: Music to Make Love By (1975) and Back to My Roots (1976), and had a #19 R&B hit (#96 Pop) in 1975 with the "You And Your Baby Blues" (Chess 2159).
However, his follow-up single "Let Me Wrap My Arms Around You" (Chess 2172) only reached #72 on the R&B chart.
, though Amherst Records. On 23 September 1973 Burke charted with his 31st and last 45
when "Please Don't Say Goodbye to Me" b/w "See That Girl" (Amherst 736) charted at #91 on the R&B chart.
in 1979 (reissued as Let Your Love Flow in 1993 by Shanachie Records). One side of the album was produced by Michael Stokes, with the other produced by Swamp Dogg
. This album, which "contains the immortal "Sidewalk, Fences and Walls", has been issued and reissued dozens of times without Burke's knowledge or approval (most recently by the folk label Shanachie
). He doesn't even own a copy of the album--"I don't even know what Shanachie is"--from which he's never seen dime one. As an extra slap in the face, Burke's name is misspelled on the cover of Let Your Love Flow as 'Soloman.'"
"When the acclaimed disco-inflected Sidewalks, Fences and Walls (1979) is mentioned, Burke becomes stern. 'That was done under false pretences,' he says, lowering his tone. 'The producer (not Wexler) was a con man and we don't perform it. Music is about love, joy and mending broken hearts, and not about tearing people apart.'"
suffered as its array of vital talent fell for the lure of the devil's loot and moved from the pulpit to the snake pit
of pop", by the end of the 1970s gospel music had resurrected in its popularity. Burke was a notable example of this trend when in 1979 he returned to his gospel music roots by signing with gospel label Savoy Records
. Like the other "backsliders" and all the artists who preferred a secular acclaim to the gospel obscurity", like Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, Dinah Washington
, Napoleon "Nappy" Brown
, Ike and Tina Turner, Brook Benton
, Jimmy Witherspoon
, and Louis Armstrong
, Burke recorded an album of gospel songs, "not to be 'saved' or under any pressure but for their own pleasure and as a tribute to their roots, because, as kids, all of them, like all black children, had sung in church". However, after his years of "flamboyant soul stardom the more conservative elements within the African American church
were reluctant to entirely embrace the singer back to the fold". Over the next five years Solomon recorded a string of straight gospel albums, beginning with Lord, I Need A Miracle Right Now (1979), his first ever gospel album.
Later in 1979 "Burke got a surprise step up to his dwindling showbiz presence when he took some of his children to see The Blues Brothers
movie starring John Belushi
and Dan Aykroyd
. Viewing old friends from the '60s soul circuit up there on the screen, Solomon felt demoralised. Then he heard "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
" burst from the cinema speakers. Solomon said he was stunned to see his hit attributed to Wilson Pickett
. Burke called Atlantic the next day and threatened to get an injunction
to shut down the movie. "They sent me an advance
for $20,000 within 24 hours. ... Jerry Wexler got on the phone and said, 'I thought you were dead! This is wonderful!'" Despite this payment, in 1997 Burke reflected on his career: "It has not been easy. I've had my ups and downs. It's been some rough times. I sit back and I watch my music being stolen from me, my royalties I'll never receive. I've had to eat that, bite the dust and bite the bullet. Watch my songs be played in movies and never receive the checks and never get the credit. But God gives you the credit."
After renewed interest because of the success of the Blues Brothers and its soundtrack, Savoy released three more Burke gospel albums: Into My Life You Came (1982); Take Me, Shake Me (1983); and This Is His Song (1984). In January 1984 Burked was nominated for the Best Male Soul Gospel Vocal Grammy Award for his recording of Thomas A. Dorsey
's "Precious Lord, Take My Hand'.
In 2000 Burke claimed: "We never received any royalties from any of those records that were ever done by Savoy. I'm not the only artist. There are many artists, who here in America have been raped and robbed by these record and publishing companies."
released Soul Alive!, a recording of Burke's 1981 live performances at the Phoenix 1 Club in Washington D.C., that was produced by King Solomon Haile Selassie Burke, Burke's youngest son, who "was just fourteen years old when he put the Souls Alive album out for me. ... It's still one of the big sellers for us. It was something that we had in the garage, a tape. When he became twelve, I said "listen, it's your publishing company now. You gotta deal with this business. It's your thing. All these tapes are yours." He sat there. I was playing some of the stuff. He said "Dad, what do you want to do with this tape?" I said "It's just an old tape of my show." He went into the studio, played around with it, put it on a sixteen track, pumped it up, we made a deal with Rounder with the tape. It became one of the biggest 'live' tapes I ever had. So that started him in the producing business and recording business." According to a 2002 interview: "According to Burke, he played the unissued tape for noted author/historian Peter Guralnick
in a Boston restaurant. Peter's reaction: "My God, man!" Burke picks up the story: "He called these guys (from Rounder Records) and they came over (to the restaurant). We played the tape in the Chinese restaurant! Made the deal in the Chinese restaurant! I walked out of the Chinese restaurant with a fat check, a record deal, and a box of shrimp egg foo yung
!"
".
In 1987 Solomon's Atlantic classic "Cry to Me" was used in the Dirty Dancing hit movie.
In 1987 Burke appeared in his first film, The Big Easy, as Daddy Mention, "a sleazy drug kingpin".
By December 1988 Burke was among those who belatedly received some unpaid royalties from Atlantic Records due to five years of legal action of Ruth Brown
.
In 1989 "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" was released as a single by the Blues Brothers in the UK, backed by "Think" and it peaked at #12 in April 1990.
In a January 1992 interview Burke revealed: "We're very big in Europe. I do maybe two months of concerts in Europe every year. Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland. So, the only thing I was doing in the States was mainly the college dates and big concerts and festivals. Basically devoting my time to my family and the mortuary business and the church. That keeps me pretty busy."
, who released the album Live At the House of Blues (Black Top), which won the Best Soul Album at the W.C. Handy Awards in May 1995.
On February 25, 1993 Burke was honored with a Pioneer Award and $15,000 from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation
in a ceremony that also honored his soul rival James Brown
, Wilson Pickett
, Hadda Brooks
, Dave Clark, Floyd Dixon
, Lowell Fulson
, Erskine Hawkins
, Carla Thomas
, Jimmy Witherspoon
, Little Anthony and the Imperials, and Martha and the Vandellas
.
On April 28, 1994 Burke was inducted into the Philadelphia Music Alliance Hall of Fame and had a bronze plaque placed on the Walk of Fame on the sidewalk at the corner of Broad and Pine Streets. In 1995 Burke was nominated for Male Soul-Blues Artist of the Year at the W.C. Handy Awards in Memphis.
Burke was featured in The Atlantic Records Story, a documentary that debuted on American television on May 12, 1994, and in The History of Rock 'N' Roll, Vol. 5: "The Sound of Soul", which was screened in 1995, and released by Time-Life Video
on June 29, 2004 on DVD.
Burke was mentioned throughout the 1995 Nick Hornby
novel High Fidelity
.
By November 1995 Burke admitted that he was "maybe 400 pounds".
In 1996 Burke was the centerpiece of Sweet Inspiration, an unreleased documentary on soul music produced and directed by George Nierenberg.
In June 1996 Burke performed at the Avery Fisher Hall
, on the same bill as Wilson Pickett, with whom he sang their 1961 hit, "If You Need Me" as the finale. According to Neil Strauss, "Though he weighs in at over 350 pounds, Mr. Burke carried his bulk as majestically as he used his voice. He appeared onstage, garbed in a purple, fur-fringed robe and accompanied by a black-suited valet, and promptly sat down in a gold-colored throne. From there, he reigned".
, the President and CEO of EMI
, to Point Blank Records
, a subsidiary of Virgin Records
, where he released an album The Definition of Soul, that was produced by one of his sons, King Solomon Haile Selassie Burke. One of Burke’s tracks on Definition of Soul, "Your Turn to Cry", was cowritten with Jerry Wexler
. In an interview in Billboard, Burke explained: "My relationship with Jerry Wexler is like a two-way street. There’s one side where I’m angry for a lot of things that didn’t go down and one side where I’m very grateful that he was there, because he did develop Solomon Burke to a certain point and then he stopped. ... But you can’t keep anger inside because then good things don’t happen". Also on this album Burke duets on "Everybody Has a Game" with Little Richard
.
In 1998 Burke filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the result of some "bad business deals."
s: GTR Records (an abbreviation of Gospel Truth Recordings) for gospel music projects, which was owned by his children, and was also "the mother label for The One, which is our secular label".
", "White Christmas
", "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer", "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve", "The Christmas Song
(Chestnuts Roasting)", and "Joy to the World
", on which his daughter Elizabeth accompanied him. The rest of the album contained original songs created by him or members of his family, including "Season's Greetings", "You're All I Want And Need For Christmas", "It's Christmas All Over The World", "Christmas Eve's Blues", "Something Good This Christmas", and "The Bethlehem Story", a rewrite of Burke's own version of The Little Town of Bethlehem story, or The Night Before Christmas.” The final track on the album is "The Christmas Prayer", a 'thank you' sermon from Burke, which had been written by Burke in 1980, and released by Savoy Records
in 1982 as the flip side to his cover of "Silent Night
". Burke indicated: ”The Christmas Prayer was stolen by Savoy, and they were actually bootlegging it. From a lot of artists like myself, their records and music has been stolen and taken from these different record companies. Then we charged back for it. They have no rights to The Christmas Prayer. I'm not the person, who's gonna argue over a prayer, because the Lord gave me that prayer for the people, myself and my family. That Christmas Prayer was actually put out by myself and a gentleman out of New Jersey on a label of our own called The Big One. It was done in '80. They took the song and reissued it feeling that they have the right."
. The album was produced by his three youngest daughters: Victoria, Elizabeth and Candy Burke, and among the writers was his wife, Sunday Burke, and Osirius, one of his grandsons.
at the Vatican
in front of a live audience estimated at 500,000 people. Burke was invited back to the Vatican
by Pope John Paul II
and also by Pope Benedict XVI
in December 2005 for the Christmas celebration. Burke indicated in 2002: "From that moment, the seven blessings that the Pope gave me, miracles have been happening in my life. I was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
on 19 March 2001 in New York City by Mary J. Blige
, after eight previous nominations since 1986. In a 2004 interview Burke, while acknowledging his gratitude, responded: "I'm not really a rock 'n' roller. I'd love to be, but what an honor to be a part of that. It's just part of my life, you know. And gosh, when you think about rock 'n' roll, you think about Bill Haley and the Comets, or Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts
, and you think about all them great guys and Chuck Berry
and Little Richard
, that was rock 'n' roll, man. Fats Domino
--we were doin' it back in those days."
In 2002 Burke appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
and sang "Good Rocking Tonight
".
In 2002 Burke appeared as Bishop Bonds in the thriller film "Time of Fear".
In late June 2002 Burke was awarded an LA Music Award as Best Contemporary Blues/ R&B artist.
On Tuesday, July 16, 2002, Burke performed on the Late Show with David Letterman
. On Friday, July 19, 2002 the city of Philadelphia celebrated the first official Solomon Burke Day.
on Fat Possum Records
and produced by Joe Henry
, where he sang songs written specifically for the album
by various leading recording artists
, including Bob Dylan
, Brian Wilson
, Van Morrison
, Elvis Costello
and Tom Waits
. In February 2005 Andy Kaulkin, president of ANTI-
, revealed that he had hoped the one-album deal would lead to new interest in Burke and help him find another label that could afford the kind of big-budget record that was beyond Anti-'s limited resources. In a 2004 interview Burke reveals Don't Give Up has an underlying gospel message. "I really send the message out to everybody because not only don't give up on me, but it's a message saying don't give up on yourself. A lot of people are going through a lot of things right now in life. People are suffering from AIDS
, cancers, all kinds of heart trouble, overweight, all kinds of things. Saying, don't give up. Hold on. And whatever you do, don't give up on me." Don't Give Up on Me, which was ranked the #12 album in The 2002 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll, won Burke his only Grammy, the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 45th Grammy Awards on February 22, 2003. After receiving the award, Burke said: "It took me 40 years to get up these steps", before exclaiming: "We got a Grammy, baby!"
On 27 September 2002 Burke performed on Norwegian talk show
Først & sist
. and in an episode of Swedish game show
Bingolotto
, which screened on December 23, 2002. Burke performed "Cry to Me" on December 31, 2002 on Later with Jools Holland
, which was released on November 18, 2003 on Jools Holland Later ... Legends.
Burke appeared on Junkie XL
's album, Radio JXL: A Broadcast From the Computer Hell Cabin
, performing "Catch Up To My Step", which reached #63 on the UK charts on 7 January 2003. Burke was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
on Monday January 20, 2003.
Burke sang "Turn on Your Love Light" and "Down in the Valley" in the "Salute to the Blues" concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall
on February 7, 2003, celebrating "the centennial of 'Father of the Blues' W.C. Handy’s first, fortuitous encounter with 'the weirdest music I had ever heard', a Tutwiler, Mississippi
, black man’s sliding a knifeblade across guitar strings to sing about 'where the Southern cross the Dog'." Also included was interviews with various musicians, including Burke who talked about his time on "the neck bone circuit," which paid even less than the famously low-rent chitlin circuit
. This concert was featured in the 2004 music documentary Lightning in a Bottle, which was directed by Antoine Fuqua
, and had Martin Scorsese
as executive producer
.
On Friday, February 21, 2003 Burke performed on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Burke appeared in the concert held on April 30, 2003 to commemorate the opening of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, Tennessee
, singing "Try a Little Tenderness
" as a tribute to Otis Redding
, Stax's biggest star, and "Mustang Sally
" with its composer, Mack Rice
. The concert was first screened on US television channel PBS
as Soul Comes Home on August 9, 2003. It was released on DVD as Soul Comes Home: A Celebration of Stax Records and Memphis Soul Music by Shout! Factory
on February 3, 2004.
On November 8, 2003 Burke performed at Avo Session Basel
in Switzerland, where he sang "Georgia on My Mind
", "Stand by Me
", "A Change is Gonna Come
", and "Proud Mary', which was released on DVD as Solomon Burke: The King Live at Avo Session Basel.
In December 2003 Burke sang "I Pray on Christmas" on the Go Tell It on the Mountain Christmas album (Real World) of the Blind Boys of Alabama, which won for them a Grammy for Best Traditional Gospel Album. In 2003 Burke performed live on Britain's Top of the Pops
.
After the votes of more than 30,000 international blues fans and industry professionals, on May 22, 2003 Burke won four Living Blues Awards in a ceremony at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis, Tennessee
: Critics' Award for Most Outstanding Musician (Vocals), Readers' Award for Best Live Performer, Readers' Award for Most Outstanding Blues Singer, and Album of the Year for Don't Give Up on Me. The ceremony was televised on May 23, 2003. Burke won Readers' Awards for Most Outstanding Blues Singer again in 2006 and 2008.
In the absence of Songwriters Hall of Fame
honoree Little Richard
, Burke performed his hits "Lucille
" and "Tutti Frutti" with Paul Schaeffer on piano at the National Academy of Popular Music
's 34th annual induction ceremony on June 12, 2003. Burke appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien on Friday, June 20, 2003.
In 2003 Burke recorded a duet
with Italian
soul singer Zucchero
, who performed Zucchero's hit "Diavolo in me" (Devil in Me), on the duets album Zu & Co.
, which was released in May 2004. Burke was also a guest at a London show in May 2004 in which Zucchero presented the album. This performance is included on Zucchero's DVD
Zu & Co. – Live at the Royal Albert Hall, which was released on November 23, 2004 in Canada, and on April 5, 2005.
Burke was featured in "God Only Knows: Vocal Harmony", the third episode of The Voice, which screened on Sunday, 25 January 2004 on Britain's Channel 4
.
On March 16, 2004 Burke performed "I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free" and "Home in Your Heart" with The Derek Trucks Band
, at the 4th Annual Jammy Awards at Madison Square Garden
, which was screened on US television on April 25, 2004. During his performance, Burke ad libbed an election-year mini-sermon: "Come November, we need to make the change".
In April 2004 Burke toured Australia for the first time, giving concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, and for two days at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival
at Byron Bay, New South Wales
.
In 2004 Burke was mentioned in Peter Plate's novel Fogtown.
, who was interested in pairing Burke with musician-producer Don Was
, signed Burke. According to Foos, "He's really the last of the great soul men. Even though we totally appreciated his last album, I didn't think it was a real soul album. It was more of a singer-songwriter album, a concept album
with Solomon Burke as the star, not Solomon Burke doing a '60s-style soul album. That's what we wanted."
On Monday, February 28, 2005, Burke sang two songs on the Late Show with David Letterman, including "I Need Your Love in My Life" from his upcoming Make Do With What You Got album.
, Van Morrison
, Robbie Robertson
, Coco Montoya
, Dr. John
, and from the Rolling Stones, who had covered three of Burke's songs early in their career. The album, which was released on March 1, 2005, concludes with Hank Williams' country spiritual "Wealth Won't Save Your Soul".
On Tuesday, March 8, 2005, Burke appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien.
On 4 April 2005 Burke was inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk in Hollywood with Ike Turner
, Robert Cray
, Etta James
, and Muddy Waters
, who was inducted posthumously. On November 25, 2005, Burke appeared as a special guest with Jools Holland
on his autumn tour of the United Kingdom
, including two sell-out shows at London
's Royal Albert Hall
.
Burke was featured in the six-episode documentary series Soul Deep: The Story of Black Popular Music that debuted on BBC Television on May 7, 2005.
On November 5, 2005, Burke performed "A Change is Gonna Come
" with Aretha Franklin
to close the 10th Annual American Masters Tribute Concert, and also on November 6 in the Gospel Tribute to Sam Cook at the State Theater in Cleveland, Ohio
. According to Elvis Costello
, who also performed at the Masters Tribute Concert, described Burke's performance as "flawless": "Aretha was really wailing and Solomon had tears rolling down his cheeks, declaiming, "Bring the boys home" like a preacher, reworking the song as a plea for sanity during the never-ending war".
On March 13, 2006, Burke opened the 21st annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
induction ceremony at the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria, with "a raucous tribute to Wilson Pickett
(class of 1991)", who had died in January 2006.
by Buddy Miller
. It included guest vocals from Emmylou Harris
, Dolly Parton
, Patty Griffin
, Gillian Welch
and Patty Loveless
. The sessions produced the first recording of Griffin's "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)
", which she brought to Burke because of his association with King and that era. The album peaked at #55 on the Billboard
Top Country Albums chart, but spent seven weeks at #1 the Americana Music Association
's alternative radio chart.
Burke was joined by a host of top country stars and backed by Buddy Miller
and his band at the Belcourt Theatre
in Nashville
, Tennessee
on September 25, 2006 for a one-off concert to celebrate the release of Nashville. The concert was filmed by HDNet
, and was screened on US television in 2007 as Solomon Burke & Friends: Live in Nashville. It was released on DVD in Europe
on September 17, 2007.
On September 28, 2006, Burke was among the several rock, soul, and country legends who sang along with Jerry Lee Lewis
at the live concert "Last Man Standing" at the Sony Music Studio in New York
. The two duets were "Who Will the Next Fool Be" and "Today I Started Lovin' You Again". It was broadcast as part of Great Performances
on Tuesady, March 6, 2007.
On Friday, February 9, 2007, Burke performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and on February 26, 2007 Late Night with Conan O'Brien
. The Tonight Show performance was accompanied by The Tonight Show Band members and bandleader Kevin Eubanks
on lead guitar. On Late Night he performed with Buddy Miller
"That's How I Got To Memphis", from Burke's album Nashville.
As one of the early artists at Atlantic Records
, on April 17, 2007 Burke honored Ahmet Ertegün
, the co-founder of Atlantic Records and also of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who had died on December 14, 2006. Burke co-hosted this celebration of Ertegun's life's work at the Rose Theater at the Lincoln Center in New York, as well as speaking at the tribute to Ertegun at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood on July 31, 2007. Burke participated in the American Master's documentary Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built, and in December 2007, Burke performed at the private after-party after the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert
at The O2
in Greenwich
, London, along with Ben E. King
, Percy Sledge
and Sam Moore.
In 2007 Paul Spencer produced and directed Solomon Burke: Everybody Needs Somebody, a documentary for BBC Television
. The DVD was released in the UK on 23 April 2007, and in the USA on March 4, 2008.
Burke spoke at the memorial service of Ike Turner
in December 2007.
to record with the producer/drummer
Steve Jordan
. The album titled Like a Fire has songs written specifically for Burke by Ben Harper
, Eric Clapton
, Jesse Harris
, Keb' Mo'
, Meegan Voss and Steve Jordan and was released on June 10, 2008. This album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album of 2008.
By February 2008 Burke's weight was estimated at "well over 400 pounds", by Aaron Greenwald, director of Duke Performances.
Burke joined Widespread Panic
on stage for "None of Us Are Free" at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles on June 20, 2008. He performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival
on June 15, 2008, and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival
on June 22, 2008, and for the first time in his career at England's Glastonbury Festival
on June 29, 2008. This was part of his European 2008 Summer Tour, and included concerts in Portugal, England, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Austria, France, Switzerland, Norway, Slovakia and Sweden.
On August 7, 2008 Burke performed for the third and last time on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
In November 2008 Rolling Stone magazine ranked Burke as #89 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".
equivalent of Hamlet
or Lear
, not so much singing as much as exhorting, declaiming, engaging in a fevered call-and-response (with himself? No other singer is credited) as the performance builds to its orgasmic peak: "Feels so good, I don’t wanna wake up! I don’t wanna wake up! I don’t wanna wake up." You can hear the cadences
of an artist who has combined (like the Rev. Al Green
) a vocation as a preacher with his career as a soul singer".
In 2009 Burke also put on his record label hat when his label, The One Entertainment Systems, which is headed by his daughter Victoria, who also was the label's A&R
person, signed Clarence Fountain and Sam Butler
and their most recent project, Stepping Up And Stepping Out. It was Clarence Fountain's first project after having left the Blind Boys of Alabama. Another daughter, Candy, ran the label to which Burke was signed.
Burke performed at the Mawazine Festival Rhythms of the World
in Rabat, Morocco in late May 2009.
On July 24, 2009, Burke played at the Open-air stage in Charlton Park for the WOMAD Music Festival, held in Wiltshire, England.
Burke celebrated his 70th birthday in March 2010 and toured Japan for the first time in May 2010, before his "Year of the Dream Love Tour" across Europe in July and August 2010, including dates in Spain, Italy, England, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Switzerland.
On September 1, 2010 Burke gave one of his final live radio interviews with Cameron Cooper,host of the "Happy Hour". One of Burke's last performance was at the 40th annual Bumbershoot: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival, on Saturday, September 4, 2010.
Just weeks before his death, in late September 2010 Burke performed a two-hour set at the Jazz Club in London, England, described as "the show of the year" by Andy Gill and "a masterclass in magnetic charisma, gestural nuance and vocal expression".
In October 2010, his final album Hold on Tight was released, recorded in the ICP-studios in Brussels
. It contains 13 songs written by Dutch pop/soul band De Dijk
translated into English for performance by Burke.
Burke was married to Doris P. Williams for two months, however it was annulled by August 1958, which resulted in the birth one child, Valerie Doris Gresham (born 16 September 1957).
Burke's second wife was Delores Clark Burke Perkins (born 1937), with whom he had 7 children, including Eleanor Alma (Born December 27, 1958), Melanie (Born March 1960), Solomon Vincent, Jr. (born October 15, 1961), Carolyn (Born September 1962), John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK), Gemini (born September 1, 1964), and Lillian (Born August 1966). After they were divorced, Delores and her children moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina
.
Burke's third wife was Bernadine Burke.
Burke's fourth wife was Frances Sunday (born 1951), whom he married about 1970, who was married to him (but separated) when he died, with whom he had three children: King Solomon Haile Selassie Burke (born 7 August 1972), Queen Sunday Victoria Burke (born 24 February 1974), and Queen Elizabeth Burke-Maynard (born 12 March 1975).
At the end of 2006 Burke was engaged to his manager, Jane Vickers, of American Royalty Management, who had been his personal assistant since at least 1977.
In a 2006 interview Burke admitted having his first child at age 14: "being a father at age 14 maybe been a little early, but I don’t regret one moment, one second, one day, or one hour. My only regrets are the loss of my twins and my first son". Burke's twin sons were James and David, who both died in infancy. By 1961, Burke had "three kids on the outside, and about four at home", including Melanie Burke (born 1960), Solomon Vincent Burke, Jr. (born 15 October 1961). In an open letter to his children, Burke wrote: "Your love and your strength, and the love of your mothers, have made me the strongest-minded father in the world. I may not be the best father. Maybe I haven’t done everything that I should do, could do, or would do…or desire to do, but by the grace of God, and your prayers, we will make it. Every day is a new way. None of us are perfect and God knows, I have made many mistakes." Burke admitted serial infidelity during his marriages: "I was young. Girls were coming from every angle. I couldn't love them all. But I tried." Burke stated: "I realized in later years that money didn’t solve problems. I realized too that maybe the reason I had problems with my marriages was because I didn’t spend enough time with my children, my family. I thought that sending money home and buying pretty cars and redoing houses, and ordering food by the hundreds of dollars a day, would keep my family together, keep my children happy. ... Not being there all the time, being on the road 250 days out of the year, was too much. I was gaining the world and losing my children. And my wife. My love life."
