Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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RAWLS, Lou

(b 1 December 1933, Chicago; d 6 January 2005 of cancer, Los Angeles CA) Most references said he was born in 1935, but his family said he was 72 when he died. He was a gospel/soul/jazz-influenced pop singer and actor with a velvety voice, initially popular in black charts but soon crossed over. He began in gospel music, joining classmate Sam Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony. He served in the U.S. Army, joined the Pilgrim Travelers on the west coast, turned secular and was badly injured in a car crash in the late 1950s while touring with Cooke. (They recorded a duet, 'Bring It On Home To Me' in 1962.) He was a solo regular in Los Angeles jazz clubs when he was signed by Capitol Records in 1960. His first album was Stormy Monday with pianist Les McCann. From the beginning his work was slick, but with his beautiful voice and his magnetic stage presence he was widely popular with black and white audiences alike. By the end of the decade he was recording with string orchestras. He continued having hit albums and dabbled in disco, but when the national radio station Jazz FM was launched in Britain in 1990 and played too many Lou Rawls tracks, the station became a rueful joke amongst jazz fans. There was no doubting his commitment to the community, however; his annual telethons for the United Negro College Fund raised over $200 million.

His album Black And Blue '63 was the first to make the pop chart; then Lou Rawls Live! and Lou Rawls Soulin' were both top ten albums '66, single 'Love Is A Hurtin' Thing' was no. 1 R&B, 13 pop same year. 'Dead End Street' '67 was top 30 pop, no. 3 R&B, mixed singing with monologue and won a Grammy. Lou Rawls Carryin' On! and Too Much were both top 20, That's Lou top 30, all '67; single 'Your Good Thing Is About To End' '69 was top 20, but the chart placings of his LPs began to slip. He switched to MGM '71-2, had top 20 Grammy winner 'A Natural Man', faded, came back with producers Gamble & Huff on their Philadelphia International label '76 with All Things In Time, a no. 7 LP with no. 2 hit 'You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine'. He slipped again, switched to Epic for When The Night Comes '83, his last pop chart album, followed by Close Company, then Love All Your Blues Away '86. He was back on Blue Note for At Last '89, guests including Ray Charles and Dianne Reeves, and Portrait Of The Blues '92 with all-star guests including Junior Wells. Altogether he had six top 40 singles '66-78 and 23 chart LPs '63-83.