Name	Stevie Wonder
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Stevland Hardaway Judkins
Alias	Stevland Hardaway Morris, Little Stevie Wonder, Eivets Rednow
Born	May 13, 1950Saginaw, Michigan, United States
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, United States
Instrument	Vocals, synthesizer, piano, keyboards, guitar, harmonica, drums, bass guitar, congas, bongos, clavinet, melodica, keytar, accordion
Genre	R&B;, pop, soul, jazz, funk
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, activist
Years active	1961–present
Label	Tamla, Motown
Url

Stevland Hardaway Judkins (born May 13, 1950), name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris, known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist. Blind since shortly after birth, Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.

Early life

Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1950, being the third of six children to Calvin Judkins and Lula Mae Hardaway. Owing to his being born six weeks premature, the blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not yet reached the front and their aborted growth caused the retinas to detach. The medical term for this condition is retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, and while it may have been exacerbated by the oxygen pumped into his incubator, this was not the primary cause of his blindness.

When Stevie Wonder was four, his mother left his father and moved herself and her children to Detroit. She changed her name back to Lula Hardaway and later changed her son's surname to Morris, partly because of relatives. Morris has remained Stevie Wonder's legal name ever since. He began playing instruments at an early age, including piano, harmonica, drums and bass. During childhood he was active in his church choir.

Discovery and early Motown recordings

Ronnie White of The Miracles gives credit to his brother Gerald White for persistently nagging him to come to his friend's house in 1961 to check out Stevie Wonder. Afterward, White brought Wonder and his mother to Motown Records. Impressed by the young musician, Motown CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla label with the name Little Stevie Wonder.

In 1970, Wonder co-wrote, and played numerous instruments on the hit "It's a Shame" for fellow Motown act The Spinners. His contribution was meant to be a showcase of his talent and thus a weapon in his on-going negotiations with Gordy about creative autonomy.

Classic period: 1972–1976

Wonder independently recorded two albums, which he used as a bargaining tool while negotiating with Motown. Eventually the label agreed to his demands for full creative control and the rights to his own songs. The 120-page contract shattered precedent at Motown and additionally gave Wonder a much higher royalty rate.

Released in the fall of 1972, Talking Book featured the No. 1 hit "Superstition", The song features a rocking groove that garnered Wonder an additional audience on rock radio stations. Talking Book also featured "You Are the Sunshine of My Life", which also peaked at No. 1. During the same time as the album's release, Stevie Wonder began touring with the Rolling Stones to alleviate the negative effects from pigeon-holing as a result of being an R&B; artist in America. Between them, the two songs won three Grammy Awards. Wonder and his band performed "Superstition", as well as an original song called "Sesame Street Song", which demonstrated his abilities with the "talk box".

Political considerations were brought into greater focus than ever before on his next album, Innervisions, released in 1973. The album featured "Higher Ground" (#4 on the pop charts) as well as the trenchant "Living for the City" (#8). Innervisions generated three more Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. Wonder had become the most influential and acclaimed black musician of the early 1970s. This left him in a coma for four days and resulted in a partial loss of his sense of smell and a temporary loss of sense of taste.

Despite the setback, Wonder eventually recovered all of his musical faculties, and re-appeared in concert at Madison Square Garden in March 1974 with a performance that highlighted both up-tempo material and long, building improvisations on mid-tempo songs such as "Living for the City". He also co-wrote and produced the Syreeta Wright album .

On October 4, 1975, Wonder performed at the historical "Wonder Dream Concert" in Kingston, Jamaica, a benefit for the Jamaican Institute for the Blind.

By 1975, in his 25th year, Stevie Wonder had won two consecutive Grammy Awards: in 1974 for Innervisions and in 1975 for Fulfillingness' First Finale.

The double album-with-extra-EP Songs in the Key of Life, was released in September 1976. Sprawling in style, unlimited in ambition, and sometimes lyrically difficult to fathom, the album was hard for some listeners to assimilate, yet is regarded by many as Wonder's crowning achievement and one of the most recognizable and accomplished albums in pop music history. The album became the first of an American artist to debut straight at #1 in the Billboard charts, where it remained for 14 non-consecutive weeks. Two tracks, became #1 Pop/R&B; hits "I Wish" and "Sir Duke". The baby-celebratory "Isn't She Lovely?" was written about his newborn daughter Aisha, while songs such as "Love's in Need of Love Today" (which years later Wonder would perform at the post-September 11, 2001 telethon) and "Village Ghetto Land" reflected a far more pensive mood. Songs in the Key of Life won Album of the Year and two other Grammys. Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time included four of the five albums, with three in the top 90.

In 1994, Wonder made a guest appearance on the KISS cover album , playing harmonica and supplying background vocals for the song "Deuce", performed by Lenny Kravitz.