. In the mid-1960s two of Burke's younger brothers, Alex (born 1948 in Philadelphia) and Laddie (born 1949 in Philadelphia), joined with fellow Germantown High School
students, brothers Earl and Timmy Smith to form The Showstoppers, who had a couple of local hit singles in Philadelphia on Showtime Records in 1968, including a #11 hit on the UK Singles Chart
with "Ain't Nothin' But a Houseparty" b/w "How Easy Your Heart Forgets Me" (Heritage HE-800), which peaked at #87 on the Billboard chart in 1968, which was later a disco
thèque hit (#33) in 1971, just before the group disbanded after a series of flops.
Burke's daughter, Melanie "Honey" Burke McCall, a Neo Soul
singer who is an accomplished artist as well as a freelance background recording artist
with companies such as Daxwood Records, Casablanca
, A&M
and Rawkus Records
and a studio artist for groups such as Billy Preston
, Peacock (Anna Gayle group), and Leslie Uggams
, and toured with Chaka Khan
, and wrote and produced Family, & Friends, a 14-song original soundtrack for Ms, which was released in 2005, and opened for Jocelyn Brown
, Jaheim
, Norman Connors
, and Angela Bofill
, as well as for her father at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
in Philadelphia in 2006. Her son is Novel
, who released his first studio album "The Audiobiography" in October 2008, and wrote movie soundtracks for Tyler Perry
's Diary of a Mad Black Woman
, Step Up
, and 21. Her youngest son, Solomon, also has started recording.
Burke's granddaughter Candy Burke (born 1977), was a backing singer at many of Burke's performances including the July 2008 Juan-les-Pins
concert where she performed a rendition of "I Will Survive". She also appears in the 2003 North Sea Jazz Festival DVD with her father.
Rapper Raeneal T. Quann (known as Q-Don) (born about 1978), who was accidentally shot and killed by robbers on April 26, 2000, outside the Club Evolution in Philadelphia, was a grandson of Burke.
and weight have limited his mobility", and confined him to a wheelchair. In an interview in 2008, Burke claimed that "God put me in this wheelchair", and that God's message to him was: "'You are too fat!'" Burke denied having an eating disorder: ... I guess God let me develop into what I am now and allowed me to live. It's not an eating disorder. If I had an eating disorder, I wouldn't travel." In 2006 Burke acknowledged: "It's very rough. I love to eat and I love to cook – as you can see. But my hip has to be replaced and a knee has to be replaced and I've got to lose 150 pounds before they can do that. And that's a lot. But it's NOT! God knows I've enjoyed every kind of food there is, all around the world. It's not like I'm going to miss any of it. Because I've had it all!" Despite his efforts, at the time of his death, Burke's weight still exceeded 350 pounds.
On Sunday October 10, 2010, Burke died at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport while on a plane from Los Angeles that had just landed. He had been due to perform with De Dijk
in Amsterdam on October 12. The cause of death was not immediately clear; according to his family, Burke died of natural causes.
On Thursday 21 October a wake
and meditation
service was held at the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Griffin Mortuary at Westlake Village. Burke's funeral was at 10.00am on Friday 22 October 2010 at the City of Refuge in Gardena, California
and was open to the public, and was simulcast
on the internet and at a memorial service held at the Sharon Baptist Church in Philadelphia, that was led by Minister Lester Fields and Solomon's younger sister, Apostle Laurena Burke Corbin, the pastor of Our First Temple of Faith Mt. Deborah Pentecostal Church on Haverford Avenue in Philadelphia, and attended by Burke's extended East Coast
family.
Joe Henry
described the funeral, which was "2 and a half hours long, included many eulogies, some spontaneous gospel singing; some shouting, some wailing, a fainting, and a daughter who hopped on the balls of her feet and spoke in tongues as punctuation to her scripted remarks. The highlight for me was Rudy [Copeland]’s bluesy Hammond B-3 instrumental of Thomas Dorsey's
“Precious Lord (Lead Me On)
". He played it like Ray [Charles]would have, kicking it heavy on the bass foot pedals, and shouting his own encouragement: 'Tell the story, son!' The whole service climaxed with a rousing version of "When The Saints Go Marching In
", which included the choir, a 2nd-line-style brass band marching through the isles (sic), and everyone in the pews clapping and singing along".
Burke is buried at Lot 4037, Space 1, in the Murmuring Trees section of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park
in the Hollywood Hills
, at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, California.
Neil Portnow
, President/CEO of The Recording Academy, praised Burke soon after his death: "GRAMMY-winning soul singer Solomon Burke was revered as one of music’s greatest vocalists and a pioneer of the genre. A deeply spiritual man, his love and passion for his craft kept him touring and performing to sold-out audiences right up to his final days. Few artists have had careers as long, rich and influential as his, and he leaves a larger-than-life legacy as powerful and soulful as he was. The music industry has lost one of its most distinctive voices".
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, mortician, and an archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
of the United House of Prayer For All People
United House of Prayer For All People
The United House of Prayer for All People is a Christian denomination founded by Marcelino Manuel da Graca . Marcelino Manuel da Graça was born in Brava in the Cape Verde Islands...
. Burke was known as "King Solomon", the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", and as the "Bishop of Soul", and described as "the Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
of soul", and as "the most unfairly overlooked singer of soul
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...
's golden age". Burke was "the founding father of what was defined as 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...
in America in the 1960s", and "a major architect of 1960s soul, infusing post-World War II R&B with [his] 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....
roots". and "a key transitional figure bridging R&B and soul
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...
", Burke's "sound was a bold merger of orchestrated sophistication and countryish, down-home grit, and his best singles built a Gothic sense of drama and heartbreak. These tracks bridged the gap between the more mannered mainstream 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...
of the Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller songwriting team of the 1950s, as exemplified by the Coasters
The Coasters
The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group that had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with "Searchin'" and "Young Blood", their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller...
and Drifters
The Drifters
The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...
, and the gruffer Southern styles of the later '60s, as heard on the Stax Records
Stax Records
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...
sides of 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...
and Sam & Dave
Sam & Dave
Sam & Dave were an American soul and rhythm and blues duo who performed together from 1961 through 1981. The tenor voice was Samuel David Moore , and the baritone/tenor voice was Dave Prater .Sam & Dave are members of...
. At one time considered by Jerry Wexler
Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...
to be "the greatest male soul singer of all time", Burke was "a singer whose smooth, powerful articulation and mingling of sacred and profane themes helped define soul music in the early 1960s". Burke drew from his roots: gospel, soul
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...
, and blues, as well as developing his own style at a time when R&B
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...
, and rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
were both still in their infancy. Artistically, Burke was influenced by the music of the church, as well as by Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
. Described as both "Rabelaisian
François Rabelais
François Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
" and also as a "spiritual enigma", "Perhaps more than any other artist, the ample figure of Solomon Burke symbolized the ways that spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
and commerce, ecstasy and entertainment, sex and salvation, individualism and brotherhood, could blend in the world of 1960s soul music."
During the 55 years that he performed professionally, Burke released 38 studio albums on more than 17 record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s and had 35 songs that charted
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
, including 26 songs that made the Billboard
Billboard (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...
R&B charts, including "Got to Get You Off My Mind
Got to Get You Off My Mind
"Got to Get You Off My Mind" is a 1965 soul single written and performed by Solomon Burke. The single was produced by Jerry Wexler, and was the most successful of Burke's long career, becoming his highest-charting single on both the R&B and pop singles charts...
" that was #1 in the summer of the 1965, and an additional 9 songs that were only listed on the Billboard Hot 100
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...
chart, including 1964's seminal “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a song written by Bert Berns, Solomon Burke and Jerry Wexler, and originally recorded by Solomon Burke under the production of Bert Berns at Atlantic Records in 1964...
”. Burke had over 30 songs make the Cash Box R&B charts, with "Got to Get You Off My Mind
Got to Get You Off My Mind
"Got to Get You Off My Mind" is a 1965 soul single written and performed by Solomon Burke. The single was produced by Jerry Wexler, and was the most successful of Burke's long career, becoming his highest-charting single on both the R&B and pop singles charts...
" reaching #1, and 23 that charted on their pop chart hits, with seven making Cash Boxs Top 40. In 2001, Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
as a performer. His album Don't Give Up on Me
Don't Give Up On Me
Don't Give Up on Me is a studio album by R&B/Soul singer Solomon Burke, recorded and released in 2002 on Fat Possum Records. The album won the MOJO Award for Album of the Year, as well as the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album...
won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album was awarded from 1988 to 2011. From 2001 to 2003 the award recipients included the producers and engineers as well as the artists...
at the 45th Grammy Awards in 2003. By 2005 Burke was credited with selling 17 million albums. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
ranked Burke as #89 on its 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".
On February 13, 2011, in his first live appearance at the Grammy Awards, Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, who had been influenced by Burke, paid tribute to Burke in the Grammy Awards
53rd Grammy Awards
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...
"In Memoriam' segment by singing "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a song written by Bert Berns, Solomon Burke and Jerry Wexler, and originally recorded by Solomon Burke under the production of Bert Berns at Atlantic Records in 1964...
", backed by Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Saadiq has been a standard bearer for "old school" R&B since his early days as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! He also produced songs of such artists as TLC, Joss Stone, D'Angelo, Mary J...
and his band.
Early life and influences
James Solomon McDonald (later Solomon McDonald Vincent Burke) was born on the upper floor of the home of his maternal grandmother, Eleanor Alma "Mother" Moore (born about 1900 in Florence, South CarolinaFlorence, South Carolina
-Municipal government and politics:The City of Florence has a council-manager form of government. The mayor and city council are elected every four years, with no term limits...
; died 19 December 1954 in Philadelphia) in a row house at 3036 Mt Vernon Street, West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though there is no official definition of its boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Line Avenue to the northwest, Cobbs Creek to the southwest, and...
, Pennsylvania. on Thursday, March 21, 1940. Burke was the oldest child of Josephine Moore (born 1 April 1920 in Panama City, Florida
Panama City, Florida
-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
; died 27 August 1990 in Germantown, Pennsylvania
Germantown, Pennsylvania
Germantown is the name of six places in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state in the United States, including a neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:* Germantown, Adams County, Pennsylvania* Germantown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania...
) who had been a nurse, taught kindergarten for five years on the School District of Philadelphia
School District of Philadelphia
The School District of Philadelphia is a school district based in the School District of Philadelphia Education Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that includes all public schools in the city of Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is the eighth largest school district in the nation.The School...
, and been a concert singer, and an unknown father. At birth he was consecrated a bishop by his grandmother in the Solomon's Temple, a congregation of the United House of Prayer For All People
United House of Prayer For All People
The United House of Prayer for All People is a Christian denomination founded by Marcelino Manuel da Graca . Marcelino Manuel da Graça was born in Brava in the Cape Verde Islands...
, founded by her in her home about 1928 in the Black Bottom section of West Philadelphia, after she had a vision indicating: "A child shall lead you." He was the godson
Godson
Loongson is a family of general-purpose MIPS-compatible CPUs developed at the Institute of Computing Technology , Chinese Academy of Sciences in the People's Republic of China. The chief architect is Professor Hu Weiwu....
of Daddy Grace
Marcelino Manuel da Graca
Marcelino Manuel da Graça , better known as Charles Manuel "Sweet Daddy" Grace, was the founder and first bishop of the United House of Prayer For All People. He was born January 25, in Brava in the Cape Verde Islands, then a Portuguese possession off the west coast of Africa...
. In 2006 Burke describes his birth: "I was born upstairs while church was going on downstairs. And nobody heard me, so I guess I was in tune. The band was playing. People shouting and having a good time. I have the trombones and tubas and tambourines and guitars and pianos in my soul. It’s just a normal reaction to me, to hear that rhythm, to hear that beat."
Burke credits his grandmother as his primary spiritual and musical influence: "She was my mentor, a spiritual medium directly associated with Daddy Grace and Father Divine
Father Divine
Father Divine , also known as Reverend M. J. Divine, was an African American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death. His full self-given name was Reverend Major Jealous Divine, and he was also known as "the Messenger" early in his life...
. She used to have a sign in her home. It read 'Jesus Never Fails.' That's when and what I began to preach." In 2005 Burke recalled: "My grandmother was born a prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
ess and born a great seer
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
, and she was and still is my influence. Her words have never faded—they become stronger. Everything that she predicted in my lifetime has come true and is still coming true to this day." Burke revealed: "My grandmother told me of the things I would do in life. That I would travel the world and see things I had never seen before; that I would be able to perform for millions of people and not see them; that I would be able to go places that I had never been and may never go again; that I would have a large family." Burke also indicated: "She was my greatest encouragement. She would make me listen to the radio: classical, country, jazz, Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
. And she told me to copy them and learn to phrase and project a song. She was my teacher. I never had no music training. She gave me the promise of a new life, not just as a singer, but as a person alone in the world with nothing but Jesus. All the great singers came out of the church. Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
. 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...
. Brook Benton
Brook Benton
Brook Benton was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.He made a comeback in 1970...
. Your first duty is to give it to God." Burke recalled in 2005: “Ever since I was a kid, I was at home, ‘lookin’ at the radio. “My grandmother made sure we listened to two hours of music a week—the Top 40, Perry Como
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...
, Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
, who I just loved as a kid. He’d come on the radio singing, ‘I’m back in the saddle again,’ and my grandmother would always say, ‘Listen to the pronunciation, listen to the diction — you hear every word clearly." According to Burke, his mother introduced him to Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
and Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
as well as that era's king of smooth, Billy Eckstein. "She played all these records on our Admiral
Admiral (electrical appliances)
Admiral is an American appliance brand currently manufactured by Whirlpool Corporation. The brand is sold at The Home Depot.Ross Siragusa founded Continental Radio and Television Corp. as a maker of consumer electronics in Chicago during 1934. This later became Admiral Corp. Its annual sales were...
combination radio-record-player-TV. For that reason alone, I looked forward to doing chores – so that I could hear their music." Other musical influences included bluesmen Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
and 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...
, gospel queen Clara Ward
Clara Ward
Clara Ward was an American gospel artist who achieved great success, both artistic and commercial, in the 1940s and 1950s as leader of The Famous Ward Singers....
, and Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...
.
At the age of 7 Solomon preached "He is My Life", the first of many sermonettes, in Solomon's Temple, In his youth, "he was so charisma
Charisma
The term charisma has two senses: 1) compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others, 2) a divinely conferred power or talent. For some theological usages the term is rendered charism, with a meaning the same as sense 2...
tic in the pulpit that he was known as the Boy Wonder Preacher", and by all accounts, "young Burke was a frantic sermonizer, spellbinding in his delivery". Influenced by Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, "the first sign of a royal persona
Persona
A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον...
was evident in the cape that he wore only on Sundays, made from his "blankie" by his grandmother. From age 12 Burke became a pastor of the congregation, and also appeared for 15 minutes each week (later expanded to 30 minutes) on WDAS-AM (then 1400 AM) with Randy Dixon, the African-American host of "Ebony Hall of Fame". At age 12 Burke hosted a gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
show on WHAT-AM
WHAT (AM)
El Zol 1340 is a commercial radio station located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, broadcasting on 1340 AM. The station is owned by Aztec Capital Partners, Inc....
, an R&B and gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
radio station, mixing both song and sermon in broadcasts from Solomon's Temple. On weekends Burke traveled with a truck and tent, to Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, and the Carolinas
The Carolinas
The Carolinas is a term used in the United States to refer collectively to the states of North and South Carolina. Together, the two states + have a population of 13,942,126. "Carolina" would be the fifth most populous state behind California, Texas, New York, and Florida...
to carry on the spiritual crusade of his church.
From an early age Burke struggled with a "fondness for food" and with obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
, indicating in 2005: "I was 160 [pounds] when I was 9", and recalled that "at nine I passed for 16."
In 1949 Vincent Burke (born 1 December 1917 in Philadelphia; died March 1978 in Philadelphia), a 130 pound Hebrew-speaking black Jew, the son of an immigrant father from Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
, who worked as a chicken plucker at Jake's Chicken Market, a kosher butcher shop at 40th and Girard, as well as a carpenter, who was a guitar player, became his stepfather. After this Sol changed his name to Solomon McDonald Vincent Burke, but was often called "Sol" by family and friends. Burke later described his stepfather: "My father was very special to me. He was a very spiritual man. He was a black rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, who would go to upper Pennsylvania and purchase chicken, turkeys and ducks.” Solomon Burke had six younger siblings – a sister, Laurena Burke-Corbin (born 23 June 1946), and five brothers: Elec Edward "Alec" (born 16 February 1948), Vladimir H. "Laddie" (born 31 July 1949), Mario "Chuck" (born 13 September 1953), Daniel S. "Danny" (born 10 March 1955), and Jolester R. M. Burke (born 24 September 1958).
From an early age Burke worked to supplement his family's income. Burke recalled: "I used to deliver grocery orders in a little wagon I made out of fish boxes. When I was seven, I sold newspapers out of my own newsstand on the corner of 40th and Lancaster. I had the first 99-cent car wash, which was located at 40th and Wallace outside Al's Barber Shop. We had it there because he was the only one who would let us use his water. We could wash your car in 20 minutes. I had four or five guys, gave 'em each a nickel for each car. Another early job was as briefly as a hot dog
Hot dog
A hot dog is a sausage served in a sliced bun. It is very often garnished with mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, relish and/or sauerkraut.-History:...
seller at Eddie's Meat Market, where his friend Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker is an American singer-songwriter. He is widely known for popularizing the twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard's R&B hit "The Twist"...
also worked.
Education
As a child Burke attended the Morton McMichael Elementary School at 3543 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia. From 1952 Burke attended the Mayer Sulzberger Junior High School at 701–741 North 48th Street in the Mill Creek neighborhood of West Philadelphia, where he was a member of a choir organized by Miss Joy Goings, that included McCoy TynerMcCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.-Early life:...
; three future members of The Castelles
The Castelles
The Castelles were admired for years as the originators and the epitome of the “Philadelphia Sound”, which features a high tenor lead, a bass, a seemingly endless supply of tenors in strong harmony, and minimal instrumentation. Listen for it not only in the Castelles, but in those other two...
: George Grant, Billy Taylor and Octavius Anthony; Lee Andrews
Lee Andrews & the Hearts
Lee Andrews & the Hearts was a doo-wop quintet from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania formed in 1953. They recorded on the Gotham, Rainbow, Mainline, Chess, United Artists, Grand and Gowen labels. Managed by Kae Williams, in 1957 and 1958 they had their three biggest hits, "Teardrops", "Long Lonely...
; William "Sonny" Gordon, later of the Angels and The Turbans
The Turbans
The Turbans were an African American doo-wop group, who formed in Philadelphia in 1953. The original members were: Al Banks , Matthew Platt , Charlie Williams , and Andrew "Chet" Jones...
, who lived a couple of houses from Burke; George Tindley of the Dreams; and George Pounds, Karl English, and Melvin Story of the (Cherokees. A film, Rock From the Bottom, featuring the 1954 graduation class of Sulzberger Middle School, which included Burke, should be finished by the end of 2011.
Burke attended a succession of high schools: William Shoemaker Middle School, West Philadelphia High School
West Philadelphia High School
West Philadelphia High School is a secondary school located in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The school was completed on November 1, 1912. and occupies an entire city block between 47th and 48th streets, between Walnut Street and Locust Street...
, Overbrook High School
Overbrook High School (Philadelphia)
Overbrook High School is an inner-city, public, four-year secondary school in the Overbrook section of West Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.-School:...
, and the Roman Catholic High School for Boys
Roman Catholic High School for Boys
The Roman Catholic High School of Philadelphia opened in 1890 as an all-male high school located at the intersection of Broad and Vine Streets in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.-History:...
, where he played American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, and finally John Bartram High School
John Bartram High School
John Bartram High School is a public secondary school located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.The school, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the School District of Philadelphia.-History:...
in Philadelphia, where he graduated.
At the age of 14 Burke fathered his first child.
Musical preparation
Burke formed and fronted a quartetQuartet
In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...
called the Gospel Cavaliers, who were inspired by the music of the R.H. Harris
R.H. Harris
Rebert H. Harris was a gospel singer. In his work with the Soul Stirrers, he was instrumental in transforming the ensemble jubilee quartet style of the 30s into the lead-focused hard gospel style of the 40s and 50s. He was replaced by Sam Cooke....
-led Soul Stirrers, and by the Mighty Clouds of Joy
Mighty Clouds of Joy
The Mighty Clouds of Joy is an American gospel quartet.-Career:The Mighty Clouds of Joy were formed in 1960 and started out in a tradition-based style. Eventually they added soul, R&B, and rock flourishes into their musical mix without diluting the essential religious essence of their material...
and the Dixie Hummingbirds. Burke recalled: "I did "Ship of Zion
The Old Ship of Zion
"The Old Ship of Zion" is a Christian Hymn written by M. J. Cartwright sometime around 1889 , played to a tune written by Daniel B. Towner.-Sources:* http://www.pdmusic.org/biographies/Cartwright%20M%20J%20Cartwright.pdf...
" and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand". On Thanksgiving Day 1954 his grandmother gave him his first guitar, a Stella
Stella (guitar)
Stella was a brand of guitars. The Stella brand was owned by the Oscar Schmidt Company and was founded around 1899. Stella produced low-mid level stringed instruments. Stella guitars were played by several notable artists including Leadbelly and Charlie Patton. Doc Watson began playing on a Stella...
acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
with "King Solomon" embroidered on it, as an early Christmas gift. In response Burke wrote his first song, "Christmas Presents From Heaven", which he recorded in the local penny arcade
Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade may refer to:* Penny arcade, a venue for coin-operated devices* Penny Arcade ** Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, a series of video games based on the webcomic...
and played for her on 18 December 1954, the day before her death at the age of 54. On the day his grandmother died she prophesied that "he would have cars, women and money but also descend to the pits of hell".
After Burke sang at her funeral on 24 December 1954, some local church people asked him to perform at their Christmas program.
In December 1955 Burke and the Gospel Cavaliers performed at the Liberty Baptist Church, at 5944 Larchwood Avenue, West Philadelphia, and so impressed Viola Williams, wife of Kae "Loudmouth" Williams
Ulysses Kae Williams
Ulysses Kae Williams was known as one of the earliest local deejays to play the blues.Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, he started in radio around 1945 and worked for numerous area stations, including WSSJ, WDAS, WHAT , and WCAM...
, a prominent African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
Philadelphia deejay
Deejay
A deejay is a reggae or dancehall musician who sings and toasts to an instrumental riddim .Deejays are not to be confused with disc jockeys from other music genres like hip-hop, where they select and play music. Dancehall/reggae DJs who select riddims to play are called selectors...
. that she insisted they return in a few days to hear the Dixie Hummingbirds, and enter a gospel talent contest, which offered a recording contract as a prize. Despite agreeing to enter the competition, the other members of the Gospel Cavaliers, who were "disheartened by their belief they were getting nowhere fast", refused to enter. Burke decided to go to competition, which was held at the Cornerstone Baptist Church at 2117 North 33rd Street, Philadelphia, but was forced to borrow a jacket from his uncle, shoes from his stepfather, and pants from his other uncle. As he had left his guitar at his bass player's house, Burke borrowed a guitar borrowed from a member of the Welcome Travelers, a competing group. Burke sang "The Old Ship of Zion
The Old Ship of Zion
"The Old Ship of Zion" is a Christian Hymn written by M. J. Cartwright sometime around 1889 , played to a tune written by Daniel B. Towner.-Sources:* http://www.pdmusic.org/biographies/Cartwright%20M%20J%20Cartwright.pdf...
", defeating the other 11 competitors. Burke recalls that Bess Berman, the owner of Apollo Records
Apollo Records (1944)
The third and best known Apollo Records to exist was an independent record label in business from 1944 until 1962 in the United States. It was formed in New York City in 1944 by Bess Berman and her husband Isaac "Ike" Berman together with Hy Siegel and Sam Schneider...
, an independent label with national distribution; Jimmy Bracken of Vee-Jay Records
Vee-Jay Records
Vee-Jay Records is a record label founded in the 1950s, specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. It was owned and operated by African Americans.-History:...
; and Don Robey
Don Robey
Don Robey was an American record label executive, songwriter and record producer, who used criminal means as part of his business model...
of Peacock Records
Peacock Records
Peacock Records was a record label started in 1949 by Don D. Robey in Houston, Texas."Hound Dog" by Big Mama Thornton was a bit hit for Peacock in 1953. Other significant rhythm & blues artists on Peacock were Marie Adams, James Booker, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Little Richard, Memphis Slim, and...
of Texas, all wanted to sign him to their label. Viola Williams convinced Burke to sign a personal management contract with her husband, Kae Williams, who was also managing Lee Andrews & the Hearts
Lee Andrews & the Hearts
Lee Andrews & the Hearts was a doo-wop quintet from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania formed in 1953. They recorded on the Gotham, Rainbow, Mainline, Chess, United Artists, Grand and Gowen labels. Managed by Kae Williams, in 1957 and 1958 they had their three biggest hits, "Teardrops", "Long Lonely...
at that time. Kae Williams added four years to Burke's age to avoid having to get the approval of Burke's parents (thus creating confusion about his age for decades), and introduced him to Bess Berman, who signed him to her label. In addition to Burke, Williams also managed
the Sensations
The Sensations
The Sensations were an American doo wop group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The group formed in 1954 under the name the Cavaliers, soon after changing to the Sensations. The group scored two hits on the US R&B chart in 1956 with the Atco Records singles "Yes Sir That's My Baby" and "Please Mr....
, the Soul Satisfiers (Apollo Records), Jimmy Young
Jimmy Young (disc jockey)
Sir Jimmy Young CBE was a British singer, disc jockey and radio interviewer.-Early life:...
(Ember Records
Ember Records
Ember Records was the name of two record labels of the 1950s and 1960s, one American and one British.-1950s to 60s:In the late 1950s, the eccentric avid jazz fan Jeffrey Kruger, owner of the famous Flamingo Jazz Club, was looking for a new challenge...
), Rollie McGill (Mercury
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
), and Nicky Lee
Nicky Lee
Nicky Lee is the pen name of Li Chung Ping , a popular manhua author in Taiwan. She writes primarily for the teenage girl market, specializing in comedy, drama and romance.Lee works as one of the main staff artists for Taiwan's Tong Li Comics....
(K&M Records), which was owned by Williams and his cousin, Mitch
Thomas.
Apollo Records (1955–1957)
In December 1955 Burke was signed to Apollo, soon after gospel singerGospel 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....
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson – January 27, 1972) was an African-American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel"...
, Apollo's primary star, had left for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, accusing Apollo of cheating her out of her royalties, and the owner, Bessie "Bess" Berman (born June 3, 1902 in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
; died October 29, 1997), of "having a plantation attitude toward Negroes". Berman, known as "Queen Bee", was a formidable Jewish woman of Austrian and German ancestry, who had been president of Apollo Records since May 1948, attempted to transform Burke into a pop crooner
Crooner
Crooner is an American epithet given to male singers of pop standards, mostly from the Great American Songbook, either backed by a full orchestra, a big band or by a piano. Originally it was an ironic term denoting an emphatically sentimental, often emotional singing style made possible by the use...
, and is reported to have said, "Let's take this church boy and make him the next Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
."
From 2.30pm on December 22, 1955 Burke made his first recordings for Apollo Records, six songs, in their studios at 457 West 45th Street, Manhattan, debuting with his own song "Christmas Presents" b/w "When I'm All Alone" (Apollo 485), which debuted on DEcember 24, 1955 and became a minor hit. Burke released nine singles and sixteen different sides on Apollo, and his style at that time was compared to that of Roy Hamilton
Roy Hamilton
Roy Hamilton was an American singer, who achieved major success in the US R&B and pop charts in the 1950s...
, Billy Eckstine
Billy Eckstine
William Clarence Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and a bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...
, Al Hibbler
Al Hibbler
Albert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music...
, Ivory Joe Hunter
Ivory Joe Hunter
Ivory Joe Hunter was an American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, and pianist. After a series of hits on the US R&B chart starting in the mid 1940s, he became more widely known for his hit recording, "Since I Met You Baby" . He was billed as The Baron of the Boogie, and also known as The...
and even Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
. While Burke wrote or co-wrote many of those songs, he confessed: "I couldn’t write music or read music. I just created songs on the spot. I could just stand there and hum the music to the musicians". At Apollo he recorded with saxophone legends King Curtis
King Curtis
Curtis Ousley , who performed under the stage name King Curtis, was an American saxophone virtuoso known for rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, funk and soul jazz. Variously a bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musical director and record producer...
and Lester Young
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....
behind him. In 2002 Burke recalled: "Listen to 'Have a Dream'. It still haunts me. Not only did I make the song up on the spot, Lester made up his solo just by filling in my spaces."
Burke's other Apollo recordings, which included "I'm in Love" b/w "Why Do Me That Way?" (Apollo 487), "I'm All Alone" b/w "To Thee" (Apollo 491), and "No Man Walks Alone" b/w "Walking in a Dream" (Apollo 500), didn't sell well.
In 1955 Burke, on his first tour to the American South, was stopped by police in a borrowed yellow 1955 Cadillac convertible near Hallandale, Florida on suspicion that he and his pianist had stolen the vehicle. In early 1956 Burke made his first stop on the Chittlin circuit, and his first nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
appearance at Jim Toomer’s The Tippin' Inn, a black-owned establishment in Berlin, New Jersey
Berlin, New Jersey
Berlin is a Borough in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,588.Berlin was incorporated as a borough on March 29, 1927, from portions of Berlin Township, based on the results of a referendum held on April 26,...
, on Cushman Avenue, about 20 miles southeast of Philadelphia, "that sported a grand showroom and featured some of the country’s best known African-American entertainment".
"You Can Run (But You Can't Hide)" (1956)
Burke's best-selling release at Apollo was a "mellow spiritualSpiritual (music)
Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
" called "You Can Run (But You Can't Hide)" b/w "A Picture of You" (Apollo 505), although it didn’t chart nationally. Written by Burke and Charles Merenstein, the vice-president of Apollo Records, co-writing credit for this song was also assigned to ex-heavyweight champion Joe Louis
Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time...
, who had used the saying to refer to challenger Billy Conn
Billy Conn
William David Conn , better known as Billy Conn, was an American Light-Heavyweight boxing champion famed for his fights with Joe Louis. He had a professional boxing record of 63 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw, with 14 wins by knockout...
in 1946. According to Burke: "The song was not written by Joe Louis. Mr. Bernstein and other writers wrote the song for me, and they used the title without the permission of Joe Louis’ agency. We were sued by Mr. Louis. His wife was his attorney and manager, and we had to relinquish the copyright to him. The deal was that he would travel with me for one year and promote the record, and we would pay him to do that." While Louis helped promote the song in exchange for the credit, even appearing on TV's The Steve Allen Show
The Steve Allen Show
The Steve Allen Show is an American variety show hosted by Steve Allen from June 1956 to June 1960 on NBC, from September 1961 to December 1961 on ABC, and in first-run syndication from 1962 to 1964....
with Burke on 4 January 1957, he forgot Burke's name, and introduced him as Argentinian Dick Haymes
Dick Haymes
Richard Benjamin "Dick" Haymes was an Argentine actor and one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, who was an actor, television host, and songwriter....
, who had covered the song on Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
.
In April 1957, Burke, who was at this time promoted as "Lord Solomon", appeared on an all-star show at Chicago's Regal Theater
Regal Theater, South Side (Chicago)
The Regal Theater, located in the heart of Bronzeville, was an important night club and music venue in Chicago.Part of the Balaban and Katz chain, the lavishly decorated venue, with plush carpeting and velvet drapes featured some of the most celebrated black entertainers in America.The Regal also...
with Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Jalacy Hawkins , best known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins was an American musician, singer, and actor...
, The Dells
The Dells
The Dells are an R&B and crossover musical group. Their successful recordings spanned more than four decades. Formed in 1952 after attending high school together, the Dells' repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul, disco and contemporary rhythm and blues...
, The Spaniels
The Spaniels
The Spaniels were an American R&B doo-wop group, best known for the hit "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite".They have been called the first successful Midwestern R&B group...
, Big Maybelle
Big Maybelle
Mabel Louise Smith , known professionally as Big Maybelle, was an American R&B singer and pianist. Her 1956 hit single "Candy" received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.-Biography:...
, Little Esther Phillips, The Sensations
The Sensations
The Sensations were an American doo wop group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The group formed in 1954 under the name the Cavaliers, soon after changing to the Sensations. The group scored two hits on the US R&B chart in 1956 with the Atco Records singles "Yes Sir That's My Baby" and "Please Mr....
, Junior Parker
Junior Parker
Junior Parker was an American Memphis blues singer and musician. He is best remembered for his unique voice which has been described as "honeyed," and "velvet-smooth"...
, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Nappy Brown
Nappy Brown
Napoleon Brown Goodson Culp better known by his stage name Nappy Brown, was an American R&B singer. His hits include the 1955 Billboard chart #2, "Don't Be Angry" and "Night Time Is the Right Time"...
, Annie Laurey, and bassist Al Smith's Orchestra. Burke claimed that he appeared on American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
, the first episode hosted by Dick Clark, which would be on 5 August 1957. In 1957 Burke played the Apollo Theatre
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
in Harlem, New York for the first time, but he was dropped from the show after two nights.
Departure from Apollo Records (1957)
After a performance on June 13, 1957 at the Wide Awake Ballroom in Newark, New JerseyNewark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, Burke became convinced that his manager Kae Williams was cheating him out of most of his performance fees. After a confrontation, which resulted in Burke shooting Williams, Burke terminated his relationship with Williams. Williams, who was by this time managing The Silhouettes
The Silhouettes
The Silhouettes were an American doo wop/R&B group whose single "Get A Job" was a #1 hit on the Billboard R&B singles chart and pop singles chart in 1958. The doo-wop revival group Sha Na Na derived their name from the song's lyrics. "Get A Job"' is included in the soundtracks of the movies,...
, ensured that Burke's Apollo contract was terminated and that he was "blackballed" from the industry. Burke recalled in an interview in 2002: "I knew I wasn't being paid what I was owed. I'm 17 years old making $350 a night, three nights a week. I thought that was a lot of money. It turns out that I was actually being paid $3,500 a night, or more accurately, my manager was being paid $3,500 a night. It was comical. But when I left him he told me I would never work again, and he did get all my records pulled off the air. It was a drastic time in my life. There were a couple years there when I lost everything and everybody, and I learned to live on the streets of Philadelphia." After his departure Apollo released "I Need You Tonight" b/w "This is it" (Apollo 511), and "For You and You Alone" b/w "You Are My One Love" (Apollo 512), in 1957 and "They Always Say" b/w "Don't Cry" (Apollo 522), and "My Heart is a Chapel" b/w "This is It" (Apollo 527) in 1958. Apollo reissued an album "Solomon Burke" (ALP-498) in 1962. Despite his departure from Apollo, in 1992 Burke recalled: "Bess and Ike Berman ... were two of the greatest people in the world. I mean, the most sweetest, original, the real deal people. You know, the kind of people who say I don't need a contract. Very up front with us. Very honest with us. Never had a problem with our royalties. Just beautiful people".
After being dropped by Apollo Records, and blackballed by Williams, Burke found it difficult to get any of his songs played on the radio, or to get club dates. Burke recalled in 2002: "My life was shattered. I was so disillusioned that I didn't want to sing anywhere except in church." After an argument with his mother, with whom he had an often volatile relationship, Burke was evicted from his home and began living on the streets of North Philadelphia in 1957. Burke had "a lump the size of half a golf ball on his shaven head: the result, he says, of being 'whacked by a frying pan. Your mother tells you to do something, you do it.'" Burke recalled: “My mother was so angry. She threw me out of the house. My dad stood by me, would meet me down the street and give me $10. But that’s where I lived for a year or two. In abandoned cars. There was no place I could turn. I was shamed. I was a bum.” Burke recalled: "People laughed at me because I still had my gold tuxedo pants on, and my patent leather shoes, and my beautiful ruffled shirt."
After being hit by a motor vehicle outside the Galaxy Bar on the corner of 16th and Ridge Streets, Philadelphia, Burke was taken into the Germantown home of the driver, Lathella Thompson, a recently widowed doctor, who feared losing her driver's licence.
Burke remained in her home for the next eighteen months, and often accompanied her to work. During this period Burke met Brother Rashish, who became his mentor, taught him the Islamic faith
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, as well as Arabic. In August 1958 it was also reported that Burke converted to Islam, and had married, however it only lasted two months before being annulled by 1958. Soon after Burke married Delores Clark, Mrs Thompson's niece, and he soon had six children.
Needing to work to support his growing family, Burke resumed training as a mortician at Eckels College of Mortuary Science, which was located at 231 North Sixteenth Street, Philadelphia, graduating with a doctorate of mortuary science, and joining the AV Barkley funeral home at 634 North 38th Street, Philadelphia, which was owned and operated by his widowed aunt, Anna Rebecca Barkley (born March 6, 1991; died November 19, 1991). Burke later had his own mortuary business in Los Angeles.
Triumph Records (1958–1959)
By December 1958 Herb AbramsonHerb Abramson
Herbert C. Abramson was an American record company executive and producer.He was born in 1916 in Brooklyn, New York City and initially studied to be a dentist but he landed a job with National Records producing such performers as The Ravens, Billy Eckstine and Joe Turner...
, founder of the newly established Triumph Records, signed Burke to a recording contract
Recording contract
A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
, with an eye on the pop market. However, Burke was unable to record for Triumph as it was discovered that his contract with Apollo Records had not expired. Abramson recommended Burke contact Miriam Bienstock, Abramson'e ex-wife, who was an owner of 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...
, about his songs.
Singular Records (1959–1960)
In 1959 Philadelphia businessman Marvin Leonard "Babe" Chivian (born 24 August 1925; died January 1972), "a body-and-fender man", and real estate speculator, offered Burke a red Lincoln ContinentalLincoln Continental
The Lincoln Continental is an automobile which was produced by the Lincoln division of Ford Motor Company from 1939 to 1948 and again from 1956 to 2002...
convertible
Convertible
A convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away having windows which wind-down inside the doors, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle...
if Burke would agree to a management contract with him. Chivian arranged for Burke to be signed to Singular Records, a Philadelphia-based label that was owned by WPEN
WPEN (AM)
WPEN is an AM radio station broadcast on 950 kHz. The station is licensed to Philadelphia and serves that market. WPEN is owned and operated by Greater Media and offers a Sports Talk format. The station is known as "950 ESPN"-The Early Years:...
disc jockey Edwin L. "Larry" Brown (born September 10, 1921 in New York City; died March 24, 2005), and vocal coach Arthur "Artie" Singer
Arthur Singer
Arthur "Artie" Singer was an American songwriter who wrote 1957's "At the Hop" with David White and John Medora. He died on May 2, 2008 at the age of 89.-Sources:*...
(born February 1, 1919 in Toronto, Ontario; died May 2, 2008 in Pennsylvania), who had a distribution deal with Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
.
Burke released two singles on the Singular label: "Doodle Dee Doo" b/w "It's All Right" (Singular 1314) in December 1959, and "This Little Ring" b/w "I'm Not Afraid" (Singular 1812; and Mala 420) in May 1960, but neither single charted.
In 1960 Burke toured the American South with Dee Clark
Dee Clark
Dee Clark was an African-American soul singer best known for a string of R&B and pop hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the ballad "Raindrops," which became a million-seller in the United States in 1961....
, the Drifters
The Drifters
The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...
, the Crystals
The Crystals
The Crystals are an American vocal group based in New York, considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era of the first half of the 1960s. Their 1961–1964 chart hits, including "Uptown", "He's a Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron " and "Then He Kissed Me", featured three successive female lead...
, Little Esther, Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
, and the Upsetters
The Upsetters
The Upsetters was the name given to the house band for Jamaican reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry. The name of the band comes from Perry's nickname of Upsetter, after his song "I Am The Upsetter", a musical dismissal of his former boss Coxsone Dodd....
Band.
Apollo Records (1961)
To fulfil his contractual obligations, Burke returned to Apollo briefly in 1960 for one more single (Apollo 747), which was released in 1961, under the pseudonym of Little Vincent, in an act of homage to his stepfather. Those two Little Vincent sides are "Solomon’s blackest recordings on Apollo". "You Don’t Send Me Anymore" is "a bluesy ballad in a Ray CharlesRay Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
style, whereas the slow "Always Together" is closer to budding 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...
." There was also another single by Little Vincent "Honk, Honk, Honk" b/w "Honk, Honk, Honk (part 2)" (Apollo 748), but that was an instrumental without any input from Burke.
Atlantic Records (1960–1969)
By November 1960 Atlantic RecordsAtlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
was struggling as two of their major stars, Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
and Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, who were responsible collectively for one-third of Atlantic's revenues, had left for other record lablels – Darin for Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
, and Charles for a "mega-deal" with ABC Records
ABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....
. According to Cliff White, "In 1960 the company was at its most vulnerable. Ray Charles and Clyde McPhatter
Clyde McPhatter
Clyde McPhatter was an American R&B singer, perhaps the most widely imitated R&B singer of the 1950s and 1960s, making him a key figure in the shaping of doo-wop and R&B. He is best known for his solo hit "A Lover's Question"...
had left them for other companies, Chuck Willis
Chuck Willis
Harold "Chuck" Willis was an American blues, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll singer and songwriter. His biggest hits, "C. C. Rider" and "What Am I Living For" , both reached no. 1 in the Billboard R&B chart...
was dead, and Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...
’s brand of rocking city blues was just not selling anymore. Their major girl singers, Lavern Baker
LaVern Baker
LaVern Baker was an American rhythm and blues singer, who had several hit records on the pop chart in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were "Tweedlee Dee" , "Jim Dandy" , and "I Cried a Tear" .-Early life:She was born Delores LaVern Baker in Chicago, Illinois...
and Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress, noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these...
were waning, and two of their three big group acts, the Coasters and The Clovers
The Clovers
-History:The group formed in 1946 at Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C., with members Harold Lucas, Billy Shelton, and Thomas Woods. John "Buddy" Bailey was added soon after, and they began calling themselves the "Four Clovers", with Bailey on lead...
, were also past their best". Atlantic Vice-President and producer Jerry Wexler
Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...
admits that by this time he was feeling creatively exhausted, and feared the company might not survive. According to Alex Halberstadt, "Salvation arrived in the person of Solomon Burke, a soul singer of overwhelming charisma and remarkable stylistic range. ... Wexler and Burke created a string of hits that carried the label financially and represented the first fully realized examples of the classic soul sound". Burke helped keep Atlantic Records solvent from 1961 to 1964 with his steady run of hit records. According to Wexler: "Solomon Burke was the infusion of fresh energy I needed. ... Solomon came along at a moment when the British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
was gearing up. We had nothing like the Dave Clark Five or Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits are an English beat band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's record producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening, clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
, let alone the Beatles. Solomon Burke carried Atlantic by selling a load of records – and they were terrific."
In November 1960 Burke and his manager, "Babe" Chivian, visited the 56th Street offices of Atlantic Records, hoping to interest Atlantic in songs that Burke had written. Later that day Burke signed a "handshake deal
Gentlemen's agreement
A gentlemen's agreement is an informal agreement between two or more parties. It may be written, oral, or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or through mutually beneficial etiquette. The essence of a gentlemen's agreement is that it relies upon the honor of the parties...
" with Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
to record with Atlantic. Meeting Burke "was not purely kismet
Destiny
Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
", as Wexler and Ertegun were aware of Burke and his talent, as "Wexler’s former mentor at Billboard, Paul Ackerman
Paul Ackerman
Paul Ackerman was an influential music journalist.Ackerman was born in New York, New York. From 1943 to 1973 he was the music editor of Billboard magazine....
, had been urging him to sign Burke for several years", but were waiting for Burke's contract with Apollo Records to expire. By this time Burke was considered one of the "greatest showmen and a classic gospel-inspired singer". According to Burke, Atlantic "had just released Ray Charles from the label; he hadn’t been gone a week. I walked into Jerry’s office that day, and 30 minutes later he was hollering for them to bring me a contract." In 2007 Burke recalled: "I met Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
and Jerry Wexler
Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...
together. It was the day Ray Charles had left the label, and we walked in and 10 minutes later we were signed to the label. Jerry said, "I think we're gonna make a deal," and Ahmet just says "Hey, baby, sign it. Sign it, baby'".
In his eight years with 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...
from 1960, Burke released 32 memorable singles. These included six Top Ten R&B hits, four of which crossed over to the pop Top Forty
Top Forty
The Top Forty or Top 40 is a music industry shorthand for the currently most-popular songs in a particular genre. When used without qualification, it typically refers to the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music songs of the previous week...
: "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....
" (#5 R&B), "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" (#7 R&B, #24 pop), "Got to Get You Off of My Mind" (#1 R&B, #22 pop), "You’re Good for Me" (#8 R&B), "Tonight’s the Night" (#2 R&B, #28 pop) and "If You Need Me" (#2 R&B, #37 pop). On his singles for Atlantic, Burke "brought a country influence into R&B, with emotional phrasing and intricately constructed, melodic ballads and midtempo songs.... While Burke wasn't the only one pursuing this path, not many others did so as successfully". Though well-received by both peers and critics, and attaining a few moderate pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and several major R&B
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...
hits while at Atlantic, Burke never broke through into the mainstream as did 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...
or 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...
, who covered Burke's "Down in the Valley
Down in the Valley (Solomon Burke song)
Down in the Valley is a 1962 R&B song written by Bert Berns and Solomon Burke and originally recorded by Solomon Burke. It was released on Atlantic as a B-side to "I'm Hanging Up My Heart For You". It was covered by Otis Redding on his album Otis Blue...
" for 1965's Otis Blue. However, unlike Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
or Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson 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...
, Burke was unable to expand his R&B base into a huge pop following as well, never having a top 20 pop hit in his career.
Almost immediately Wexler and Burke clashed over his branding
Personal branding
Personal branding is, for some people, a description of the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands. It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from...
and the songs that he would record. According to Burke, "Their idea was, we have another young kid to sing gospel, and we’re going to put him in the blues bag." As Burke had struggled from an early age with "his attraction to secular music on the one hand and his allegiance to the church on the other", when he was signed to Atlantic Records he "refused to be classified as a rhythm-and-blues singer" due to a perceived "stigma of profanity" by the church, and R&B's reputation as "the devil's music". Burke indicated in 2005: "I told them about my spiritual background, and what I felt was necessary, and that I was concerned about being labeled rhythm & blues. What kind of songs would they be giving me to sing? Because of my age, and my position in the church, I was concerned about saying things that were not proper, or that sent the wrong message. That angered Jerry Wexler a little bit. He said, ‘We’re the greatest blues label in the world! You should be honored to be on this label, and we’ll do everything we can – but you have to work with us.’" To mollify Burke, it was decided to market him as a singer of "soul music" after he had consulted his church brethren and won approval for the term. When a Philadelphia DJ said to Burke, "You're singing from your soul and you don't want to be an R&B singer, so what kind of singer are you going to be?", Burke shot back: "I want to be a soul singer." Burke's sound, which was especially popular in the South, was described there as "river deep country fried buttercream soul". Burke is credited with coining the term "soul music", which Burke confirmed in a 1996 interview.
Despite his initial reluctance, like several former gospel singers Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, and Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson 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...
, Burke was "molded into a more secular direction when he signed with Atlantic in the '60s", and became one of "the "backsliders", artists who "preferred a secular acclaim to the gospel obscurity", after deciding eventually that "secular music was not the anithesis of the church but, rather, 'a new avenue, a new dimension to spread the gospel'". Despite this, "leaving gospel for secular music, as well as integrating secular music into gospel performances, was controversial". Noted blues scholar Paul Oliver maintains that when Sam Cooke and Burke "turned from gospel singing to the blues", unlike others who had sone so previously, "they took the gospel technique with them", with "even the words often secularized gospel songs" coupled with a "screaming delivery, the exploitation of emotional involvement, [and] the frenetic displays of dancing singers". For Burke, "gospel influences were pervasive. Gospelly chord progression
Chord progression
A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
s, organ accompaniment and a style of singing which can only be described as "preaching" have now spread widely into much black popular music." Music critic Mark Deming described Burke as having: "one of the finest voices in popular music, that possessed a churchly authority that was the ideal match for his material which balanced the pleasures of the flesh with the price of the transgression".
"Burke sounded like a Baptist preacher in a country church, and for [Jerry] Wexler he was the first and possibly the greatest of all '60s soul men." Wexler, who considered Burke to be "the greatest male soul singer of all time", pronounced him a "vocalist of rare prowess and remarkable range. His voice is an instrument of exquisite sensitivity". Wexler also describing the young Burke's vocal style as "churchy without being coarse". In 2000 Wexler indicated: "Solomon was beautiful, baby. He sounded just like Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
." In 2003 Wexler assessed Burke: "I rate him at the very top. Since all singing is a trade-off between music and drama, he's the master at both. His theatricality. He's a great actor." Despite his admiration for Burke, Wexler also described Burke as "a piece of work: wily, highly intelligent, a salesman of epic proportions, sly, sure-footed, a never-say-die entrepreneur", while also branding him "a card-carrying fabulist. Solomon has told so many versions of the same happening that it's unreal."
"Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" (1961)
When Burke arrived for his first recording session at the Atlantic Records studio at 1841 BroadwayBroadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
, Manhattan, New York on 13 December 1960, he was given four songs, including his first Atlantic release, "Keep the Magic Working", which was a flop, and "Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)", a cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of a country song written and recorded by Virgil "Pappy" Stewart, that had been a minor hit for Faron Young
Faron Young
Faron Young was an American country music singer and songwriter from the early 1950s into the mid-1980s and one of its most successful and colorful stars...
in 1953 (#10 C&W), and later for Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...
. Burke figured this did not portend a long future with Wexler and Atlantic: "Here’s the greatest R&B label in the world, and they give me country songs to sing. What are they trying to tell me?". In 2005 Burke recalled: "I started out as a cowboy on Atlantic Records – without a horse! I was the only singing cowboy with a corned-beef-and-pastrami sandwich on white with mayonnaise". Despite his reservations, Burke, "accompanied by smooth backing vocals and an arrangement equal parts Nashville and Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, gave it his best." Burke: "I like country music but I don't think it was deliberate. I think it was something we just accidentally happened onto. By my being versatile. By my being able to sing different songs – being able to change my tone quality, having the different octaves. You must remember, I was capable of singing anything."