In 1996, Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life was selected as a documentary subject for the Classic Albums documentary series. This series dedicates 60 minutes to one groundbreaking record per feature. The same year, he performed John Lennon's song "Imagine" in the closing ceremony of the Atlanta Olympic Games. The same year, Wonder performed in a remix of "Seasons of Love" from the Jonathan Larson musical Rent.

In 1997, Wonder collaborated with Babyface for a song about abuse (domestic violence) called "How Come, How Long" which was nominated for an award.

In December 1999, Wonder announced that he was interested in pursuing an intraocular retinal prosthesis to partially restore his sight. That same year, Wonder was featured on harmonica in the Sting song "Brand New Day".

In 2000, Stevie Wonder contributed two new songs to the soundtrack for Spike Lee's Bamboozled album ("Misrepresented People" and "Some Years Ago").

Current career: 2002–present

In March 2002, Wonder performed at the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City.

On July 2, 2005, Wonder performed in the USA part of the Live 8 series of concerts in Philadelphia.

Wonder's first new album in ten years, A Time to Love, was released on October 18, 2005, after having been pushed back from first a May, and then a June release. The album was released electronically on September 27, 2005, exclusively on Apple's iTunes Music Store. The first single, "So What the Fuss", was released in April. A second single, "From the Bottom of My Heart" was a hit on adult-contemporary R&B; radio. The album also featured a duet with India.Arie on the title track "A Time to Love".

Wonder performed at the pre-game show for Super Bowl XL in Detroit in early 2006, singing various hit singles (with his four-year-old son on drums) and accompanying Aretha Franklin during "The Star Spangled Banner".

, Brazil in July 2006]]

In March 2006, Wonder received new national exposure on the top-rated American Idol television program. Wonder performed "My Love Is on Fire" (from A Time To Love) live on the show itself. In June 2006, Stevie Wonder made a guest appearance on Busta Rhymes' new album, The Big Bang on the track "Been through the Storm". He sings the refrain and plays the piano on the Dr. Dre and Sha Money XL produced track. He appeared again on the last track of Snoop Dogg's new album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, "Conversations". The song is a remake of "Have a Talk with God" from Songs in the Key of Life.

In 2006 Wonder staged a duet with Andrea Bocelli on the latter's album Amore, offering harmonica and additional vocals on "Canzoni Stonate". Stevie Wonder also performed at Washington, D.C.'s 2006 "A Capitol Fourth" celebration.

On August 2, 2007, Stevie Wonder announced the A Wonder Summer's Night 13 concert tour — his first U.S. tour in over ten years. This tour was inspired by the recent passing of his mother, as he stated at the conclusion of the tour on December 9 at the Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

in Denver, Colorado.]] On August 28, 2008, Wonder performed at the Democratic National Convention at Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado. Songs included were a previously unreleased song, "Fear Can't Put Dreams to Sleep," and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours".

On September 8, 2008, Wonder started the European leg of his Wonder Summer's Night Tour, the first time he had toured Europe in over a decade. His opening show was at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England. During the tour, Wonder played eight UK gigs; four at The O2 Arena in London, two in Birmingham and two at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester. Stevie Wonder's other stops in the tour's European leg also found him performing in Holland (Rotterdam), Sweden (Stockholm), Germany (Cologne, Mannheim and Munich), Norway (Hamar), France (Paris), Italy (Milan) and Denmark (Aalborg). Wonder also toured Australia (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane) and New Zealand (Christchurch, Auckland and New Plymouth) in October and November.

By June 2008, Wonder was working on two projects simultaneously: a new album titled The Gospel Inspired By Lula which will deal with the various spiritual and cultural crises facing the world, and Through The Eyes Of Wonder, an album which Wonder has described as a performance piece that will reflect his experience as a blind man. Wonder was also keeping the door open for a collaboration with Tony Bennett and Quincy Jones concerning a rumoured jazz album. If Wonder was to join forces with Bennett, it would not be for the first time; Their rendition of "For Once in My Life" earned them a Grammy for best pop collaboration with vocals in 2006.

.]]

Wonder performed on January 18, 2009 at the . On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009, Wonder performed the song "Brand New Day" with musician Sting. He performed his new song "All About the Love Again" and, with other musical artists, "Signed, Sealed, and Delivered". On February 23, 2009, Wonder became the second recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for pop music, honored by President Barack Obama at the White House.

On July 7, 2009, Wonder performed "Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer" and "They Won't Go When I Go" at the Staples Center for Michael Jackson's memorial service. On October 29, 2009, Wonder performed at the 25th anniversary concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Among performing songs with B.B. King, Wonder performed Michael Jackson's 'The Way You Make Me Feel', during which he became emotionally distraught and was unable to perform until he regained his composure.