Burke recalled: "They weren’t happy with my rendition, because I felt I had to talk. We did it several times and I kept talking on the record. Mr. Wexler said 'I don’t think that’s gonna work'. At that time Mr. Paul Ackerman
Paul Ackerman
Paul Ackerman was an influential music journalist.Ackerman was born in New York, New York. From 1943 to 1973 he was the music editor of Billboard magazine....
and others said 'leave it in. We don’t know what we’re doing anyway. This is something new we’re trying. No black artist has ever done country music before, so let’s see what’s gonna happen'. That was the turning point of my career – after that, international artist worldwide." When recalling Burke's first recording session at Atlantic, Wexler added in 2002: "There was a blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
the morning we were to do the first recording session with Solomon and I didn't know if I would be able to get into New York. The trains weren't running, but I made it in that morning and there was Solomon, who had come up from Philadelphia. We did four songs in three hours, including 'Just Out of Reach'. After we finished recording, I went into the control room
Control room
A control room is a room serving as an operations centre where a facility or service can be monitored and controlled. Examples include:*in television production, the master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations, television networks...
to listen to the playback. I looked around for Solomon, but he was heading out the door. He said he had to get back to Philadelphia while it was still light because he had a job shoveling snow. I think he was getting paid $3.50 an hour. He already had something like eight kids." According to Tony Cummings, "Despite the use of a different arranger at each session Solomon conquered all. His rich, vibrant, baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
voice brought the full majesty of the gospel tradition to a series of intense, moody ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s and laid down the solid groundwork of the soon-to-follow soul music explosion.
Released in August 1961, after the earlier uncharted release of "Keep the Magic Working" b/w "How Many Times?" (Atlantic 2089), "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" (Atlantic 2114) was Burke's first hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
, selling over a million copies, and subsequently spent 19 weeks on the R&B charts while climbing to #7, as well as crossing over into the pop top 40, reaching #24 on November 20, 1961. This song, which was "fundamental to the emergence of soul music", was "especially well received down South", "successfully appealed to white consumers by using tidy tone quality, minimal improvisation, and standard, middle-American dialect
General American
General American , also known as Standard American English , is a major accent of American English. The accent is not restricted to the United States...
", "instantly established Burke as a huge presence ... [and] "also introduced Burke's slightly country-tinged voice that melded R&B and country music and set the template that Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
would follow years latter with his classic Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is a studio album by American R&B and soul musician Ray Charles, released in April 1962 on ABC-Paramount Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in early to mid-February 1962 at Capitol Studios in New York City and at United Recording Studios...
". Burke "summed up the underlying connection between the musics of the black and white South: 'Gospel is the truth. And country music is the truth'". In 2003 Burke's recording of "Just Out of Reach" was ranked #223 on a list of country music's 500 greatest singles.
Concert promoters in Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, and Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, who were unaware that Burke was an African-American, accidentally booked him to sing at Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
picnics and rallies, with up to 30,000 hooded Klansmen in attendance. In a 2002 interview Burke recalled: "Way down in the South somewhere, I showed up and the promoter said to me, "Is Solomon Burke here yet?" I said, "Yeah, I'm right here." His eyes grow wide and he walks away. The guy comes back with the sheriff and he says, "Boy, don't play games. Show me some I.D." So he looks at it and pulls the promoter aside and says, "You got a problem. You can't let him go out there." So they called the doctor and had him cover my face in bandages and made it look like I had an accident. That's how I performed that night".
By May 1961 Burke had reconciled with his former manager, Kae Williams, appearing at Williams' Northwest Athletic Club in Philadelphia for several nights. Burke performed as part of a financially unsuccessful all-star bill organized by Sid Bernstein
Sid Bernstein
Sid Bernstein is an American music producer and promoter. Bernstein changed the American music scene in the 1960s by bringing The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Moody Blues, The Kinks and The Beatles to America. He was the first impresario to organize rock concerts at sports stadiums.-...
at the Medinah Temple
Medinah Temple
Built by the Shriners architects Huehl and Schmidt in 1912, the Medinah Temple is a colorful Islamic-looking building replete with pointed domes and an example of Moorish Revival architecture. It is located on the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois at 600 N...
in Chicago from 26–31 December 1961, with Dion
Dion DiMucci
Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....
, Frank Gari
Frank Gari
Frank Gari is a popular singer and songwriter from the late 1950s and early 1960s. His best known songs as a performer are "Utopia" , "Lullaby of Love" and "Princess" , all of which hit the U.S. Top 40 in 1961. He co-wrote with Roger McGuinn the song Beach Ball for Bobby Darin...
, Johnny Tillotson
Johnny Tillotson
Johnny Tillotson is an American singer and songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored 9 top-ten hits on the pop, country and adult contemporary billboard charts including "Poetry In Motion" and the self-penned "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'"...
, Eddie Hodges
Eddie Hodges
Eddie Hodges is a United States former child actor and recording artist who left show business as an adult.-Early life and career:Hodges was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, U.S. Hodges traveled to New York City with his family in 1952...
, Freddie Cannon, Brenda Lee
Brenda Lee
Brenda Mae Tarpley , known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis...
, Vicki Spencer, The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were an American singing girl group on the Tamla label. Motown's first successful female vocal group, the Marvelettes are most notable for recording the company's first #1 Pop hit, "Please Mr...
, Clay Cole
Clay Cole
Clay Cole was an American host and disk jockey, best known for his eponymous television dance program, The Clay Cole Show, which aired in New York City on WNTA-TV and WPIX-TV from 1959 to 1968.-Origins:...
, Ral Donner
Ral Donner
Ral Donner was an early American rock and roll musician. He scored several pop hits in the US in the early 1960s, and had a voice similar to Elvis Presley's. His best known song is his 1961 top ten hit, "You Don't Know What You've Got ".-Biography:Ralph Stuart Donner was born in Chicago, and sang...
, and Clarence "Frogman" Henry.
"Cry to Me" (1962)
On December 6, 1961 Burke recorded one of his best known songs, "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....
", "an ode to loneliness and desire" "one of the first songs to unify country, gospel and R&B in one package", that is considered "the paradigm
Paradigm
The word paradigm has been used in science to describe distinct concepts. It comes from Greek "παράδειγμα" , "pattern, example, sample" from the verb "παραδείκνυμι" , "exhibit, represent, expose" and that from "παρά" , "beside, beyond" + "δείκνυμι" , "to show, to point out".The original Greek...
for Southern soul
Southern soul
Southern soul is a type of soul music that emerged from the Southern United States. The music originated from a combination of styles, including blues , country, early rock and roll, and a strong gospel influence that emanated from the sounds of Southern African-American churches. The focus of the...
ballads". "Cry to Me" was written (as Bert Russell) and produced by Bert Berns
Bert Berns
Bertrand 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...
, "a roly-poly white New Yorker with a deep love and empathy for black music despite a formal music education at the Juilliard School Of Music and a music background far removed from the searing soul in which, by 1963, he specialised", with whom Burke had a difficult relationship. Burke "distrusted the young producer", and often spoke of him disparagingly, but later acknowledged Berns as "a genius", and "a great writer, a great man". Cissy Houston, who provided backing vocals on several of Burke's songs that were produced by Berns, believed "Burke changed his mind about Bert as soon as Sol started working with him in the studio. Bert's emotion-charged songs and Sol's gospel delivery was a marriage made in heaven". Although Burke recognized Berns's skill for crafting hit records, he rejected two Berns compositions, "Hang on Sloopy
Hang on Sloopy
"Hang on Sloopy" is a song by the pop group The McCoys which was #1 in America in October 1965 and is the official rock song of the state of Ohio and The Ohio State University...
" (later recorded by (The McCoys
The McCoys
The McCoys were a rock group that started in Union City, Indiana, in 1962.-Career:The original members, all from Union City, were guitarist Richard Zehringer , his brother Randy on drums, and bassist Dennis Kelly. This first line-up was known as The Rick Z Combo, and later known as Rick and the...
), and "A Little Bit of Soap
A Little Bit of Soap
"A Little Bit of Soap", written by Bert Berns , was a song, first sung in a bluesy soul style by The Jarmels, who reached #12 with it in September 1961....
", a recent hit for The Jarmels
The Jarmels
The Jarmels are a doo wop/rhythm and blues group officially formed in 1959 in Richmond, Virginia. They were composed of Nathaniel Ruff , Paul Burnett , Ray Smith , Earl Christian , and Tom Eldridge .They met while attending Armstrong High School and while some sang at nearby Mount Olivet Baptist...
. Burke explained in 2004: "I felt a little unsafe about it, because they were pushing me in an ethnic market, so why would I want to say that (about soap) to my people? It didn't have the meaning it needed to have." In frustration after Burke had rejected his song choices, Berns offered him a final song, "Cry to Me", which Berns sang to him very slowly. According to Burke in a 2008 interview: "I said 'That's terrible. It's just too slow for me, I don't like slow songs.' And Mr Wexler says, 'Listen this guy writes for you, you're pissing him off. You're pissing me off, too.' (Laughs) I tried to sing it a couple of times that way, couldn't even feel it. Then I asked the young man in the studio, the engineer Tommy Dowd
Tom Dowd
Tom Dowd was an American recording engineer and producer for Atlantic Records. He was credited with innovating the multi-track recording method. Dowd worked on a virtual "who's who" of recordings that encompassed blues, jazz, pop, rock and soul records.- Early years :Born in Manhattan, Dowd grew...
, 'Could we have them speed this up?'"
Released in 1962, "Cry to Me" b/w "I Almost Lost My Mind" (Atlantic 2131) became Burke's second entry in the US charts, peaking at #5 on the R&B charts (and #44 Pop). On 20 March 1962 Burke sang "Cry to Me" on American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
, and performed at Chicago's Regal Theater
Regal Theater, South Side (Chicago)
The Regal Theater, located in the heart of Bronzeville, was an important night club and music venue in Chicago.Part of the Balaban and Katz chain, the lavishly decorated venue, with plush carpeting and velvet drapes featured some of the most celebrated black entertainers in America.The Regal also...
on May 23 on a bill with Lloyd Price
Lloyd Price
Lloyd Price is an American R&B vocalist. Known as "Mr. Personality", after the name of one of his biggest million-selling hits...
, Eddie Holland, the Crystals, the Corsairs, Gene Chandler
Gene Chandler
Gene Chandler also known as "The Duke of Earl" or simply "The Duke", is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, producer and record executive. He is one of the leading exponents of the 1960s Chicago soul scene...
, Jimmy McCracklin
Jimmy McCracklin
Jimmy McCracklin is an American pianist, vocalist, and songwriter. His style contains West Coast blues, Jump blues, and R&B. Over a career that has spanned seven decades, he says he has written almost a thousand songs and has recorded hundreds of them...
, Aretha
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
and Erma Franklin
Erma Franklin
Erma Franklin was an American gospel and R&B singer. She was the oldest daughter of Barbara and the Reverend C. L. Franklin and the elder sister of Aretha Franklin...
.
"Cry to Me" was covered in 1963 by Betty Harris
Betty Harris
Betty Harridick is an American Soul Singer. Her recording career in the 1960s produced three hit records that made the Billboard R&B and pop charts: "Cry to Me" , "His Kiss" and "Nearer to You"...
(Pop #23, R&B #10), and by the Rolling Stones in July 1965, before becoming a #28 UK hit for The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things are an English rock and roll band from London, who originally formed in 1963. They took their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing" and, in their early days, were dubbed by the British press the "uglier cousins of the Rolling Stones". Their most commercially successful...
in December 1965. It was a hit again in 1987, when it was used in the film, and appeared on the soundtrack for, Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing is a 1987 American romantic film. Written by Eleanor Bergstein and directed by Emile Ardolino, the film features Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the lead roles, as well as Cynthia Rhodes and Jerry Orbach...
.
After "Cry to Me", Burke became one of the first performers to be called a soul artist. In "Cry to Me", and in his "most popular recordings from 1962 onward, elements of the African-American folk-preaching style", which incorporated "the fusion of speech and song", "the use of repetition or elongation for emphasis", and the improvisation of "hollers
Field holler
Field Hollers as well as work songs were African American styles of music from before the American Civil War, this style of music is closely related to spirituals in the sense that it expressed religious feelings and included subtle hints about ways of escaping slavery, among other things...
and vocal melisma
Melisma
Melisma, in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, where each syllable of text is matched to a single note.-History:Music of ancient cultures used...
s", the "flowers and curlicue
Curlicue
A curlicue, or alternatively curlycue, in the visual arts, is a fancy twist, or curl, composed usually from a series of concentric circles...
s of gospel singing", are salient. Burke always had his pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
in the recording studio. About March 1962 Burke performed again at the Apollo Theatre.
"Down in the Valley" (1962)
During a recording session at Atlantic Record on April 4, 1962, Burke recorded five songs, including "I'm Hanging Up My Heart For You" (#15 R&B; #85 Pop) b/w "Down In The ValleyDown in the Valley (Solomon Burke song)
Down in the Valley is a 1962 R&B song written by Bert Berns and Solomon Burke and originally recorded by Solomon Burke. It was released on Atlantic as a B-side to "I'm Hanging Up My Heart For You". It was covered by Otis Redding on his album Otis Blue...
" (#20 R&B; #71 Pop) (Atlantic 2147). For "Down in the Valley", Burke borrowed from a traditional folk song Down in the Valley
Down in the Valley (folk song)
-External links:* -Bibliography:*Boas, Frank . The Journal of American Folk-Lore Vol. XXX No. CXVII. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: American Folk-Lore Society....
, that was written as ealy as 1800, and sung by The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews , soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews , and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews...
in the 1944 film Moonlight and Cactus, and by Patti Page
Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records...
in 1951. In August 2008 Burke told Mojo magazine: "I wrote that on the train, 'cos I had no song and I started thinking on old songs that I could do uptempo and I thought, (sings Gospel song pacier, with horn arrangement) so I had to keep that in my head 'til I got to the studio. I said, 'Can I have a tuba like I have in my church?' In my church we got the tuba and the trombones. Got to get that New Orleans sound
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
. They loved it." Burke recalled: "I put my own feelings and words to it, and was lucky enough by the grace of God to capture the song, when it was in P.D.
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
, able to have a copyright on it." "Down in the Valley" debuted in the US charts on May 26, 1965, and peaked at #20 in the R&B charts, #71 in the Pop charts, and at #19 in the Adult Contemporary charts. The song was later covered by 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...
on his 1965 album Otis Blue, and was featured in the 1996 film 2 Days in the Valley
2 Days in the Valley
2 Days in the Valley is a 1996 film, directed by John Herzfeld. The film revolves around the events over 48 hours in the lives of a group of people who are drawn together by a murder. Several parallel storylines overlap one another in the film.-Plot:...
, and generated income for Cassandra Berns, who inherited the publishing rights from her father, Bert Berns
Bert Berns
Bertrand 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...
, who was credited as co-writer, along with "Babe" Chivian, and Joseph C. Martin.
Later in April Burke joined the Supersonic Attractions tour, which was organized by Henry Wynn, an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
who owned the Royal Peacock in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. and featured 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...
, Dion
Dion DiMucci
Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....
, B.B. King, Dee Clark
Dee Clark
Dee Clark was an African-American soul singer best known for a string of R&B and pop hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the ballad "Raindrops," which became a million-seller in the United States in 1961....
, and the Drifters
The Drifters
The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...
, which toured the American South in April 1962. Burke returned to the studio on June 25, 1962, and recorded four songs, including "I Really Don't Want to Know" (#93 Pop) b/w "Tonight My Heart Is Crying" (Atlantic 2157) and "I Can Make It If I Try" (Atlantic 2185). On August 13, 1962 Burke returned to New York to record four songs, but only two were released, and neither charted. Burke recorded four more songs on October 17, 1962, but none would chart.
On October 26, 1962 Burke appeared on the bill at the Apollo Theatre that headlined James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, and was recorded and released as The Apollo Theatre Presents In Person The James Brown Show (King 826) in May 1963.
In March 1963 Burke appeared again at Chicago's Regal Theater with Roy Hamilton
Roy Hamilton
Roy Hamilton was an American singer, who achieved major success in the US R&B and pop charts in the 1950s...
, Ben E. King
Ben E. King
Benjamin Earl King , better known as Ben E. King, is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me", a U.S...
, Rufus Thomas
Rufus Thomas
Rufus Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian fromMemphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the...
, Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
, The Orlons
The Orlons
The Orlons are an American R&B group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that formed in 1960. They received gold discs for the million selling achievements of three of their singles...
, The Five Du-Tones
The Five Du-Tones
The Five Du-Tones Were Robert Hopkins , Willie Guest, Frank McCurrey, LeRoy Joyce, James West, and Andrew Butler. They formed at Patrick Henry High School in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1957....
, and The Four Dancing Ebonites. Later in the Spring of 1963 Burke toured on Henry Wynn's Supersonic Attractions Tour with 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...
, Jerry Butler
Jerry Butler (singer)
Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...
, Dee Clark
Dee Clark
Dee Clark was an African-American soul singer best known for a string of R&B and pop hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the ballad "Raindrops," which became a million-seller in the United States in 1961....
, The Crystals
The Crystals
The Crystals are an American vocal group based in New York, considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era of the first half of the 1960s. Their 1961–1964 chart hits, including "Uptown", "He's a Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron " and "Then He Kissed Me", featured three successive female lead...
, The Drifters
The Drifters
The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...
, Little Esther Phillips, Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
, Johnny Thunder
Johnny Thunder
Johnny Thunder is the name of three fictional characters in comics published by DC Comics. A fourth character has the variant name Jonni Thunder.It is also the name of an unrelated Lego character.-Fictional character biography:...
, "Little Julius" High (later known as "Lotsa Poppa"), with The Upsetters
The Upsetters
The Upsetters was the name given to the house band for Jamaican reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry. The name of the band comes from Perry's nickname of Upsetter, after his song "I Am The Upsetter", a musical dismissal of his former boss Coxsone Dodd....
Band and Theophilous Odell George (known as "Gorgeous George"), who was emcee, to mostly mixed white and black audiences, including a concert at Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park
Ponce de Leon Park
Ponce de Leon Park, also known as Spiller Park or Spiller Field during 1924-1932, was the primary home field for the minor league baseball team called the Atlanta Crackers for nearly six decades. The Crackers played here in the Southern Association and the International League...
, two concerts on April 28, 1963 at the Montreal Forum
Montreal Forum
The Montreal Forum was an indoor arena located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Called "the most storied building in hockey history" by Sporting News, it was home of the National Hockey League's Montreal Maroons from 1924 to 1938 and the Montreal Canadiens from 1926 to 1996...
in Shawinigan, Quebec
Shawinigan, Quebec
Shawinigan is a city located on the Saint-Maurice River in the Mauricie area in Quebec, Canada. It has a population of approximately 51,904 people ....
,
and a concert on May 3 at Pittsburgh's Syria Mosque
Syria Mosque
The Syria Mosque was a performance venue, located in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Constructed in 1911 and dedicated in January 1912, it was designed by Huehl, Schmidt & Holmes architectural firm of Chicago....
.
"If You Need Me" (1963)
Burke's next "massive hit" was his cover of "If You Need Me" (Atlantic 2185), which was recorded on March 15, 1963, which was written and recorded originally by Wilson PickettWilson Pickett
Wilson 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...
for Lloyd Price
Lloyd Price
Lloyd Price is an American R&B vocalist. Known as "Mr. Personality", after the name of one of his biggest million-selling hits...
's Detroit-based Double L Records
Lloyd Price
Lloyd Price is an American R&B vocalist. Known as "Mr. Personality", after the name of one of his biggest million-selling hits...
, which had been rejected by Wexler, but who had purchased the publishing rights
Publishing rights
Literally, the right to publish a work.In the music industry, "publishing" is used as a catch-all shorthand for the administration of matters relating to the songwriter's and composer's share of income from a musical composition or recorded work....
. According to Burke, Pickett gave the song to him on a tour bus: "Wilson sang the song for me in a bus on a tour. I loved it so much that I got Wilson to do it. Atlantic refused to sign him at that time, so we got Wilson to release the song on the Lloyd-Logan label. We were the best of friends. As a matter of fact, I promoted his record and he promoted mine." However, Pickett claims Wexler lifted it from demo tapes he had sent Atlantic. Burke recalled in 2003: "I was furious when Wexler rejected Pickett", and "when radio personality the Magnificent Montague
Magnificent Montague
Nathaniel "Magnificent" Montague , is an American R&B disc jockey notable not only for the soul music records he helped promote on KGFJ Los Angeles and WWRL New York City, but whose trademark catch-phrase, "Burn, baby! Burn!" became the rallying cry of the 1965 Watts riots.Semi-retired by the...
started spinning Pickett’s original version, Wexler rushed out Burke’s, with both in Billboards "Singles Review" column on April 13. and both featured on Billboard's "Artists' Biographies" on May 4, 1963. Although Burke ultimately won the chart war, Burke broke rank and supported his rival: “I would go to the radio stations and say, ‘Hi, I’m Solomon Burke, and I’m here promoting the new record “If You Need Me”…by Wilson Pickett.’” Despite his efforts, Burke's version jockeyed with Pickett's for position in the Hot 100, before "beating Pickett to the punch" because of "Solomon’s popularity and Atlantic’s distribution". Both versions had Cissy Houston
Cissy Houston
Emily "Cissy" Houston is a Grammy Award–winning American soul and gospel singer. She led a very successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Wishbone Ash and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist...
singing backup vocals. Despite his anger, in 1964, Pickett signed with Atlantic because he needed the "bread
Money
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...
". While Burke's version spent 5 weeks at #2 in the R&B charts in the American summer of 1963, kept from the number one position by Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
's "Baby Workout
Baby Workout
"Baby Workout" is an R&B song by Jackie Wilson from the album of the same name. The track is about Wilson urging a girl to dance all night with him. It was Wilson's biggest hit of his singles that charted on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It was his fifth and penultimate...
" 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...
's "Another Saturday Night
Another Saturday Night
"Another Saturday Night" is the title of a 1963 hit single by Sam Cooke from the album Ain't That Good News. It reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and was number one on the R&B chart for a single week...
", Pickett's original stalled at #64 in the Pop charts and #30 on the R&B chart. "If You Need Me" was "the first of several great preaching scorchers": "Can’t Nobody Love You", "You’re Good For Me", and "Goodbye Baby, Baby Goodbye", which were all arranged by Gary Sherman, the man behind many Garnet Mimms
Garnet Mimms
Garnet Mimms is an American singer, influential in soul music and rhythm and blues...
hits".
"You're Good for Me" (1963)
On August 16, 1963 Burke recorded three songs in New York, including "You're Good for Me", which was written by Don CovayDon Covay
Don 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...
and Horace Ott
Horace Ott
Horace Ott is a noted composer, record producer, conductor and pianist. Although not formally credited he was one of the writers of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood and arranged the Village Peoples hit Y.M.C.A.. He also led of the Horace Ott Orchestra....
, who also arranged it. Debuting in November 1963, "You're Good for Me" b/w "Beautiful Brown Eyes" (Atlantic 2205) peaked at #3 in the R&B charts, and at #49 in the Pop charts.
On October 8, 1963, Burke 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...
were arrested by local white police in Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
for seeking service in a segregated restaurant next to the Castle Inn, their motel, but released them after taking them to the local fire station, stripping them naked, and forcing them to sing their greatest hits.
"King of Rock 'n' Soul" (1963)
After a string of a dozen hit records, by November 1963 Burke had agreed to be crowned the "King of Rock 'n' Soul" in a ceremony at the Royal Theatre in Baltimore by local deejayDeejay
A deejay is a reggae or dancehall musician who sings and toasts to an instrumental riddim .Deejays are not to be confused with disc jockeys from other music genres like hip-hop, where they select and play music. Dancehall/reggae DJs who select riddims to play are called selectors...
Fred Robinson, known professionally as "Rockin' Robin", who also gave him a cape and crown that he always wore on stage. Burke accepted the appellation the "King of Rock 'N' Soul", indicating "without soul, there'd be no rock and without rock, there'd be no soul". The ceremony was repeated each night during the week Burke performed in Baltimore.
According to Gerri Hirshey: "Title agreed upon, Solomon added the trappings: a crown, a scepter, a cape, robe, dancing girls, and colored lights". Burke's crown was an exact replica of "the crown jewels of London
Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom
The collective term Crown Jewels denotes the regalia and vestments worn by the sovereign of the United Kingdom during the coronation ceremony and at other state functions...
" and the cape was trimmed with real ermine
Ermine
Ermine has several uses:* A common name for the stoat * The white fur and black tail end of this animal, which is historically worn by and associated with royalty and high officials...
. Burke, whose shows were tours de force of riveting soul and unashamed hokum
Hokum
Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music - a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendos...
", "ticked every box from low comedy through country pleading to the kind of magisterial rock'n'roll that brought the house down", and he "became known as much for his showmanship as he did his voice. He would often take the stage in a flowing, 15-foot-long cape and bejeweled crown, his stage theatrics predating those of such legendary showman as James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
. According to David Hepworth, Burke "once employed a midget
Midget
A midget is a short person with relatively average bodily proportions in comparison with other human beings. The term is often improperly used to describe a person with the medical condition dwarfism. The two terms are often used synonymously because both terms originate as words defining small...
who was secreted under his cape. When it was thrown off the cape would disappear stage left as of its own volition". After the success of his "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is a song written and recorded by James Brown. It was released as a two-part single in 1965, and is considered seminal in the musical genre of funk.-The hit single:...
" in late 1965, James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, believing he deserved to be crowned "King of Soul", hired Burke to perform for one night in Chicago, but ended up paying not to perform but rather to watch him perform instead, expecting Burke also to surrender his crown and title to him. According to Burke, "He paid me $7,500 to stand onstage and hand him my robe and crown. It was a great gig: I got paid and I didn't have to sing a note." Burke accepted Brown's money, but retained his title and regal paraphernalia.
As he increased in weight, "Burke’s sheer bulk meant that he could never be a dancer like James Brown, but like Brown, his act was full of showmanship". Consequently, over the years Burke "evolved a fervently demonstrative stage act", that were often compared with religious revival meeting
Revival meeting
A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held in order to inspire active members of a church body, to raise funds and to gain new converts...
s. Burke and black performers like James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Wilson PIckett, "would adopt the 'house-wrecking' tactics of black preachers, and their shows functioned in much the same way as black religious events in that performer and audience became immersed in the music, arriving together at an ecstatic state that allowed them to feel a deep intensity of experience". According to Weldon McDougal, Burke "turned theatres like the Apollo and the Uptown
Uptown Theater (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
The Uptown Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also known as Uptown Theater and Office Building, is an Art Deco building built in 1927. The Uptown Theater is located on 2240 N. Broad Street. It became a major venue on the chitlin circuit, from 1951-1978. It was listed on the National Register...
into churches, he had folk running down the aisles to be saved by his music". Cliff White described a show in the UK where "with head thrown back and one hand cupped to his mouth like an Alpine yodeller he cried out with such overwhelming passion that he left the spellbound audience wrung out and exhausted like so many limp rags."
On December 12, 1963 Burke recorded three songs at Atlantic's New York studios, including "He'll Have To Go" (#51 Pop) (Atlantic 2218), an early version of "Goodbye Baby Goodbye" (#33 Pop), and "Someone To Love Me" (Atlantic 2226), with the Sweet Inspirations
Sweet Inspirations
The Sweet Inspirations were founded by Cissy Houston , mother of Whitney Houston, and sister of Lee Warrick...
: (Estelle Brown, Cissy Houston
Cissy Houston
Emily "Cissy" Houston is a Grammy Award–winning American soul and gospel singer. She led a very successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Wishbone Ash and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist...
, Sylvia Shemwell, and Dee Dee Warwick
Dee Dee Warwick
Dee Dee Warwick was an American soul singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey as Delia Mae Warrick, she was the sister of Dionne Warwick, niece of Cissy Houston and cousin of Whitney Houston....
) providing backing vocals.
Burke performed again at The Regal Theater in Chicago with Dee Clark
Dee Clark
Dee Clark was an African-American soul singer best known for a string of R&B and pop hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the ballad "Raindrops," which became a million-seller in the United States in 1961....
, Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
, and Freddie King
Freddie King
Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...
in February 1964. In June 1964 Burke toured with James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, 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...
, Joe Tex
Joe Tex
Joseph Arrington, Jr. , better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s...
, and Garnett Mimms on the Summer Shower of Stars Tour, and performed on June 20 at the Donnelly Theater in Boston, Massachusetts.
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" (1964)
On May 28, 1964 Burke recorded two unreleased songs, and "Everybody Needs Somebody to LoveEverybody Needs Somebody to Love
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a song written by Bert Berns, Solomon Burke and Jerry Wexler, and originally recorded by Solomon Burke under the production of Bert Berns at Atlantic Records in 1964...
" (Atlantic 2241), that was also written by Burke (but also credited to Bert Berns
Bert Berns
Bertrand 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...
and Jerry Wexler), which was Burke's most prominent bid for an enduring soul standard. Burke claims he was the sole writer on the song but was talked into sharing credit by Wexler and Berns. In an interview Burke recalled the song's origins: "I used to do it in church when I was a kid and it was a march for the offering. We would play it with tubas, trombones and the big bass drum and it sounded really joyful. I played it to Jerry Wexler and Bert Berns,who thought that it was too fast, and had the wrong tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
." In 1997 Burke recalled: "When I did it for Jerry Wexler and Bert Burns (sic), they told me that song would never make it. I said, 'Well, I tell ya what—I'll give you a piece of it.' They said, 'That's the way we'll get the record played, so we'll take a piece of it.' In those days, they took a piece of your songs—a piece of the publishing—but in the end, you didn't have any pieces left. Even now, I'm still struggling to get the publishing, the royalties, and that'll never happen." Wexler maintained in 2002: "I know Solomon is upset about that, and I wrote him a long letter explaining how we wrote the song together and that he has always gotten his share of the royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
. I know that because I get royalty checks for the song. The whole process of making a record is a collaborative affair and the issue of who does just what on a song sometimes gets confusing, but not on that song. We wrote it in Bert's apartment. Bert had a guitar and we wrote it together."
In August 2008 Burke recalled that he'd hired musicians from Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
, to play at a gig in Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
and he drafted them in to play the instrumental riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
on "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love". The riff was the money march he did at church where the congregation marches down the aisle to the front to make offerings. Burke continued: "Got the band cooking, get a bit of echo, we went through it, came back out, said to Jerry [Wexler], 'Whaddya think?' He said, 'Too fast. Doesn't have any meaning.' (Engineer) Tommy (Dowd) says, 'What can we lose? His band's here, let's just cut it.'" In this song, Burke employs the style of a black preacher, in "which he begins by delivering his message in a style of a sermon, and offering salvation". Dave Marsh explains that in this song, "the porcine, gilt-fingered lay preacher testifies from the top but what you ought to hear is writ large between the lines, especially in the stentorian
Stentorian
Stentorian is a Heavy Metal band from Bangladesh formed in the early 2001. Stentorian released one commercially successful album Protimuhurtey in 2005 and several commercially successful singles. Their most notable songs include Adrissho Juddho, Bishonno Adhaar, Bidrohi, Jolosrot, Anubhuti, Mone...
opening sermon. That is, when Burke sings "[There's a song I sing, and I believe] If everybody was to sing this song, it could save the whole world." Burke's version, while later ranked #429 on the Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published December 9, 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"....
, and ranked #447 in Dave Marsh's book, In The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, which was released in July 1964, and was in the US Pop Charts for 8 weeks, but only reached #58. "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" was covered by The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
almost immediately in January 1965, by Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson 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...
in 1966, and again a decade and a half later, was a hit because of its appearance in the 1979 film The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
. In 1989 it was released as a single in the UK, backed by "Think" and it peaked at #12.
"The Price" (1964)
On August 28, 1964, Burke recorded "Yes I Do" (Atlantic 2254), and "The Price" (Atlantic 2259), "a catalog of the wages of a bad romance. ("You cost me my mother/The love of my father/Sister/My brother too."), was arranged by Northern SoulNorthern 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...
great Teacho Wilshire and produced by Bert Berns
Bert Berns
Bertrand 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...
. "The Price" was inspired by the deterioration of his marriage with his wife, Delores. According to Burke: “The song was written live at the Apollo Theater. It’s a dramatic, drastic story. It wasn’t something that was prepared. I had received some uncomfortable news from Philadelphia concerning my wife, my family. I had to go on stage at that moment. I could not respond to what was going on and I just told my band just to play the vamp and I would think of something.” In 2008 Burke admitted to serial infidelity during his marriage: "I was young. Girls were coming from every angle. I couldn't love them all. But I tried." In 2002 Burke explained: "God is in everything good. I love beautiful women, and I'm not going to tell anyone different. Sam Cooke was packing out churches at the same time as me, but when he was singing sacred songs, the young girls were thinking, 'Lord, Jesus, if I could just get with that Sam Cooke. Brother Sam, come over and pray for me one time!' All of that was in the room, it's what life is about. You can't separate it." In 1997 Burke explained: "We all have God inside us, as well as a little bit of the devil. We activate the God because that's the good to fight the devil, because he's always workin' on us. He's constantly got something going, ya know? That's his job. He does a very good job too, but not good enough."
From October 16 to November 9, 1964 Burke again toured the South on Henry Wynn's Supersonic Attractions Tour with 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...
, Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
, BB King, Chuck Jackson
Chuck Jackson
Chuck Jackson is an R&B singer who was one of the first artists to record material by Burt Bacharach and Hal David successfully. He has performed with moderate success since 1961...
, and Hank Ballard
Hank Ballard
Hank Ballard , born John Henry Kendricks, was a rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of Hank Ballard and The Midnighters and one of the first proto-rock 'n' roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s...
and the Midnighters, with Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
a temporary member of his band. Burke, Don Covay, and Wilson Pickett, performed at the Apollo Theater on October 21, 1964, which was recorded by Atlantic Records engineers, but neither of Burke's songs were released. In November 1964 Burke released Rock 'n' Soul (Atlantic Records 5009), an album which contained seven top 100 Billboard hits.
"Got to Get You Off My Mind" (1965)
On January 22, 1965 Burke recorded four songs at Atlantic's New York studio, including his "signature single", and his biggest hit (#1 R&B, #22 pop), "Got to Get You Off My MindGot to Get You Off My Mind
"Got to Get You Off My Mind" is a 1965 soul single written and performed by Solomon Burke. The single was produced by Jerry Wexler, and was the most successful of Burke's long career, becoming his highest-charting single on both the R&B and pop singles charts...
" (Atlantic 2276), which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
would later call "one of the premier soul hits of the 1960s". Written by Burke and his then wife, Delores Burke, and John "J.B." Moore, "a vengeful song about getting past someone who has found a new lover, and ... inspired by Burke's marital strife", it "features his smooth, solid voice lamenting the death of a love affair", "Got to Get You Off My Mind" was started on 11 December 1964, just hours after Burke heard that his friend 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...
had been murdered, just after Burke ate with him in a Los Angeles restaurant, and on the same day his third wife, Delores, the mother then of 11 of his children, informed him by mail that she wanted a divorce. Burke explained the origin of "Got to Get You Off My Mind": “It was written in California the night of Sam Cooke’s death. I learned of Sam Cooke’s death after leaving him two hours prior to that. At the same time I learned about my wife wanting a divorce. A special delivery letter
Special delivery (postal service)
Special Delivery is a postal service for urgent postal packets. Its meaning varies among postal services and is different and separate from Express mail delivery service offered by many postal administrations...
was at the desk waiting for me in the hotel... so all of these things came about very quickly and very drastically.” Burke completed the song on the train back to Chicago for Cooke's funeral, On 2 April 1965, it became his only #1 hit, where it remained for three weeks.
In early 1965 Burke again toured with Henry Wynn's Supersonic Attractions, performing in the newly-opened 50,000-seat Atlanta Stadium
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, often shortened to "Fulton County Stadium," was a multi-purpose stadium that formerly stood in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.-History:...
, headlining with Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
, and backed by B.B. King's band. In the Spring of 1965 Burke played 30 one-nighters
One-night stand
Originally, a one-night stand was a single theatre performance, usually by a guest performer on tour, as opposed to an ongoing engagement. Today, however, the term is more commonly defined as a single sexual encounter, in which neither participant has any intention or expectation of a relationship...
with Sam Cooke, Dee Clark, Wilson Pickett, Dionne Warwick, The Drifters, and Lotsa Poppa at venues such as the Uptown Theatre in Philadelphia
Uptown Theater (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
The Uptown Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also known as Uptown Theater and Office Building, is an Art Deco building built in 1927. The Uptown Theater is located on 2240 N. Broad Street. It became a major venue on the chitlin circuit, from 1951-1978. It was listed on the National Register...
, the Apollo Theatre in New York City, and the Howard Theatre in Washington DC
Howard Theatre
The Howard Theatre is a historic theatre, located at 620 T Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C..Opened in 1910, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974....
. On April 2, Burke performed in a Rhythm and Blues concert at the Cow Palace
Cow Palace
Cow Palace is an indoor arena, in Daly City, California, situated on the city's border with neighboring San Francisco, notable as a sporting arena.-History:...
in San Francisco, that featured Jackie Ross
Jackie Ross
Jackie Ross is an American soul singer.Ross sang gospel music as a child, and performed on a radio show run by her parents, both preachers. After her father died in 1954 she moved to Chicago and was signed to SAR Records by Sam Cooke...
, The Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
, The Temptations
The Temptations
The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...
, Alvin Cash and the Crawlers
Alvin Cash
Alvin Cash was an American pop singer and actor.-Biography:Born Alvin Welch in St. Louis, Missouri, and a graduate of St. Louis's Sumner High School , he and three brothers moved to Chicago, where they sang and danced while in search of a recording contract...
, Walter Jackson
Walter Jackson (singer)
Walter Jackson was an American soul ballad singer who had a string of hits on the US R&B chart between the mid 1960s and early 1980s...
, The Chi Lites, The Artistics, The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were an American singing girl group on the Tamla label. Motown's first successful female vocal group, the Marvelettes are most notable for recording the company's first #1 Pop hit, "Please Mr...
and Bobby Freeman
Bobby Freeman
Bobby Freeman is an African-American soul singer, songwriter, and record producer who recorded for the Autumn Records label in San Francisco, California. He is best known for his 1958 hit "Do You Want To Dance?" and his 1964 Top Ten hit "C'mon and Swim"...
.
"Tonight's the Night" / "Maggie's Farm" (1965)
Following the success of "Got to Get You Off My Mind", Burke collaborated with his friend Don CovayDon Covay
Don 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...
to write a followup, "Tonight's the Night" (Atlantic 2288). In 2005, Burke told The Independent on Sunday: "I'd sit with Don Covay
Don Covay
Don 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...
writing those songs and just cry. I'd say Don you have such a beautiful wife but mine is probably out somewhere slashing my tires because I was off with some chick. I was a young man, girls were coming from every angle. I couldn't love 'em all, but I certainly tried." "Tonight's the Night" was recorded on April 28, 1965 in New York, and was released backed with a cover of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Maggie's Farm
Maggie's Farm
"Maggie's Farm" is a song written by Bob Dylan, recorded on January 15, 1965, and released on the album Bringing It All Back Home on March 22 of that year...
", that he been recorded on April 8, 1965,
making Burke "one of the first black singers to record a Bob Dylan song". Burke's version was released just prior to Dylan's own single release, and outperformed it on the charts. "Tonight's the Night" was another big hit (#2 R&B; #28 Pop) for Burke in the summer of 1965.
Due to the popularity of Burke's two last major ‘pop’ hits, "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a song written by Bert Berns, Solomon Burke and Jerry Wexler, and originally recorded by Solomon Burke under the production of Bert Berns at Atlantic Records in 1964...
" and "Got to Get You Off My Mind
Got to Get You Off My Mind
"Got to Get You Off My Mind" is a 1965 soul single written and performed by Solomon Burke. The single was produced by Jerry Wexler, and was the most successful of Burke's long career, becoming his highest-charting single on both the R&B and pop singles charts...
", Burke toured England, including performing at London's Marquee Club
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....
, and Europe in 1965 and again in 1966. While in England Burke appeared live on British television for the first time. Burke performed on BBC2's Gadzooks! It's All Happening hosted by Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
on June 14, 1965. On June 18, 1965, Burke performed on Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go! or simply RSG! was one of the UK's first rock/pop music TV programmes. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan was assisted by record producer/talent manager Vicki Wickham, who became the producer. It was broadcast from August 1963 until December 1966...
, with Van Morrison and Them
Them (band)
Them were a Northern Irish band formed in Belfast in April 1964, most prominently known for the garage rock standard "Gloria" and launching singer Van Morrison's musical career...
, and the Marvelettes. Burke appeared on Thank Your Lucky Stars
Thank Your Lucky Stars (TV series)
Thank Your Lucky Stars was a British television pop music show made by ABC Television, and broadcast on ITV from 1961 to 1966. Many of the top bands performed on it, and for millions of British teenagers it was essential viewing...
on June 26, 1965 with The Midnights, Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
, The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were an American singing girl group on the Tamla label. Motown's first successful female vocal group, the Marvelettes are most notable for recording the company's first #1 Pop hit, "Please Mr...
, The Searchers
The Searchers (band)
The Searchers are an English beat group, who emerged as part of the 1960s Merseybeat scene along with The Beatles, The Fourmost, The Merseybeats, The Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry & The Pacemakers....
, Mike Hudson, Eden Kane
Eden Kane
Eden Kane is an early 1960s British pop singer.-Life and career:Like Cliff Richard, Pete Best, and Engelbert Humperdinck, Eden Kane was born in India, but returned to Britain as a child...
, Them
Them (band)
Them were a Northern Irish band formed in Belfast in April 1964, most prominently known for the garage rock standard "Gloria" and launching singer Van Morrison's musical career...
, and The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things are an English rock and roll band from London, who originally formed in 1963. They took their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing" and, in their early days, were dubbed by the British press the "uglier cousins of the Rolling Stones". Their most commercially successful...
, whose cover of Burke's "Cry to Me" would reach #28 on the UK charts in 1965. On 29 June 1965 Burke appeared on Discs a Go-Go with the Fortunes
The Fortunes
The Fortunes are an English harmony beat group. Formed in Birmingham, The Fortunes first came to prominence and international acclaim in 1965, when "You've Got Your Troubles" broke into the US and UK Top 10s...
and The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....
.
After his return from Britain, Burke re-entered the studio and recorded three more songs on June 25, 1965, including two minor hits, "Someone Is Watching" (Atlantic 2299) (R&B #24, Pop #89), and "Only Love Can Save Me Now" (Atlantic 2308) (#94 Pop). On November 5, 1965, Burke recorded three more songs, including "Baby Come On Home" b/w "Can't Stop Lovin' You Now" (Atlantic 2314) (R&B #31, Pop #96).
In 1965 Atlantic released Burke's fifth album, The Best of Solomon Burke, which peaked at #22 on the US charts.
Chart Decline (1966–1968)
After 1965, "which was hands down the biggest year of his career", Burke "was at best a middle-of-the-pack chart performer". According to Cliff White, "like many others, Solomon rode the crest of this new wave of popularity and then was left high and dry when the tide of fashion receded from his shores again. In his last three years with Atlantic he continued to turn out workmanlike performances, often as enjoyable as his early hits, at worst occasionally dull." As critic Cliff White wrote, "In his nine years with Atlantic Records he never made a truly bad record, but towards the end, perhaps tired after so many years on the road and more than a little dispirited by the predictability of the arrangements, which had become increasingly stereotyped, he didn't always project the personality that had once dominated his best work. On the dullest of tracks he was just another competent soul singer." Most of Burke's later recordings gained him R&B chart entries, and "given the right song he could still clock up a Hot 100 hit". However, Burke’s chart decline coincided with the years when most other exemplars of soul music (including Aretha FranklinAretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson 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...
, 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...
, James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, the Temptations
The Temptations
The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...
, and Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
) were "solidifying their respective stardoms". According to David Cantwell, in this period, "Burke quickly became a King without a kingdom".
From an early age Burke was "always an enterprising personality". In addition to his recording career, Burke ran funeral homes, owned two drugstores and a popcorn business in Philadelphia, and later had the first Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew is a citrus-flavored carbonated soft drink brand produced and owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in the 1940s by Tennessee beverage bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman and was first marketed in Marion, VA, Knoxville and Johnson City, Tennessee. A revised formula was...
franchise in Philadelphia. Burke's entrepreneurial activities included cooking and selling barbecued chicken sandwiches backstage, and even demanding and operating the concessions at the Apollo Theatre
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
when he performed there in 1966, which was very profitable for him but so enraged the owner Frank Schiffman that he was banned from performing at the Apollo Theater for life. After playing at the reopening of The Cavern Club
The Cavern Club
The Cavern Club is a rock and roll club in Liverpool, England. Opened on Wednesday 16 January 1957, the club had their first performance by The Beatles on 9 February 1961, and where Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles performing on 9 November 1961....
in Liverpool in July 1966, Burke said: “The Cavern was a great place to play. The groove was there, the people were there, and it was wonderful. I remember them selling hot Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
s. What a mistake – you gotta put ice in those things. Think of how many more they could have sold with ice in them". Burke sold fried chicken and sandwiches backstage at concerts, and well as sandwiches, soft drinks, and fried chickens at increasingly inflated prices to other performers who were refused service at restaurants on the Chitlin' circuit
Chitlin' circuit
The "Chitlin' Circuit" was the collective name given to the string of performance venues throughout the eastern and southern United States that were safe and acceptable for African-American musicians, comedians, and other entertainers to perform during the age of racial segregation in the United...
in the "Jim Crow" South. According to Sam Moore of the soul duo Sam & Dave
Sam & Dave
Sam & Dave were an American soul and rhythm and blues duo who performed together from 1961 through 1981. The tenor voice was Samuel David Moore , and the baritone/tenor voice was Dave Prater .Sam & Dave are members of...
, "He gave me one pork chop, one scoop of macaroni and cheese
Macaroni and cheese
Macaroni and cheese, also known as "mac and cheese", "macaroni cheese" in British English, or "macaroni pie" in Caribbean English, is a casserole consisting of cooked macaroni and cheese sauce...
, and one spoonful of gravy. I said, ‘Is that it?’ And he’d say, "That’s it, brother. I’m doing you a favor, so take it or leave it." Trombonist Fred Wesley
Fred Wesley
Fred Wesley is an American jazz and funk trombonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
was one who was critical of Burke's business practices.
After failing to crack the top ten for a couple of years, by the beginning of 1968 Burke was no longer a major artist at Atlantic Records, who were producing hit records for other performers on their label including Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson 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...
and Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, and were also reaping the rewards of their distribution deal with Stax
Stax Records
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...
on artists like 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...
and Eddie Floyd
Eddie Floyd
Eddie Lee Floyd is an American soul/R&B singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s and the song "Knock on Wood".-Biography:...
. In March 1968 Atlantic sent Burke with Tom Dowd
Tom Dowd
Tom Dowd was an American recording engineer and producer for Atlantic Records. He was credited with innovating the multi-track recording method. Dowd worked on a virtual "who's who" of recordings that encompassed blues, jazz, pop, rock and soul records.- Early years :Born in Manhattan, Dowd grew...
and Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country...
to Memphis to record what would be his final Atlantic album, I Wish I Knew, at Chips Moman
Chips Moman
Lincoln Wayne "Chips" Moman is an American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter. As a record producer, Moman is known for recording Elvis Presley, Bobby Womack, Carla Thomas, and Merrilee Rush, as well as guiding the career of the Box Tops in Memphis, Tennessee during the 1960s...
's American Sound Studio
American Sound Studio
American Sound Studio was a recording studio located at 827 Thomas Street in Memphis, Tennessee. More than one hundred hit songs were recorded there between its founding 1967 and its closing in 1972, The music for these hits was played by the house band "The Memphis Boys", also known as the "827...
." This album included several songs that failed to chart, including "Save It", and Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...
's "Get Out Of My Life Woman", as well as a cover of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", his first recording that provided social commentary, which was released as a single (Atlantic 2507) just before Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in April 1968. Burke, who had met fellow preacher King several times, agreed to Atlantic Record assigning 5% royalty on this single to the family of King. Despite this, the single peaked at #32 on the R&B chart, and only reached #68 on the Pop chart.
While in Memphis in June 1968, Burke worked at the Sun Studios with Tamiko Jones (born 1945 in Kyle, West Virginia
Kyle, West Virginia
Kyle is an unincorporated community in McDowell County, West Virginia, United States. Kyle is located along U.S. Route 52 southeast of Northfork. Kyle has a post office with ZIP code 24855....
, who was later both his manager and fiancée, on her album I'll Be Anything for You (A&M SP3011), arranging several songs, including his own composition, "Suddenly"; singing duets with Jones on her cover of The Temptations
The Temptations
The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...
' "Please Return Your Love To Me
Please Return Your Love To Me
"Please Return Your Love to Me" is a 1968 hit single by The Temptations for the Gordy label. Produced by Norman Whitfield, who co-written the song with Barrett Strong, it is the last single to feature David Ruffin in the lineup...
" and Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
's "Try It Baby
Try It Baby
"Try It Baby" is a slow bluesy ballad recorded by American soul singer Marvin Gaye, released on the Tamla label in 1964. It was written and produced by Gaye's brother-in-law, Motown chairman Berry Gordy, and talked of a woman who was "moving up" and "leaving behind".To help him along the way, the...
"; and providing a vocal on "There's Got To Be A Better Way". Soon after Jones contracted polio, which forced her to suspend her career for 18 months.
The Soul Clan (1966–1969)
In 1966 Burke teamed with fellow Atlantic artists Wilson PickettWilson Pickett
Wilson 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...
, Don Covay
Don Covay
Don 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...
, 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...
, and Joe Tex
Joe Tex
Joseph Arrington, Jr. , better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s...
to form a coalition called The Soul Clan. In a 1992 interview Burke indicated that The Soul Clan asked Atlantic to advance $1 million to them. "I remember one time we walked in and asked for a million dollars. It was Otis Redding, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett, Don Colay, Ben E. King and myself. We all went in together. We were all on the charts. We all asked for a million dollars for a real estate project, as an organization, as a soul clan. We intended to buy up a lot of property in the South, in the ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
areas and re-modeled them and built homes. And, we needed a million dollars to put this project together. We walked into Atlantic asking for that and wound up being put on the back shelf. ... All of us together were asking for a million. You and I know of course that all of us together at that time made millions and millions for Atlantic. Their idea was "to pool their talents and resources, and become a positive force within the black community. They envisioned things like buying ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
real estate and refurbishing it, providing jobs, building schools, and creating black-owned restaurant franchises that would knock the McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
and KFC
KFC
KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global...
s out of the box... the possibillities were endless." Burke explained the purpose of this alliance: "We wanted to interlock ourselves as a group, to express to the younger people how strong we should be and to help one another, work with one another and support one another". While "Burke saw the collaboration as a stepping stone toward building an autonomous African-American business empire, ... Covay, more successful as a songwriter than a performer, hoped to promote his own career alongside those of his friends." About this time Burke, Redding and James Brown had discussed forming an organization to provide health care benefits and pensions for older black musicians.
Recording had been delayed initially while Redding underwent throat surgery and recuperated. After Redding died in a plane crash in December 1967, Arthur Conley
Arthur Conley
Arthur Lee Conley was an American soul singer, best known for the 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music".-Career:...
replaced him, and after Pickett dropped out "supposedly uncomfortable with Burke's grandiose financial plans", he was replaced by Ben E. King
Ben E. King
Benjamin Earl King , better known as Ben E. King, is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me", a U.S...
. For Burke, Soul Clan was "an expression of solidarity and mutual support by five pillars of soul music". From February 6, 1968, The Soul Clan recorded a single "Soul Meeting" b/w "That's How It Feels" (Atlantic 2530), and a 1969 album, The Soul Clan, featuring both sides of the single and several solo tracks from the individual Clan members. In Sweet Soul Music, Peter Guralnick said "the singers never did get to actually meet in the studio... but instead recorded their vocals separately to a backing track
Backing track
A backing track is an audio or MIDI recording that musicians play or sing along to in order to add parts to their music which would be impractical to perform live.-Uses:...
which Covay had put together with Bobby Womack
Bobby Womack
Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack is an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s where he started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career has spanned more than 40...
at the Wildwood Studio in Hollywood."
According to Burke, the project fizzled when the power structure realized these guys, requested an advance of $1 million to invest in the Black communities in the South, and wanted to do more than make a record. Although the "Soul Meeting" single made it to #34 on Billboard's soul singles chart in July 1968, Burke alleges "the record was stopped and banned...we were going against the grain of what black entertainers are supposed to do. We were all just supposed to go out and buy red Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
s. We weren't supposed to go out and start talking about spending millions of dollars on building and developing... We were supposed to talk about having parties and good times and eatin' barbecue ribs. You know, pork chops." Soon after Burke left Atlantic Records.
The Soul Clan members were poorly served by Atlantic, which failed to invest in publicity and actively sabotaged their recording schedule. As Rob Whatman explains: "Times were changing, and none of the final line-up of the Soul Clan were experimenting with, nor being encouraged to try, the new sounds of funk that might have boosted and elongated their hit careers. Atlantic Records was happy to let them fade away, while sucking up the back-catalogues and talents of regional hit factories such as Stax. No Marvin Gayes or Stevie Wonders would be nurtured in New York City." Rob Whatman, "The Soul Clan: Where you going, Joe?...", (May 13, 2006)
In July 1981 The Soul Clan officially reunited for a sold out concert at the Savoy Theater in Manhattan, New York City (with Pickett stepping in for Conley, who was in Europe at the time), but it was the last time they would work together" after a chaotic concert punctuated with a "busted sound system, dead mikes, band miscues, and 'unauthorized backstage personnel' scuttled plans for a [national] tour". The Soul Clan gathered in August 1982 at the funeral of Joe Tex.
Departure from Atlantic Records (1969)
After 8 years, Burke and Atlantic Records parted company. In 2008 Burke discussed his reasons for leaving Atlantic Records forty years earlier: "We left Atlantic because we weren’t being treated properly and so many things had been done that, as I said before, have still not been overturned to this day. And so, after we were told by Atlantic that we’d never get another hit, that my career was over, and that I should go back to my preaching and selling pork chops". According to Burke in a 2006 interview: "Atlantic just wasn’t home anymore, wasn’t family. It was a corporation. We’d come in and it used to be, ‘Hello Solomon, Jerry will be right with you.’ And five minutes later Jerry would say, ‘Come on in my office and have some lunch.’ But then it got to the point where it was, ‘Did you have an appointment with Mr. Wexler? We’ll see if we can get you in today.’ And finally one day you walk in — this is a true story — and they say ‘Solomon who?’ Oh! Wow! I got a problem here. Am I the guy that carried the company for three years? I’m not carrying it now. Better get out of here."Bell Records (1969–1970)
In 1969 Burke moved to Bell RecordsBell Records
Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 by Arthur Shimkin in New York, the owner of children's record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benny Bell who used the Bell name to issue risque novelty records. A...
where he released 5 singles in the next eighteen months. In 1969 Burke had a small hit with his second release for Bell, a reworking of Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
's "Proud Mary" b/w "What Am I Living For" (Bell 783), which was co-produced by singer Tamiko Jones (born 1945 in Kyle, West Virginia
Kyle, West Virginia
Kyle is an unincorporated community in McDowell County, West Virginia, United States. Kyle is located along U.S. Route 52 southeast of Northfork. Kyle has a post office with ZIP code 24855....
), who was being rehabilitated after a bout of polio, and was at the time Burke's fiance and manager. Burke recalls: “We went to Muscle Shoals
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was formed in Muscle Shoals, Alabama,in 1969 when musicians Barry Beckett , Roger Hawkins , Jimmy Johnson and David Hood left FAME Studios to create their own studio...
and recorded Proud Mary, which they didn’t like at all. They thought it was stupid to record a song Proud Mary, which was already on the charts. I was explaining to them that it was a very big record, but it’s a very white record, a pop record. We will redo the record, open up the doors for it to get on the r&b charts and make the black stations to play the record... It was a Solomon Burke record made in Muscle Shoals. We proved that we can make a hit record without Jerry Wexler eating sandwiches with us. This record was a hit without anybody’s help. Proud Mary was only promoted by Tamiko Jones and myself.” According to Mark Denning, "While that may have seemed like a bald-faced bid for pop radio play, in Burke's hands the song became a bracing tale of life in the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
as African-Americans searched for liberation aboard the ship that carried them as slaves and put them to undignified labor serving wealthy whites." John Fogerty
John Fogerty
John Cameron Fogerty is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest...
, the song's composer, was impressed by Burke's version of his song: "Two thousand miles away this man had crawled right up inside my head to learn what Proud Mary was all about. Sure it's great when someone sings your song, but when he understands it, you listen like it was the first time." "Reworked as a celebration of black consciousness, his potent mix of gospel and country – the kind that defined his earlier sides for Atlantic – and driven by a Southern funk-like strut, .... it returned Burke to the US R&B Top 20", with the single reaching #15 on the R&B charts and #45 on the pop charts. According to Burke in a 2002 interview: "I was in Vegas for sixteen weeks at the Sands Hotel
Sands Hotel
The Sands Hotel was a historic Las Vegas Strip hotel/casino that operated from December 15, 1952 to June 30, 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, the Sands was the seventh resort that opened on the Strip....
. I missed this record being a hit, because we weren’t there to promote the record, we had no backing. The greatest thing I ever did was tell Ike Turner
Ike Turner
Isaac Wister Turner was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. In a career that lasted more than half a century, his repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk...
, “Hey man, you should get on this record…I think you and Tina
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
could tear this thing up.” On 24 May 1969 Burke sang his version of "Proud Mary" on American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
.
All but four of the tracks Burke recorded during an 18-month stay with Bell Records were packaged on the Proud Mary LP, which was released later in 1969. According to Cliff White, "Recording again in the south, Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
and Music Shoals
Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Muscle Shoals is a city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. As of 2007, the United States Census Bureau estimated the population of the city to be 12,846. The city is included in The Shoals MSA. It is famous for its contributions to American popular music.-Geography:Muscle Shoals is located...
, [sic.] he did a superb job on several well known perennials, including "That Lucky Old Sun
That Lucky Old Sun
"That Lucky Old Sun" is a 1949 popular song with music by Beasley Smith and words by Haven Gillespie. Like "Ol' Man River", its lyrics contrast the toil and intense hardship of the singer's life with the obliviousness of the natural world.-1949 recordings:...
", "What Am I Living For", and "Please Send Me Someone to Love
Please Send Me Someone to Love
"Please Send Me Someone to Love" is a blues ballad, written and recorded by Percy Mayfield in 1950, on Art Rupe's Specialty Records label. It was on the R&B chart for 27 weeks and reached the number one position and was his most successful song...
"". After this album and the two following singles, his own "Generation of Revelations", and the Mac Davis
Mac Davis
Mac Davis is a country music singer, songwriter, and actor originally from Lubbock, Texas who has enjoyed much crossover success...
song "In the Ghetto
In the Ghetto
"In the Ghetto" is a song recorded by Elvis Presley and published by Elvis Presley Music in 1969. It was written by Mac Davis and made famous by Elvis Presley who had a major comeback hit with the song in 1969. It was released in 1969 as a 45 rpm single with "Any Day Now" as the flip side...
", which had already cleaned up for Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, failed to chart, his contract was not renewed."
Shift to Los Angeles (1970)
At the end of the 1960s, Burke, who had established himself as "a consistent, if unspectacular, salesman of middle-of-the-road soul", was content to give up the grind of nationwide tours. About 1970 Burke married Frances Sunday (born 1951), Frances Sunday, whose family owned a noodle company, and had moved to Los Angeles, buying a house in Beverly Hills and seeking wider opportunities.From the early 1970s Burke concentrated on his episcopal
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
duties, preaching from a crimson throne on the third Sunday of the month at the Prayer Assembly Church of God in Christ, his church at 226 North Market St., Inglewood, California
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...
. Within three decades his church grew to have about 170 missions and 40,000 members). By 2000, Burke's Solomon’s Temple: The House of God for All People had over 300 ordained ministers whose job is to “feed the hungry, educate the uneducated and be God’s workers in the vineyard”, and 40,000 parishioners in close to 200 churches across the USA, Canada, and Jamaica. At the time of his death, there were about 180 churches that were established under the charter of his denomination, with Burke indicating: "We’re non-sectarian, non-denominational. Ours is an open door." In 2008 Burke acknowledged his Christian methodology differed from that of his maternal uncle, Pastor Harry R. Moore (born 1933; died 1982), the founder and pastor of Our First Temple of Faith, at Front and Susquehanna Streets, Philadelphia: "Mine was more: God, money and women, hey hey hey; truth, love, peace and get it on."
While pursuing other interests, Burke was also deeply involved in community work, assisting The Crippled Children's Foundation for blind and underprivileged children, while personally being responsible for more than 120 adopted children.
Burke owned funeral parlors in California, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, and two of his children have turned the mortuary business into a franchise. Additionally, Burke owned and operated a limousine
Limousine
A limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....
service Burke continued to operate companies that supplied theaters and stadiums with his own brand of fast food—Soul Dogs and Soul Corn until at least 2004.
MGM Records (1970–1974)
Through the efforts of his manager, Buddy Glee, by November 1970 Burke signed with Mike CurbMike Curb
Michael Curb is an American musician, record company executive, NASCAR and IRL race car owner. A Republican, he served as the 42nd Lieutenant Governor of California from 1979-1983 under Democratic Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown, Jr...
's MGM
MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...
label, and formed MBM Productions, his own production company. According to Clif White, "The three years on MGM were by far the most erratic in Solomon’s career, from the sublime "Drown in My Own Tears" on the We’re Almost Home album, which is sung to just an acoustic guitar accompaniment, to the ridiculous "Icbyanti W.T." from the soundtrack of Cool Breeze – a full orchestra belting out the William Tell Overture
William Tell Overture
The William Tell Overture is the instrumental introduction to the opera Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement, although he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music and secular vocal...
with Solomon interjecting W.C. Fields impersonations over the top." In 2008 Burke indicated: "MGM was a GREAT blessing for me. Because they took me in not just as a producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, but also as a full-on partner for their Rhythm & Blues department. ... [I] was able to work with their artists like The Osmonds
The Osmonds
The Osmonds are an American family music group with a long and varied career—a career that took them from singing barbershop music as children, to achieving success as teen-music idols, to producing a hit television show, and to continued success as solo and group performers...
and The Sylvers
The Sylvers
The Sylvers were a popular R&B/soul and disco family group during the 1970s. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, the family would later relocate to Watts, California.- Beginnings :...
. Plus our first MOVIE cheques came from MGM, as they opened up the doors for us. ... You know, with them we were able to perform for The President of The United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, go on tour – and just do a lotta things we’d never done BEFORE."
Burke's record debut for MGM, "Lookin' Out My Back Door
Lookin' out My Back Door
"Lookin' out My Back Door" is a song recorded by the American band Creedence Clearwater Revival and written by the band's lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter, John Fogerty...
", another Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
song, had disappointing sales.
Electronic Magnetism (1971)
Burke's first album for MGM 1971's Electronic Magnetism (also known as King Heavy) was an ambitious project with songs by Elton JohnElton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, Sly Stone
Sly Stone
Sly Stone is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of...
, a couple of gospel numbers and some new material by his family. Despite having "unlimited space to record", the album did not chart, although the title track (MGM 14221), with its Barry White
Barry White
Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter , was an American composer and singer-songwriter.A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring...
overtones, made it to #26 in the R&B chart.
In 1971 Burke toured with a 31-piece soul band on his "Peace Revival" tour to promote his King Heavy album.
In 1972 Burke had a #13 R&B hit for MGM with "Love Street and Fool's Road" (MGM 14353).
Cool Breeze (1972)
With the assistance of Gene PageGene Page
Eugene Edgar "Gene" Page, Jr. was an influential conductor, composer, arranger and record producer most active from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s....
, who provided orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
, in 1972 Burke wrote film soundtracks for blaxploitation
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
films Hammer
Hammer (film)
Hammer is a 1972 blaxploitation film directed by Bruce Clark. The film was released following the successes of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and Shaft, notable 1971 films that popularized black cinema....
, and Cool Breeze, described as "a mostly black remake of The Asphalt Jungle
The Asphalt Jungle
The Asphalt Jungle is a 1950 film noir directed by John Huston. The caper film is based on the novel of the same name by W. R. Burnett and stars an ensemble cast including Sterling Hayden, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, and, in a minor but key role, Marilyn Monroe, an unknown...
. Burke also scored the American versions of some Japanese and Chinese movies, and produced an unreleased variety show, Soul Search, which was centred around the United States Bicentennial
United States Bicentennial
The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to the historical events leading up to the creation of the United States as an independent republic...
. On Monday, June 5, 1972, Burke and his chorus sang and danced on The Monty Hall Smokin'-Stokin' Fire Brigade special which aired on ABC Television.
On January 20, 1973 Burke was among those who performed at the inauguration ball of US President Richard M. Nixon at the Kennedy Center. In 1973 Burke was sued for $50,000 by Mrs. Irene Cole, who claimed she had been hit on the head by an album thrown into the audience by Burke on 1 April.
Burke sang the theme song to Love Thy Neighbor
Love Thy Neighbor
Love Thy Neighbour was a 1970s British situation comedy.Love Thy Neighbor or Love Thy Neighbour may also refer to:* the Biblical phrase from Leviticus and the New Testament about the Ethic of reciprocity...
, a short-lived comedy series about a Black couple who move in next to a bigoted white household in a white suburb in Los Angeles, that ran for a few months in June 1973 as ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's answer to All In The Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
.
The Sons and Daughters of Solomon (1970–1973)
By December 1970 Burke formed eight of his children, including Kyrell "Connie" Burke Groves; Eleanor A. Burke, who was named after his grandmother who raised him; Melanie Burke (born March 1960); Gemini Curtis Burke (born June 3, 1961), Solomon Vincent Burke, Jr. (born 15 October 1961); Carolyn Burke; and John Fitzgerald Kennedy "JFK" Burke into a "kiddie-soul" group, the Sons and Daughters of Solomon, whose entire output consisted of "Think of the Children" (later known as "Save the Children") (K14354), recorded on December 10, 1971; "Don't Leave Me Now" (K14233) and "A Piece of Clay" (K14354), recorded on 21 December 1970; MGM single, "Everybody's Got Fingers" (written by Solomon Burke, and Melanie Burke and JFK Burke), recorded on January 16, 1971; b/w "Don't Leave Me Now" (MGM K14233), a single "Save the Children" (1972), and a 1973 album "Kid Power" (PRD0010, MGS 2994), the soundtrack to Kid Power, a cartoon adaptation of Morrie TurnerMorrie Turner
Morris "Morrie" Turner is the first nationally syndicated African-American cartoonist. Raised in Oakland, California, where he still resides, Turner is the creator of comic strip Wee Pals. He grew up in West Oakland and attended McClymonds High School; in his senior year, he moved to Berkeley to...
's Wee Pals
Wee Pals
Wee Pals is a syndicated comic strip about a diverse group of children, created and produced by Morrie Turner.-Background:Wee Pals first appeared on February 15, 1965. Syndicated by the Des Moines Register and Tribune Syndicate, the strip originally appeared in only 5 daily newspapers, as many...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
that was part of ABC Television
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Saturday morning lineup during the 1972–73 season, on MGM's Lion subsidiary. On April 9, 1973 Sons and Daughters of Solomon recorded four other songs in MGM's Los Angeles studio, but these were unreleased. According to Burke: "When you look back at history, and you look back at the publicity and the way we had it going, the Sons & Daughters of Solomon were going to be right there with the Jackson Five. We started the publicity, we started moving in the same direction with them, and then the devil came in and just turned that right around." As far as Kid Power, "It wasn't supposed to be a cartoon, it was originally supposed to be live. We had some problems – my children were kidnapped during that time and it just changed my whole way of thinking, from being in show business and everything else. I regret to this day, sometimes, that my children didn't get to be as famous and as popular...but God always knows best. He knows what He's doing, and sometimes we project what we can't see, but only God knows what's going to happen, and He knows the best. For all of us."
ABC Dunhill Records (1974)
As his star was continuing to wane, following the example of bluesmen B.B. King and Bobby BlandBobby 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"...
, in 1974 Burke signed with ABC Dunhill Records, where his main project was the soul concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
I Have a Dream (Dunhill DSX 50161), a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr, where "the songs were built on key phrases from his speeches – "Now Is the Time", "Mountain Top", or from the aims of his crusade "Social Change"'. Despite the quality of individual songs, "lush orchestration and a Ray Conniff
Ray Conniff
Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.-Biography:...
type choir, presumably aimed at Dr. King’s predominantly middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
following, finally destroyed a lot of the record’s potential". However, the single "Midnight and You" (ABC 4388), a "moody love song", which was written and arranged by Gene Page
Gene Page
Eugene Edgar "Gene" Page, Jr. was an influential conductor, composer, arranger and record producer most active from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s....
, and inspired by Barry White
Barry White
Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter , was an American composer and singer-songwriter.A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring...
, attracted contemporary audiences, and helped Burke recover "from several years of ignominy, scraping the bottom of the R&B charts", ... which gave him his biggest hit for half a decade", reaching #14 in the R&B charts.
Chess Records (1975–1976)
By 1975 Burke was signed to Chess RecordsChess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
. Burke recorded two albums for Chess: Music to Make Love By (1975) and Back to My Roots (1976), and had a #19 R&B hit (#96 Pop) in 1975 with the "You And Your Baby Blues" (Chess 2159).
However, his follow-up single "Let Me Wrap My Arms Around You" (Chess 2172) only reached #72 on the R&B chart.
Amherst (1978)
In 1978 Burke released an album Please Don't Say Goodbye To Me, which was produced by Jerry "Swamp Dogg" WilliamsSwamp Dogg
Jerry Williams, Jr., , is a soul music artist who is better known by his pseudonym Swamp Dogg.Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, Williams made his first recording in 1954 under the moniker "Little Jerry", a 78 rpm single on the Mechanic label titled "HTD Blues" / "Nats Wailing"...
, though Amherst Records. On 23 September 1973 Burke charted with his 31st and last 45
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
when "Please Don't Say Goodbye to Me" b/w "See That Girl" (Amherst 736) charted at #91 on the R&B chart.
Infinity Records (1979)
Burke released Sidewalks, Fences and Walls) (INF-9024) on Infinity RecordsInfinity Records
Infinity Records was a short-lived subsidiary of MCA Records established in New York City in 1977. The label was conceived by MCA president Sidney Sheinberg as a way for the Los Angeles-based entertainment conglomerate to improve its presence on the East Coast...
in 1979 (reissued as Let Your Love Flow in 1993 by Shanachie Records). One side of the album was produced by Michael Stokes, with the other produced by Swamp Dogg
Swamp Dogg
Jerry Williams, Jr., , is a soul music artist who is better known by his pseudonym Swamp Dogg.Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, Williams made his first recording in 1954 under the moniker "Little Jerry", a 78 rpm single on the Mechanic label titled "HTD Blues" / "Nats Wailing"...
. This album, which "contains the immortal "Sidewalk, Fences and Walls", has been issued and reissued dozens of times without Burke's knowledge or approval (most recently by the folk label Shanachie
Shanachie Records
Shanachie Records was founded in 1976 by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins. According to Harvey Pekar , it is one of the largest independent record labels in the world, and is currently distributed by E1 Music. Starting as a label that specialized in fiddle music, they began releasing work by Celtic...
). He doesn't even own a copy of the album--"I don't even know what Shanachie is"--from which he's never seen dime one. As an extra slap in the face, Burke's name is misspelled on the cover of Let Your Love Flow as 'Soloman.'"
"When the acclaimed disco-inflected Sidewalks, Fences and Walls (1979) is mentioned, Burke becomes stern. 'That was done under false pretences,' he says, lowering his tone. 'The producer (not Wexler) was a con man and we don't perform it. Music is about love, joy and mending broken hearts, and not about tearing people apart.'"
Savoy Records (1979–1984)
After almost two decades of decline, when "gospelGospel 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....
suffered as its array of vital talent fell for the lure of the devil's loot and moved from the pulpit to the snake pit
Snake pit
Snake pits are places of horror, torture and even death in European legends and fairy tales. The Viking warlord Ragnar Lodbrok is said to have been thrown into a snake pit and died there, after his army had been defeated in battle by King Aelle II of Northumbria...
of pop", by the end of the 1970s gospel music had resurrected in its popularity. Burke was a notable example of this trend when in 1979 he returned to his gospel music roots by signing with gospel label Savoy Records
Savoy Records
Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part in popularizing bebop.Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part...
. Like the other "backsliders" and all the artists who preferred a secular acclaim to the gospel obscurity", like Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
, Napoleon "Nappy" Brown
Nappy Brown
Napoleon Brown Goodson Culp better known by his stage name Nappy Brown, was an American R&B singer. His hits include the 1955 Billboard chart #2, "Don't Be Angry" and "Night Time Is the Right Time"...
, Ike and Tina Turner, Brook Benton
Brook Benton
Brook Benton was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.He made a comeback in 1970...
, Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
, and Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Burke recorded an album of gospel songs, "not to be 'saved' or under any pressure but for their own pleasure and as a tribute to their roots, because, as kids, all of them, like all black children, had sung in church". However, after his years of "flamboyant soul stardom the more conservative elements within the African American church
African American church
The term black church or African-American church refers to Christian churches that minister to predominantly African-American congregations in the United States...
were reluctant to entirely embrace the singer back to the fold". Over the next five years Solomon recorded a string of straight gospel albums, beginning with Lord, I Need A Miracle Right Now (1979), his first ever gospel album.
Later in 1979 "Burke got a surprise step up to his dwindling showbiz presence when he took some of his children to see The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers (film)
The Blues Brothers is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues, characters developed from a musical sketch on the NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. It features musical numbers by R&B and soul singers James...
movie starring John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
and Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
. Viewing old friends from the '60s soul circuit up there on the screen, Solomon felt demoralised. Then he heard "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a song written by Bert Berns, Solomon Burke and Jerry Wexler, and originally recorded by Solomon Burke under the production of Bert Berns at Atlantic Records in 1964...
" burst from the cinema speakers. Solomon said he was stunned to see his hit attributed to Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson 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...
. Burke called Atlantic the next day and threatened to get an injunction
Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
to shut down the movie. "They sent me an advance
Advance payment
An advance payment, or simply an advance, is the part of a contractually due sum that is paid in advance for goods or services, while the balance included in the invoice will only follow the delivery. It is called a prepaid expense in accrual accounting.-See also:*Advance against royalties*Pay or...
for $20,000 within 24 hours. ... Jerry Wexler got on the phone and said, 'I thought you were dead! This is wonderful!'" Despite this payment, in 1997 Burke reflected on his career: "It has not been easy. I've had my ups and downs. It's been some rough times. I sit back and I watch my music being stolen from me, my royalties I'll never receive. I've had to eat that, bite the dust and bite the bullet. Watch my songs be played in movies and never receive the checks and never get the credit. But God gives you the credit."
After renewed interest because of the success of the Blues Brothers and its soundtrack, Savoy released three more Burke gospel albums: Into My Life You Came (1982); Take Me, Shake Me (1983); and This Is His Song (1984). In January 1984 Burked was nominated for the Best Male Soul Gospel Vocal Grammy Award for his recording of Thomas A. Dorsey
Thomas A. Dorsey
Thomas Andrew Dorsey was known as "the father of black gospel music" and was at one time so closely associated with the field that songs written in the new style were sometimes known as "dorseys." Earlier in his life he was a leading blues pianist known as Georgia Tom.As formulated by Dorsey,...
's "Precious Lord, Take My Hand'.
In 2000 Burke claimed: "We never received any royalties from any of those records that were ever done by Savoy. I'm not the only artist. There are many artists, who here in America have been raped and robbed by these record and publishing companies."
Soul Alive! (1984)
In 1984 Rounder RecordsRounder Records
Rounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...
released Soul Alive!, a recording of Burke's 1981 live performances at the Phoenix 1 Club in Washington D.C., that was produced by King Solomon Haile Selassie Burke, Burke's youngest son, who "was just fourteen years old when he put the Souls Alive album out for me. ... It's still one of the big sellers for us. It was something that we had in the garage, a tape. When he became twelve, I said "listen, it's your publishing company now. You gotta deal with this business. It's your thing. All these tapes are yours." He sat there. I was playing some of the stuff. He said "Dad, what do you want to do with this tape?" I said "It's just an old tape of my show." He went into the studio, played around with it, put it on a sixteen track, pumped it up, we made a deal with Rounder with the tape. It became one of the biggest 'live' tapes I ever had. So that started him in the producing business and recording business." According to a 2002 interview: "According to Burke, he played the unissued tape for noted author/historian Peter Guralnick
Peter Guralnick
Peter Guralnick is an American music critic, writer on music, and historian of US American popular music, who is also active as an author and screenwriter. He has been married for over 45 years to Alexandra...
in a Boston restaurant. Peter's reaction: "My God, man!" Burke picks up the story: "He called these guys (from Rounder Records) and they came over (to the restaurant). We played the tape in the Chinese restaurant! Made the deal in the Chinese restaurant! I walked out of the Chinese restaurant with a fat check, a record deal, and a box of shrimp egg foo yung
Egg foo young
Egg foo young is an omelette dish found in Chinese Indonesian, British and Chinese American Cuisine.The name comes from the Cantonese language. Egg foo young is derived from Fu Yung Egg Slices, an authentic Chinese recipe from Shanghai.- Preparation :...
!"
A Change is Gonna Come (1986)
After the strong sales of Soul Alive! Solomon tried a Christmas single "The Silent Night Story" backed with "Let's Keep The Christ in Christmas" but that didn't sell and neither did his second Rounder album A Change Is Gonna Come (1986), hinged around Sam Cooke's "quasi-gospel ballad oldieA Change Is Gonna Come (song)
"A Change Is Gonna Come" is a 1964 single by R&B singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, written and first recorded in 1963 and released under the RCA Victor label shortly after his death in late 1964. Though only a modest hit for Cooke in comparison with his previous singles, the song came to exemplify the...
".
MCI/ ISIS Voice (1987)
The album Love Trap (MCI/ISIS Voice) was released in 1987.In 1987 Solomon's Atlantic classic "Cry to Me" was used in the Dirty Dancing hit movie.
In 1987 Burke appeared in his first film, The Big Easy, as Daddy Mention, "a sleazy drug kingpin".
By December 1988 Burke was among those who belatedly received some unpaid royalties from Atlantic Records due to five years of legal action of Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress, noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these...
.
In 1989 "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" was released as a single by the Blues Brothers in the UK, backed by "Think" and it peaked at #12 in April 1990.
Bizarre/Straight (1991)
By the beginning of the 1990s, Burke was averaging less than a dozen concert performances a year. In 1991 Bizarre/Straight released Homeland.In a January 1992 interview Burke revealed: "We're very big in Europe. I do maybe two months of concerts in Europe every year. Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland. So, the only thing I was doing in the States was mainly the college dates and big concerts and festivals. Basically devoting my time to my family and the mortuary business and the church. That keeps me pretty busy."
Black Top Records (1993–1994)
By 1993 Burke had signed with Black Top RecordsBlack Top Records
Black Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...
, who released the album Live At the House of Blues (Black Top), which won the Best Soul Album at the W.C. Handy Awards in May 1995.
On February 25, 1993 Burke was honored with a Pioneer Award and $15,000 from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation
Rhythm and Blues Foundation
The Rhythm and Blues Foundation is an independent American nonprofit organization dedicated to the historical and cultural preservation of rhythm and blues music....
in a ceremony that also honored his soul rival James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson 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...
, Hadda Brooks
Hadda Brooks
Hadda Brooks , was an American pianist, vocalist and composer. Her first single, "Swingin' the Boogie", which she composed, was issued in 1945...
, Dave Clark, Floyd Dixon
Floyd Dixon
For the American football player see Floyd Dixon Floyd Dixon was an American rhythm and blues pianist and singer.-Biography:...
, Lowell Fulson
Lowell Fulson
Lowell Fulson was a big-voiced blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. Fulson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also recorded for business reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom...
, Erskine Hawkins
Erskine Hawkins
Erskine Ramsay Hawkins was an American trumpet player and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is most remembered for composing the jazz standard "Tuxedo Junction" with saxophonist and arranger Bill Johnson...
, Carla Thomas
Carla Thomas
Carla Thomas is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is the daughter of Rufus Thomas.-Childhood:...
, Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
, Little Anthony and the Imperials, and Martha and the Vandellas
Martha and the Vandellas
Martha and the Vandellas were among the most successful groups of the Motown roster during the period 1963–1967...
.
On April 28, 1994 Burke was inducted into the Philadelphia Music Alliance Hall of Fame and had a bronze plaque placed on the Walk of Fame on the sidewalk at the corner of Broad and Pine Streets. In 1995 Burke was nominated for Male Soul-Blues Artist of the Year at the W.C. Handy Awards in Memphis.
Burke was featured in The Atlantic Records Story, a documentary that debuted on American television on May 12, 1994, and in The History of Rock 'N' Roll, Vol. 5: "The Sound of Soul", which was screened in 1995, and released by Time-Life Video
Time-Life
Time–Life is a creator and direct marketer of books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. Its products are sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales....
on June 29, 2004 on DVD.
Burke was mentioned throughout the 1995 Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
novel High Fidelity
High Fidelity (novel)
High Fidelity is a 1995 British novel by Nick Hornby. It was adapted into a 2000 film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack. It also served as the basis for a 2006 Broadway musical of the same name.-Plot summary:...
.
By November 1995 Burke admitted that he was "maybe 400 pounds".
In 1996 Burke was the centerpiece of Sweet Inspiration, an unreleased documentary on soul music produced and directed by George Nierenberg.
In June 1996 Burke performed at the Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall is a concert hall, in New York City and is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic, with a capacity of 2,738 seats.-History:...
, on the same bill as Wilson Pickett, with whom he sang their 1961 hit, "If You Need Me" as the finale. According to Neil Strauss, "Though he weighs in at over 350 pounds, Mr. Burke carried his bulk as majestically as he used his voice. He appeared onstage, garbed in a purple, fur-fringed robe and accompanied by a black-suited valet, and promptly sat down in a gold-colored throne. From there, he reigned".
Pointblank Records (1997–1999)
By 1997 Burke was signed by Jim FifieldJim Fifield
James G. "Jim" Fifield was President/CEO of EMI from 1988 to 1998.-Background:Prior to joining EMI, Fifield became a vice president at General Mills in 1984...
, the President and CEO of EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, to Point Blank Records
Point Blank Records
Point Blank Records is a record label subsidiary of Virgin Records.Point Blank Records was founded in 1998 by John Wooler. Wooler served as Deputy Head of A&R at Virgin Records UK from 1984-1994 and Senior Vice President of Virgin Records US from 1994-2002. He had a passion for blues, Americana...
, a subsidiary of Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, where he released an album The Definition of Soul, that was produced by one of his sons, King Solomon Haile Selassie Burke. One of Burke’s tracks on Definition of Soul, "Your Turn to Cry", was cowritten with Jerry Wexler
Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...
. In an interview in Billboard, Burke explained: "My relationship with Jerry Wexler is like a two-way street. There’s one side where I’m angry for a lot of things that didn’t go down and one side where I’m very grateful that he was there, because he did develop Solomon Burke to a certain point and then he stopped. ... But you can’t keep anger inside because then good things don’t happen". Also on this album Burke duets on "Everybody Has a Game" with Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
.
In 1998 Burke filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the result of some "bad business deals."
GTR Records (from 1999)
By 1999 Burke had started his own record labelRecord label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s: GTR Records (an abbreviation of Gospel Truth Recordings) for gospel music projects, which was owned by his children, and was also "the mother label for The One, which is our secular label".
Christmas All Over The World (1999)
Before Christmas 1999, GTR released Christmas All Over The World, his first seasonal album, with half being Christmas standards such as "Jingle BellsJingle Bells
"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857...
", "White Christmas
White Christmas
A white Christmas refers to the presence of snow on Christmas Day. This phenomenon is most common in the northern countries of the Northern Hemisphere...
", "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer", "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve", "The Christmas Song
The Christmas Song
"The Christmas Song" is a classic Christmas song written in 1944 by musician, composer, and vocalist Mel Tormé and Bob Wells. According to Tormé, the song was written during a blistering hot summer...
(Chestnuts Roasting)", and "Joy to the World
Joy to the World
"Joy to the World" is a Christian Christmas carol.The words are by English hymn writer Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 98 in the Bible. The song was first published in 1719 in Watts' collection; The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and...
", on which his daughter Elizabeth accompanied him. The rest of the album contained original songs created by him or members of his family, including "Season's Greetings", "You're All I Want And Need For Christmas", "It's Christmas All Over The World", "Christmas Eve's Blues", "Something Good This Christmas", and "The Bethlehem Story", a rewrite of Burke's own version of The Little Town of Bethlehem story, or The Night Before Christmas.” The final track on the album is "The Christmas Prayer", a 'thank you' sermon from Burke, which had been written by Burke in 1980, and released by Savoy Records
Savoy Records
Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part in popularizing bebop.Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part...
in 1982 as the flip side to his cover of "Silent Night
Silent Night
"Silent Night" is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber...
". Burke indicated: ”The Christmas Prayer was stolen by Savoy, and they were actually bootlegging it. From a lot of artists like myself, their records and music has been stolen and taken from these different record companies. Then we charged back for it. They have no rights to The Christmas Prayer. I'm not the person, who's gonna argue over a prayer, because the Lord gave me that prayer for the people, myself and my family. That Christmas Prayer was actually put out by myself and a gentleman out of New Jersey on a label of our own called The Big One. It was done in '80. They took the song and reissued it feeling that they have the right."
Not By Water, But Fire This Time (1999)
Also in 1999 GTR released Not By Water, But Fire This Time, a gospel recording distributed by EMI Christian Music GroupEMI Christian Music Group
EMI Christian Music Group is a subsidiary of EMI which contains its Christian music record labels, and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee...
. The album was produced by his three youngest daughters: Victoria, Elizabeth and Candy Burke, and among the writers was his wife, Sunday Burke, and Osirius, one of his grandsons.
2000s
On 14 October 2000 Burke and his family performed in St. Peter's Square at the Jubilee of the FamilyGreat Jubilee
The Great Jubilee in 2000 was a major event in the Roman Catholic Church, held from December 24, 1999 to January 6, 2001. Like other previous Jubilee years, it was a celebration of the mercy of God and forgiveness of sins...
at the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
in front of a live audience estimated at 500,000 people. Burke was invited back to the Vatican
Apostolic Palace
The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Sacred Palace, the Papal Palace and the Palace of the Vatican...
by Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
and also by Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
in December 2005 for the Christmas celebration. Burke indicated in 2002: "From that moment, the seven blessings that the Pope gave me, miracles have been happening in my life. I was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
on 19 March 2001 in New York City by Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...
, after eight previous nominations since 1986. In a 2004 interview Burke, while acknowledging his gratitude, responded: "I'm not really a rock 'n' roller. I'd love to be, but what an honor to be a part of that. It's just part of my life, you know. And gosh, when you think about rock 'n' roll, you think about Bill Haley and the Comets, or Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts
Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts
Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts, also known as Doug Clark and his Hot Nuts, The Hot Nuts and, since the death of Doug Clark in 2002, Doug Clark's Hot Nuts, is a rhythm and blues, rock and novelty band that has played party and club dates for more than fifty years...
, and you think about all them great guys and Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
and Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
, that was rock 'n' roll, man. Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
--we were doin' it back in those days."
In 2002 Burke appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
and sang "Good Rocking Tonight
Good Rocking Tonight
"Good Rocking Tonight" was originally a jump blues song released in 1947 by its writer, Roy Brown and was covered by many other recording artists. The song includes the memorable refrain, "Well I heard the news, there's good rocking tonight!"...
".
In 2002 Burke appeared as Bishop Bonds in the thriller film "Time of Fear".
In late June 2002 Burke was awarded an LA Music Award as Best Contemporary Blues/ R&B artist.
On Tuesday, July 16, 2002, Burke performed on the Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
. On Friday, July 19, 2002 the city of Philadelphia celebrated the first official Solomon Burke Day.
Don't Give Up on Me (2002)
Burke's career was revived with the July 23, 2002 release of Don't Give Up on MeDon't Give Up On Me
Don't Give Up on Me is a studio album by R&B/Soul singer Solomon Burke, recorded and released in 2002 on Fat Possum Records. The album won the MOJO Award for Album of the Year, as well as the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album...
on Fat Possum Records
Fat Possum Records
Fat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording hitherto unknown Mississippi blues artists . Recently, Fat Possum has signed younger rock acts to its roster...
and produced by Joe Henry
Joe Henry
Joseph Lee "Joe" Henry is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Henry's musical style spans several genres, including alt. country, rock, jazz and folk.- Early years :...
, where he sang songs written specifically for the album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
by various leading recording artists
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, including Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
and Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
. In February 2005 Andy Kaulkin, president of ANTI-
ANTI-
ANTI- is an American record label founded in 1999 as a sister label of Epitaph Records.While Epitaph's focus has shifted over the last decade from mostly punk rock, nowadays ANTI- has a more diverse roster, ranging from country , hip hop , reggae , Soul , folk , rap-rock , indie rock...
, revealed that he had hoped the one-album deal would lead to new interest in Burke and help him find another label that could afford the kind of big-budget record that was beyond Anti-'s limited resources. In a 2004 interview Burke reveals Don't Give Up has an underlying gospel message. "I really send the message out to everybody because not only don't give up on me, but it's a message saying don't give up on yourself. A lot of people are going through a lot of things right now in life. People are suffering from AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, cancers, all kinds of heart trouble, overweight, all kinds of things. Saying, don't give up. Hold on. And whatever you do, don't give up on me." Don't Give Up on Me, which was ranked the #12 album in The 2002 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll, won Burke his only Grammy, the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 45th Grammy Awards on February 22, 2003. After receiving the award, Burke said: "It took me 40 years to get up these steps", before exclaiming: "We got a Grammy, baby!"
On 27 September 2002 Burke performed on Norwegian talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
Først & sist
Først & sist
Først & sist was a Norwegian talk show and was the largest in the Nordic countries. It was hosted by Fredrik Skavlan and aired on NRK.The show first aired in 1998 and was broadcast every Friday until its finale in 2007...
. and in an episode of Swedish game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
Bingolotto
Bingolotto
Bingolotto is a Swedish highly popular primetime television game show lottery that was first broadcast 1989 on local TV and since 1991 nationwide on the Swedish network TV4. The show is a collaboration work between Swedish TV channel TV4, the Swedish lottery game company Folkspel and the Swedish...
, which screened on December 23, 2002. Burke performed "Cry to Me" on December 31, 2002 on Later with Jools Holland
Later with Jools Holland
Later... with Jools Holland is a contemporary British music television show hosted by Jools Holland. A spin-off of The Late Show, it has been running in short series since 1992 and is a part of BBC Two's late-night line-up, usually at around 11pm to 12 midnight...
, which was released on November 18, 2003 on Jools Holland Later ... Legends.
Burke appeared on Junkie XL
Junkie XL
Tom Holkenborg , better known as Junkie XL or JXL, is a Dutch musician. He uses the name JXL in cases where the term "Junkie" might cause offense. XL is for "Xpanding Limits"....
's album, Radio JXL: A Broadcast From the Computer Hell Cabin
Radio JXL: A Broadcast From the Computer Hell Cabin
Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin is the third album by electronic music producer Junkie XL. Released in 2004, the double album features collaborations with a number of other artists. The songs on the first disc are generally short and vocally-driven much like modern pop, though...
, performing "Catch Up To My Step", which reached #63 on the UK charts on 7 January 2003. Burke was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that initially aired from May 25, 1992 to May 29, 2009, and resumed production on March 1, 2010. The fourth incarnation of the Tonight Show franchise made its debut on May 25, 1992, three days following Johnny...
on Monday January 20, 2003.
Burke sang "Turn on Your Love Light" and "Down in the Valley" in the "Salute to the Blues" concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
on February 7, 2003, celebrating "the centennial of 'Father of the Blues' W.C. Handy’s first, fortuitous encounter with 'the weirdest music I had ever heard', a Tutwiler, Mississippi
Tutwiler, Mississippi
Tutwiler is a town in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,364 at the 2000 census.-History:In 1899 Tom Tutwiler, a civil engineer for a local railroad, made his headquarters seven miles northeast of Sumner. The town of Tutwiler was founded and named for him...
, black man’s sliding a knifeblade across guitar strings to sing about 'where the Southern cross the Dog'." Also included was interviews with various musicians, including Burke who talked about his time on "the neck bone circuit," which paid even less than the famously low-rent chitlin circuit
Chitlin' circuit
The "Chitlin' Circuit" was the collective name given to the string of performance venues throughout the eastern and southern United States that were safe and acceptable for African-American musicians, comedians, and other entertainers to perform during the age of racial segregation in the United...
. This concert was featured in the 2004 music documentary Lightning in a Bottle, which was directed by Antoine Fuqua
Antoine Fuqua
Antoine Fuqua is an American film director. He directed the film Training Day as well as Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, Shooter and Brooklyn's Finest...
, and had Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
as executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
.
On Friday, February 21, 2003 Burke performed on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Burke appeared in the concert held on April 30, 2003 to commemorate the opening of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, singing "Try a Little Tenderness
Try a Little Tenderness
"Try a Little Tenderness" is a love song written by Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly and Harry M. Woods, and recorded initially on December 8, 1932 by the Ray Noble Orchestra followed by both Ruth Etting and Bing Crosby in 1933...
" as a tribute to 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...
, Stax's biggest star, and "Mustang Sally
Mustang Sally (song)
"Mustang Sally" is an R&B/straightforward blues first recorded by Mack Rice in 1965. It gained greater popularity when it was covered by Wilson Pickett on a single the following year. Pickett's version was also included on his 1967 album The Wicked Pickett....
" with its composer, Mack Rice
Mack Rice
Mack Rice , is a American songwriter, whose compositions have been performed by many well-known artists, including The Staple Singers, Ike and Tina Turner, Albert King, Johnnie Taylor, Shirley Brown, Rufus Thomas, Etta James, Billy Eckstine, Eddie Floyd, Buddy Guy, The Rascals, Wilson Pickett,...
. The concert was first screened on US television channel PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
as Soul Comes Home on August 9, 2003. It was released on DVD as Soul Comes Home: A Celebration of Stax Records and Memphis Soul Music by Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
on February 3, 2004.
On November 8, 2003 Burke performed at Avo Session Basel
Avo Session Basel
AVO SESSION Basel is an indoor music festival, which takes place every October/November in Basel, Switzerland. The festival features international as well as national artists of diverse music genres in an intimate club setting...
in Switzerland, where he sang "Georgia on My Mind
Georgia on My Mind
"Georgia on My Mind" is a song written in 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell . It is the official state song of the U.S. state of Georgia. Gorrell wrote the lyrics for Hoagy's sister, Georgia Carmichael. However, the lyrics of the song are ambiguous enough to refer either to the state or...
", "Stand by Me
Stand by Me (song)
"Stand by Me" is the title of a song originally performed by Ben E. King and written by King, Jerry Leiber, and Mike Stoller, based on the spiritual "Lord Stand by Me,", plus two lines rooted in Psalms 46:2-3...
", "A Change is Gonna Come
A Change Is Gonna Come (song)
"A Change Is Gonna Come" is a 1964 single by R&B singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, written and first recorded in 1963 and released under the RCA Victor label shortly after his death in late 1964. Though only a modest hit for Cooke in comparison with his previous singles, the song came to exemplify the...
", and "Proud Mary', which was released on DVD as Solomon Burke: The King Live at Avo Session Basel.
In December 2003 Burke sang "I Pray on Christmas" on the Go Tell It on the Mountain Christmas album (Real World) of the Blind Boys of Alabama, which won for them a Grammy for Best Traditional Gospel Album. In 2003 Burke performed live on Britain's Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
.
After the votes of more than 30,000 international blues fans and industry professionals, on May 22, 2003 Burke won four Living Blues Awards in a ceremony at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
: Critics' Award for Most Outstanding Musician (Vocals), Readers' Award for Best Live Performer, Readers' Award for Most Outstanding Blues Singer, and Album of the Year for Don't Give Up on Me. The ceremony was televised on May 23, 2003. Burke won Readers' Awards for Most Outstanding Blues Singer again in 2006 and 2008.
In the absence of Songwriters Hall of Fame
Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...
honoree Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
, Burke performed his hits "Lucille
Lucille (Little Richard song)
"Lucille" is a 1957 rock and roll song which was one of Little Richard's international hits.Released on Specialty Records in February 1957, Little Richard's single made number 21 on the US pop chart, and number 10 on the UK chart...
" and "Tutti Frutti" with Paul Schaeffer on piano at the National Academy of Popular Music
National Academy of Popular Music
The National Academy of Popular Music is an American organization which administers the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and sponsors a series of workshops and showcases for the songwriting profession. It was formed in 1988 by Sammy Cahn and Bob Leone....
's 34th annual induction ceremony on June 12, 2003. Burke appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien on Friday, June 20, 2003.
In 2003 Burke recorded a duet
Duet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
with Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
soul singer Zucchero
Zucchero
Adelmo Fornaciari, Commander , more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero /ˈtsukkero/, is an Italian rock singer. His music is largely inspired by gospel, blues and rock music, and alternates between ballads and more rhythmic boogie-like pieces.Zucchero is the...
, who performed Zucchero's hit "Diavolo in me" (Devil in Me), on the duets album Zu & Co.
Zu & Co.
Zu & Co. is a compilation of songs, mostly written by Italian rock singer Zucchero. With the exception of "Indaco Dagli occhi Del Cielo" and "Il Grande Baboomba", all songs have previously been recorded and released by Zucchero...
, which was released in May 2004. Burke was also a guest at a London show in May 2004 in which Zucchero presented the album. This performance is included on Zucchero's DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
Zu & Co. – Live at the Royal Albert Hall, which was released on November 23, 2004 in Canada, and on April 5, 2005.
Burke was featured in "God Only Knows: Vocal Harmony", the third episode of The Voice, which screened on Sunday, 25 January 2004 on Britain's Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
.
On March 16, 2004 Burke performed "I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free" and "Home in Your Heart" with The Derek Trucks Band
The Derek Trucks Band
The Derek Trucks Band has been called a "group of musicians that share a passion for improvisation and musical exploration" by a reviewer at Allmusic....
, at the 4th Annual Jammy Awards at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
, which was screened on US television on April 25, 2004. During his performance, Burke ad libbed an election-year mini-sermon: "Come November, we need to make the change".
In April 2004 Burke toured Australia for the first time, giving concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, and for two days at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival
East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival
The East Coast International Blues & Roots Music Festival, also known as Byron Bay Bluesfest, is an annual music festival held for five days over the Easter long weekend at Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia...
at Byron Bay, New South Wales
Byron Bay, New South Wales
Byron Bay is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a headland adjacent to the town, is the easternmost point of mainland Australia. At the 2006 Census, the town had a...
.
In 2004 Burke was mentioned in Peter Plate's novel Fogtown.
Shout! Factory (2005–2008)
Encouraged by the success of Don't Give Up, in early 2003 Richard Foos, owner of the new retro-oriented label Shout! FactoryShout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
, who was interested in pairing Burke with musician-producer Don Was
Don Was
Don Was is an American musician, bassist and record producer.-Life and career:Was was born in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Oak Park High School in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park, then attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor but dropped out after the first year...
, signed Burke. According to Foos, "He's really the last of the great soul men. Even though we totally appreciated his last album, I didn't think it was a real soul album. It was more of a singer-songwriter album, a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
with Solomon Burke as the star, not Solomon Burke doing a '60s-style soul album. That's what we wanted."
On Monday, February 28, 2005, Burke sang two songs on the Late Show with David Letterman, including "I Need Your Love in My Life" from his upcoming Make Do With What You Got album.
Make Do With What You Got (2005)
For the album Make Do With What You Got songs were contributed by Bob DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
, Coco Montoya
Coco Montoya
Coco Montoya is an American blues guitarist and former member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers.-Musical career:...
, Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
, and from the Rolling Stones, who had covered three of Burke's songs early in their career. The album, which was released on March 1, 2005, concludes with Hank Williams' country spiritual "Wealth Won't Save Your Soul".
On Tuesday, March 8, 2005, Burke appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien.
On 4 April 2005 Burke was inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk in Hollywood with Ike Turner
Ike Turner
Isaac Wister Turner was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. In a career that lasted more than half a century, his repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk...
, Robert Cray
Robert Cray
Robert Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.-Career:...
, Etta James
Etta James
Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...
, and Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, who was inducted posthumously. On November 25, 2005, Burke appeared as a special guest with Jools Holland
Jools Holland
Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...
on his autumn tour of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, including two sell-out shows at 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...
's Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
.
Burke was featured in the six-episode documentary series Soul Deep: The Story of Black Popular Music that debuted on BBC Television on May 7, 2005.
On November 5, 2005, Burke performed "A Change is Gonna Come
A Change Is Gonna Come (song)
"A Change Is Gonna Come" is a 1964 single by R&B singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, written and first recorded in 1963 and released under the RCA Victor label shortly after his death in late 1964. Though only a modest hit for Cooke in comparison with his previous singles, the song came to exemplify the...
" with Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
to close the 10th Annual American Masters Tribute Concert, and also on November 6 in the Gospel Tribute to Sam Cook at the State Theater in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. According to Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, who also performed at the Masters Tribute Concert, described Burke's performance as "flawless": "Aretha was really wailing and Solomon had tears rolling down his cheeks, declaiming, "Bring the boys home" like a preacher, reworking the song as a plea for sanity during the never-ending war".
On March 13, 2006, Burke opened the 21st annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
induction ceremony at the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria, with "a raucous tribute to Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson 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...
(class of 1991)", who had died in January 2006.
Nashville (2006)
Burke returned to his country roots with the release on September 26, 2006 of a 14-track country album titled Nashville, producedRecord producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Buddy Miller
Buddy Miller
Buddy Miller is a country singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist and producer, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee...
. It included guest vocals from Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
, Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin, born Patricia Jean Griffin, March 16, 1964, is an American Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter and musician. She is especially known for her down-home crafting of songs and her connection to musicians including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, and the Dixie Chicks, who have played with...
, Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...
and Patty Loveless
Patty Loveless
Patty Loveless , is an American country music singer.Since her emergence on the country music scene in late 1986 with her first album, Loveless has been one of the most popular female singers of the Neotraditional country movement, although she has also recorded albums in the Country pop and...
. The sessions produced the first recording of Griffin's "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)
Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)
"Up to the Mountain " is a contemporary folk song written by Patty Griffin. The song touches upon emotions surrounding Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous 1968 "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, given the day before his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee...
", which she brought to Burke because of his association with King and that era. The album peaked at #55 on the Billboard
Billboard (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...
Top Country Albums chart, but spent seven weeks at #1 the Americana Music Association
Americana Music Association
The Americana Music Association is a trade organization developed to provide professional support and to promote awareness of Americana music. Toward these ends the organization works with artists, radio stations, record labels, publishers, and others to create networking opportunities and to...
's alternative radio chart.
Burke was joined by a host of top country stars and backed by Buddy Miller
Buddy Miller
Buddy Miller is a country singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist and producer, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee...
and his band at the Belcourt Theatre
Belcourt Theatre
The Belcourt Theatre is a 2-cinema theater operating in Nashville's Hillsboro Village district. It is operating by a non-profit organization, and features independent films, as well as live performances.- History :...
in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
on September 25, 2006 for a one-off concert to celebrate the release of Nashville. The concert was filmed by HDNet
HDNet
HDNet is a men's interest television channel in the United States, broadcasting exclusively in high-definition format and available via cable and satellite television...
, and was screened on US television in 2007 as Solomon Burke & Friends: Live in Nashville. It was released on DVD in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
on September 17, 2007.
On September 28, 2006, Burke was among the several rock, soul, and country legends who sang along with Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
at the live concert "Last Man Standing" at the Sony Music Studio in New York
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...
. The two duets were "Who Will the Next Fool Be" and "Today I Started Lovin' You Again". It was broadcast as part of Great Performances
Great Performances
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
on Tuesady, March 6, 2007.
On Friday, February 9, 2007, Burke performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and on February 26, 2007 Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
. The Tonight Show performance was accompanied by The Tonight Show Band members and bandleader Kevin Eubanks
Kevin Eubanks
Kevin Tyrone Eubanks is an American jazz guitarist and composer who was the leader of the Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led The Primetime Band on the short-lived The Jay Leno Show.- Personal background :Eubanks was born into a musical family...
on lead guitar. On Late Night he performed with Buddy Miller
Buddy Miller
Buddy Miller is a country singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist and producer, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee...
"That's How I Got To Memphis", from Burke's album Nashville.
As one of the early artists at 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...
, on April 17, 2007 Burke honored Ahmet Ertegün
Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
, the co-founder of Atlantic Records and also of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who had died on December 14, 2006. Burke co-hosted this celebration of Ertegun's life's work at the Rose Theater at the Lincoln Center in New York, as well as speaking at the tribute to Ertegun at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood on July 31, 2007. Burke participated in the American Master's documentary Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built, and in December 2007, Burke performed at the private after-party after the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert
Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert
The Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert was a benefit concert held in memory of music executive Ahmet Ertegün at The O2 in London on December 10, 2007. The headline act was the English rock band, Led Zeppelin, who performed their first full-length concert since the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980,...
at The O2
The O2 arena (London)
The O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the centre of The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London, England.With a capacity of up to 20,000 depending on the event, it is second largest...
in Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
, London, along with Ben E. King
Ben E. King
Benjamin Earl King , better known as Ben E. King, is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me", a U.S...
, Percy Sledge
Percy Sledge
Percy Sledge is an American R&B and soul performer who recorded the hit "When a Man Loves a Woman" in 1966.-Early career:...
and Sam Moore.
In 2007 Paul Spencer produced and directed Solomon Burke: Everybody Needs Somebody, a documentary for BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
. The DVD was released in the UK on 23 April 2007, and in the USA on March 4, 2008.
Burke spoke at the memorial service of Ike Turner
Ike Turner
Isaac Wister Turner was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. In a career that lasted more than half a century, his repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk...
in December 2007.
Like a Fire (2008)
In January 2008, Solomon returned to the recording studioRecording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
to record with the producer/drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Steve Jordan
Steve Jordan (musician)
Steve Jordan is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, musical director and Grammy Award-winning artist, who has made a name for himself as a producer from the Bronx in New York City. A graduate of the Fiorello H...
. The album titled Like a Fire has songs written specifically for Burke by Ben Harper
Ben Harper
Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...
, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, Jesse Harris
Jesse Harris
Jesse Harris is a Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter. He has collaborated with several musical artists including Norah Jones, Melody Gardot, Madeleine Peyroux, Nikki Yanofsky, and Lizz Wright.-Early life and education:...
, Keb' Mo'
Keb' Mo'
Keb' Mo is an American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee, United States.-Early life:From early on he had an appreciation for the blues and gospel music...
, Meegan Voss and Steve Jordan and was released on June 10, 2008. This album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album of 2008.
By February 2008 Burke's weight was estimated at "well over 400 pounds", by Aaron Greenwald, director of Duke Performances.
Burke joined Widespread Panic
Widespread Panic
Widespread Panic is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring...
on stage for "None of Us Are Free" at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles on June 20, 2008. He performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival
Bonnaroo Music Festival
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It hosted its tenth annual event June 9–12, 2011...
on June 15, 2008, and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival
Telluride Bluegrass Festival
Telluride Bluegrass Festival is held annually in Telluride, Colorado by . Although traditionally the festival focuses on bluegrass music, it often features music from a variety of genres. In 1974, its first year, it attracted 1000 participants. Currently the festival's attendance is capped at 10,000...
on June 22, 2008, and for the first time in his career at England's Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
on June 29, 2008. This was part of his European 2008 Summer Tour, and included concerts in Portugal, England, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Austria, France, Switzerland, Norway, Slovakia and Sweden.
On August 7, 2008 Burke performed for the third and last time on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
In November 2008 Rolling Stone magazine ranked Burke as #89 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".
Nothing's Impossible (2010)
In January 2009, Burke joined legendary record producer Willie Mitchell at Mitchell's Royal Studio in Memphis to work together on an album titled Nothing's Impossible, which was released on April 6, 2010. It was the first time Burke and Mitchell had worked together in their careers. Nothing's Impossible debuted at #10 on the Living Blues Radio Chart in April 2010. According to Don McLeese, in "Oh What a Feeling”, "Burke commands it like the chitlin’ circuitChitlin' circuit
The "Chitlin' Circuit" was the collective name given to the string of performance venues throughout the eastern and southern United States that were safe and acceptable for African-American musicians, comedians, and other entertainers to perform during the age of racial segregation in the United...
equivalent of Hamlet
Prince Hamlet
Prince Hamlet is a fictional character, the protagonist in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius and son of the previous King of Denmark, Old Hamlet. Throughout the play he struggles with whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and...
or Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, not so much singing as much as exhorting, declaiming, engaging in a fevered call-and-response (with himself? No other singer is credited) as the performance builds to its orgasmic peak: "Feels so good, I don’t wanna wake up! I don’t wanna wake up! I don’t wanna wake up." You can hear the cadences
Cadence (music)
In Western musical theory, a cadence is, "a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution [finality or pause]." A harmonic cadence is a progression of two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music...
of an artist who has combined (like the Rev. Al Green
Al Green
Albert Greene , better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together"...
) a vocation as a preacher with his career as a soul singer".
In 2009 Burke also put on his record label hat when his label, The One Entertainment Systems, which is headed by his daughter Victoria, who also was the label's A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
person, signed Clarence Fountain and Sam Butler
Sam Butler
Sam Butler is an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League. He is a member of the West Coast Eagles team who won the 2006 AFL Premiership....
and their most recent project, Stepping Up And Stepping Out. It was Clarence Fountain's first project after having left the Blind Boys of Alabama. Another daughter, Candy, ran the label to which Burke was signed.
Burke performed at the Mawazine Festival Rhythms of the World
Mawazine
Mawazine is a festival of world music that takes place annually in the Moroccan capital of Rabat, featuring Arab and international music icons...
in Rabat, Morocco in late May 2009.
On July 24, 2009, Burke played at the Open-air stage in Charlton Park for the WOMAD Music Festival, held in Wiltshire, England.
Burke celebrated his 70th birthday in March 2010 and toured Japan for the first time in May 2010, before his "Year of the Dream Love Tour" across Europe in July and August 2010, including dates in Spain, Italy, England, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Switzerland.
On September 1, 2010 Burke gave one of his final live radio interviews with Cameron Cooper,host of the "Happy Hour". One of Burke's last performance was at the 40th annual Bumbershoot: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival, on Saturday, September 4, 2010.
Just weeks before his death, in late September 2010 Burke performed a two-hour set at the Jazz Club in London, England, described as "the show of the year" by Andy Gill and "a masterclass in magnetic charisma, gestural nuance and vocal expression".
In October 2010, his final album Hold on Tight was released, recorded in the ICP-studios in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. It contains 13 songs written by Dutch pop/soul band De Dijk
De Dijk
De Dijk is a Dutch rock band which formed in 1981. The band is named after the Zeedijk, a street in their hometown Amsterdam. Their music can be described as a mixture of soul, blues and rock 'n roll, with lyrics sung only in Dutch...
translated into English for performance by Burke.
Personal life
Burke was married four times, and was engaged at least twice. In total Burke fathered at least 21 children (14 daughters and 7 sons), including at least two fathered outside any of his marriages, including Melvia Burke and Elijah Mohammed Burke, and had 90 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren at the time of his death.Burke was married to Doris P. Williams for two months, however it was annulled by August 1958, which resulted in the birth one child, Valerie Doris Gresham (born 16 September 1957).
Burke's second wife was Delores Clark Burke Perkins (born 1937), with whom he had 7 children, including Eleanor Alma (Born December 27, 1958), Melanie (Born March 1960), Solomon Vincent, Jr. (born October 15, 1961), Carolyn (Born September 1962), John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK), Gemini (born September 1, 1964), and Lillian (Born August 1966). After they were divorced, Delores and her children moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Fayetteville is a city located in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is the county seat of Cumberland County, and is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a U.S. Army post located northwest of the city....
.
Burke's third wife was Bernadine Burke.
Burke's fourth wife was Frances Sunday (born 1951), whom he married about 1970, who was married to him (but separated) when he died, with whom he had three children: King Solomon Haile Selassie Burke (born 7 August 1972), Queen Sunday Victoria Burke (born 24 February 1974), and Queen Elizabeth Burke-Maynard (born 12 March 1975).
At the end of 2006 Burke was engaged to his manager, Jane Vickers, of American Royalty Management, who had been his personal assistant since at least 1977.
In a 2006 interview Burke admitted having his first child at age 14: "being a father at age 14 maybe been a little early, but I don’t regret one moment, one second, one day, or one hour. My only regrets are the loss of my twins and my first son". Burke's twin sons were James and David, who both died in infancy. By 1961, Burke had "three kids on the outside, and about four at home", including Melanie Burke (born 1960), Solomon Vincent Burke, Jr. (born 15 October 1961). In an open letter to his children, Burke wrote: "Your love and your strength, and the love of your mothers, have made me the strongest-minded father in the world. I may not be the best father. Maybe I haven’t done everything that I should do, could do, or would do…or desire to do, but by the grace of God, and your prayers, we will make it. Every day is a new way. None of us are perfect and God knows, I have made many mistakes." Burke admitted serial infidelity during his marriages: "I was young. Girls were coming from every angle. I couldn't love them all. But I tried." Burke stated: "I realized in later years that money didn’t solve problems. I realized too that maybe the reason I had problems with my marriages was because I didn’t spend enough time with my children, my family. I thought that sending money home and buying pretty cars and redoing houses, and ordering food by the hundreds of dollars a day, would keep my family together, keep my children happy. ... Not being there all the time, being on the road 250 days out of the year, was too much. I was gaining the world and losing my children. And my wife. My love life."
Family members
Several of Burke's family have had successful careers in various facets of show businessShow business
Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz, is a vernacular term for all aspects of entertainment. The word applies to all aspects of the entertainment industry from the business side to the creative element ....
. In the mid-1960s two of Burke's younger brothers, Alex (born 1948 in Philadelphia) and Laddie (born 1949 in Philadelphia), joined with fellow Germantown High School
Germantown High School (Philadelphia)
Germantown High School is a secondary school located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.GHS, located in Germantown, is a part of the School District of Philadelphia....
students, brothers Earl and Timmy Smith to form The Showstoppers, who had a couple of local hit singles in Philadelphia on Showtime Records in 1968, including a #11 hit on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
with "Ain't Nothin' But a Houseparty" b/w "How Easy Your Heart Forgets Me" (Heritage HE-800), which peaked at #87 on the Billboard chart in 1968, which was later a disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
thèque hit (#33) in 1971, just before the group disbanded after a series of flops.
Burke's daughter, Melanie "Honey" Burke McCall, a Neo Soul
Neo soul
The term neo soul was originally coined by Kedar Massenburg of Motown Records in the late 1990s as a marketing category following the commercial breakthroughs of artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell...
singer who is an accomplished artist as well as a freelance background recording artist
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
with companies such as Daxwood Records, Casablanca
Casablanca Records
Casablanca Records was an American record label started by Neil Bogart, who partnered with Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris, and Buck Reingold in 1973, and based in Los Angeles. The label was formed after all of them had left Buddah Records and secured financing by Warner Bros. Records to start the venture...
, A&M
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
and Rawkus Records
Rawkus Records
Rawkus Records is an American hip-hop record label known for jump-starting the careers of both Mos Def and Talib Kweli. Rawkus started in 1996 with initial releases ranging from hip-hop to drum and bass...
and a studio artist for groups such as Billy Preston
Billy Preston
William Everett "Billy" Preston was a musician who gained notoriety and fame, first as a session musician for the likes of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and The Beatles, and later finding fame as a solo artist with hits such as "Space Race", "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from...
, Peacock (Anna Gayle group), and Leslie Uggams
Leslie Uggams
Leslie Uggams is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her work in Hallelujah, Baby! She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.-Singing:...
, and toured with Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
, and wrote and produced Family, & Friends, a 14-song original soundtrack for Ms, which was released in 2005, and opened for Jocelyn Brown
Jocelyn Brown
Jocelyn Lorette Brown is an American R&B and dance music singer...
, Jaheim
Jaheim
Jaheim Hoagland is an American R&B singer and formerly a rapper performing under the mononymous name of Jaheim. He was signed by Naughty by Nature's Kaygee to Divine Mill Records in 2000, and released his debut album Ghetto Love in 2001. His second effort, Still Ghetto, was released a year later,...
, Norman Connors
Norman Connors
Norman Connors is an American jazz drummer, composer, arranger, producer, and headliner, who has led some influential jazz and R&B groups. He also achieved several big R&B hits of the day, especially with love ballads.-Biography:...
, and Angela Bofill
Angela Bofill
Angela Bofill is an American R&B vocalist and songwriter.Bofill was born to a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother; one of the first Latina singers to find success in the R&B market.She performed with Ricardo Marrero & the Group and Dance Theater of Harlem chorus prior to her 1978 debut album,...
, as well as for her father at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is a large performing arts venue located on Broad Street, along the stretch known as the "Avenue of the Arts", in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by Kimmel Center, Inc., an organization which also manages the Academy of Music in...
in Philadelphia in 2006. Her son is Novel
Novel (musician)
Alonzo Mario Stevenson, professionally known as Novel, is an American hip-hop artist based in Los Angeles, California. He is a rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer...
, who released his first studio album "The Audiobiography" in October 2008, and wrote movie soundtracks for Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry is an American actor, director, playwright, entrepreneur, screenwriter, producer, author, and songwriter. Perry wrote and produced many stage plays during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, he released his first film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman...
's Diary of a Mad Black Woman
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
Diary of a Mad Black Woman is a 2005 romantic comedy-drama film written by and starring Tyler Perry, which was inspired by the play of the same name. It is the first film in the Tyler Perry "Madea" film franchise. Directed by Darren Grant, the film was released in the US on February 25, 2005...
, Step Up
Step Up (film)
Step Up is a 2006 American dance/romance film directed by Anne Fletcher starring Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan.Set in Baltimore, Maryland, the film follows the tale of the disadvantaged Tyler Gage and the privileged modern dancer Nora Clark , who find themselves paired up in a showcase that...
, and 21. Her youngest son, Solomon, also has started recording.
Burke's granddaughter Candy Burke (born 1977), was a backing singer at many of Burke's performances including the July 2008 Juan-les-Pins
Juan-les-Pins
Juan-les-PinsCountry:Region:Department: Alpes-MaritimesArrondissement: GrasseCanton: Vallauris-Antibes-OuestMunicipality: AntibesPopulation:?Coordinates:Time zone:CET, UTC+1Elevation:10 amslPostal code:06600...
concert where she performed a rendition of "I Will Survive". She also appears in the 2003 North Sea Jazz Festival DVD with her father.
Rapper Raeneal T. Quann (known as Q-Don) (born about 1978), who was accidentally shot and killed by robbers on April 26, 2000, outside the Club Evolution in Philadelphia, was a grandson of Burke.
Declining health and death
For many years Burke struggled with his health, with his "weight estimated somewhere between 300 and 400 pounds" in 2006. New York Times writer Ben Sisario wrote of Burke: "Wide-shaped in his youth, he grew into Henry VIII-like corpulence, and in his later years had to be wheeled to his throne." In the later years of his life, "arthritisArthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
and weight have limited his mobility", and confined him to a wheelchair. In an interview in 2008, Burke claimed that "God put me in this wheelchair", and that God's message to him was: "'You are too fat!'" Burke denied having an eating disorder: ... I guess God let me develop into what I am now and allowed me to live. It's not an eating disorder. If I had an eating disorder, I wouldn't travel." In 2006 Burke acknowledged: "It's very rough. I love to eat and I love to cook – as you can see. But my hip has to be replaced and a knee has to be replaced and I've got to lose 150 pounds before they can do that. And that's a lot. But it's NOT! God knows I've enjoyed every kind of food there is, all around the world. It's not like I'm going to miss any of it. Because I've had it all!" Despite his efforts, at the time of his death, Burke's weight still exceeded 350 pounds.
On Sunday October 10, 2010, Burke died at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport while on a plane from Los Angeles that had just landed. He had been due to perform with De Dijk
De Dijk
De Dijk is a Dutch rock band which formed in 1981. The band is named after the Zeedijk, a street in their hometown Amsterdam. Their music can be described as a mixture of soul, blues and rock 'n roll, with lyrics sung only in Dutch...
in Amsterdam on October 12. The cause of death was not immediately clear; according to his family, Burke died of natural causes.
On Thursday 21 October a wake
Wake (ceremony)
A wake is a ceremony associated with death. Traditionally, a wake takes place in the house of the deceased, with the body present; however, modern wakes are often performed at a funeral home. In the United States and Canada it is synonymous with a viewing...
and meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
service was held at the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Griffin Mortuary at Westlake Village. Burke's funeral was at 10.00am on Friday 22 October 2010 at the City of Refuge in Gardena, California
Gardena, California
Gardena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 58,829 at the 2010 census, up from 57,746 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Gardena is located at ....
and was open to the public, and was simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
on the internet and at a memorial service held at the Sharon Baptist Church in Philadelphia, that was led by Minister Lester Fields and Solomon's younger sister, Apostle Laurena Burke Corbin, the pastor of Our First Temple of Faith Mt. Deborah Pentecostal Church on Haverford Avenue in Philadelphia, and attended by Burke's extended East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
family.
Joe Henry
Joe Henry
Joseph Lee "Joe" Henry is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Henry's musical style spans several genres, including alt. country, rock, jazz and folk.- Early years :...
described the funeral, which was "2 and a half hours long, included many eulogies, some spontaneous gospel singing; some shouting, some wailing, a fainting, and a daughter who hopped on the balls of her feet and spoke in tongues as punctuation to her scripted remarks. The highlight for me was Rudy [Copeland]’s bluesy Hammond B-3 instrumental of Thomas Dorsey's
Thomas A. Dorsey
Thomas Andrew Dorsey was known as "the father of black gospel music" and was at one time so closely associated with the field that songs written in the new style were sometimes known as "dorseys." Earlier in his life he was a leading blues pianist known as Georgia Tom.As formulated by Dorsey,...
“Precious Lord (Lead Me On)
Take My Hand, Precious Lord
"Take My Hand, Precious Lord" is a gospel song, lyrics by Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey , melody by George Nelson Allen .-History:...
". He played it like Ray [Charles]would have, kicking it heavy on the bass foot pedals, and shouting his own encouragement: 'Tell the story, son!' The whole service climaxed with a rousing version of "When The Saints Go Marching In
When the Saints Go Marching In
"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as "The Saints", is an American gospel hymn that has taken on certain aspects of folk music. The precise origins of the song are not known. Though it originated as a spiritual, today people are more likely to hear it played by a jazz band...
", which included the choir, a 2nd-line-style brass band marching through the isles (sic), and everyone in the pews clapping and singing along".
Burke is buried at Lot 4037, Space 1, in the Murmuring Trees section of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...
in the Hollywood Hills
Hollywood Hills
The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...
, at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, California.
Evaluation
According to Tim Newby: "Despite the endless parade of fans and praise, Burke always seemed to be two steps ahead or one step behind his contemporaries. While he was always at the forefront of the Soul movement, paving the way for a slew of singers who followed in his large wake, he never had that one timeless hit like so many others of the time that would forever endear him to our memories. So many of his peers of the time had that one huge mega-hit that would stamp them as eternal legends, and while Burke came close, he never found that one everlasting song. He became more known for his inspiration on other musicians than for his music. He is often criminally overlooked by the casual fan".Neil Portnow
Neil Portnow
Neil R. Portnow is the current president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences . Portnow was formerly the vice-president of the West Coast division of Jive Records.-Early career:...
, President/CEO of The Recording Academy, praised Burke soon after his death: "GRAMMY-winning soul singer Solomon Burke was revered as one of music’s greatest vocalists and a pioneer of the genre. A deeply spiritual man, his love and passion for his craft kept him touring and performing to sold-out audiences right up to his final days. Few artists have had careers as long, rich and influential as his, and he leaves a larger-than-life legacy as powerful and soulful as he was. The music industry has lost one of its most distinctive voices".
Studio albums
- Solomon Burke – 1962 (Apollo 498) Reissued 1964 (Kenwood KLP-498) Reissued 2000 (P-Vine)
- Solomon Burke's Greatest Hits – 1962 (Atlantic 8067)
- If You Need Me – 1963 (Atlantic 8075)
- I Almost Lost My Mind – 1964 (Clarion 607)
- Rock 'n' SoulRock 'n' SoulRock '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...
– 1964 (Atlantic 8096)
External links
- David Meeker, "Jazz on the Screen: A Jazz and Blues Filmography", (Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 2010)
- Solomon Burke discography at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- The Soul of the Net's Solomon Burke Discography
- Solomon Burke Albums Chart Performance
- BMI List of Burke's compositions
- BMI List of Songs Performed by Burke
- Songs and Lyrics by Burke
- Make Do With What You Got – TracksMusic review
- Make Do With What You Got – The Music Box review
- Solomon Burke photos at the Gospel Festival Chicago IL, 2005
- Solomon Burke biography at the Rock and Roll Hall of FameRock and Roll Hall of FameThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
- [ Solomon Burke] page at AllMusic
- Audio Interview with Ron Bennington
- Recent Live Review
- Outlines Burke's publishing companies