On January 22, 2010, Wonder performed Bridge Over Troubled Water for the event to help victims of the earthquake in Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010.

On March 6, 2010, Wonder was awarded the Commander of the Arts and Letters by French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand. Wonder had been due to receive this award in 1981, but scheduling problems prevented this from happening. A lifetime achievement award was also given to Wonder on the same day, at France's biggest music awards.

His summer 2010 tour included a two-hour set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, a stop at London's "Hard Rock Calling" in Hyde Park, and appearances at England's Glastonbury Festival, Rotterdam's North Sea Jazz Festival, and a concert in Bergen, Norway and a concert in Dublin, Ireland at the O2 Arena on June 24th.

Accomplishments

A prominent figure in popular music during the latter half of the 20th century, Wonder has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and won twenty-two Grammy Awards (the most ever won by a solo artist) as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also won an Academy Award for Best Song, and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame. He has also been awarded the Polar Music Prize. American music magazine Rolling Stone named him the ninth greatest singer of all time. In June 2009 he became the fourth artist to receive the Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award.

He has ten U.S. number-one hits on the pop charts as well as 20 R&B; number one hits, and album sales totaling more than 100 million units. Wonder has recorded several critically acclaimed albums and hit singles, and writes and produces songs for many of his label mates and outside artists as well. Wonder plays the piano, synthesizer, harmonica, congas, drums, bass guitar, bongos, organ, melodica, and clavinet. In his childhood, he was best known for his harmonica work, but today he is better known for his keyboard skills and vocal ability. Wonder was the first Motown artist and second African American musician to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his 1984 hit single "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from the movie The Woman in Red.

Impact

Wonder's songs are renowned for being quite difficult to sing. He has a very developed sense of harmony and uses many extended chords utilizing extensions such as 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, b5s, etc. in his compositions. Many of his melodies make abrupt, unpredictable changes. Many of his vocal melodies are also melismatic, meaning that a syllable is sung over several notes. Some of his best known and most frequently covered songs are played in keys which are more often found in jazz than in pop and rock. For example, "Superstition", "Higher Ground" and "I Wish" are in the key of E flat minor, and feature distinctive riffs in the E flat minor pentatonic scale (i.e. largely on the black notes of the keyboard).

Wonder played a large role in bringing synthesizers to the forefront of popular music. He developed many new textures and sounds never heard before. In 1981, Wonder became the first owner of an E-mu Emulator.

Songs sampled by other musicians

Wonder has recorded with Jon Gibson, a Christian Soul musician, on a remake of his own song, "Have a Talk With God" (from the 1989 album Body & Soul), covered by Gibson in which Wonder plays harmonica. The two men met in the early 1980s through a shared music agent (Bill Wolfer).

Red Hot Chili Peppers covered "Higher Ground" in 1989 on their Mother's Milk album. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble covered "Superstition" and Wonder made a cameo appearance in the official music video for the song.

"Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" was rendered by English band Incognito in 1992 and John Legend covered this song for the 2005 film, Hitch. George Michael and Mary J. Blige covered "As" in the late 90's. In 1999, Salome De Bahia made a Brazilian version of "Another Star". Tupac Shakur sampled "That Girl" for his hit song "So Many Tears".

"Pastime Paradise" would become an interpolation for Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" while Will Smith would use "I Wish" as the basis for the theme song to his movie, Wild Wild West. The elements of "Love's In Need of Love Today" were used by 50 Cent in the song "Ryder Music", and Warren G sampled "Village Ghetto Land" for his song "Ghetto Village".

Mary Mary, did a cover of his song, "You Will Know" on their 2002 album, Incredible. Australian soul artist Guy Sebastian recorded a cover of "I Wish" on his Beautiful Life album. In 2003, Raven-Symoné recorded a cover of "Superstition" for the soundtrack to Disney's The Haunted Mansion. In 2005, Canadian singer Dave Moffatt, from the group The Moffatts, sang the song "Overjoyed" from the In Square Circle album on Canadian Idol. Clay Aiken performed "Isn't She Lovely?" in the episode "My Life in Four Cameras" of Scrubs.

Personal life

Wonder has been married twice: to Motown singer Syreeta Wright from 1970 until their divorce in 1972; and since 2001, to fashion designer Kai Milla Morris. He has seven children from his two marriages and several relationships. ! style="vertical-align:top; width:30px;"| US R&B; ! style="vertical-align:top; width:30px;"| US Dance ! style="vertical-align:top; width:30px;"| US AC ! style="vertical-align:top; width:30px;"| UK |- ||1963 |"Fingertips - Pt. 2" | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |rowspan="3"|1966 |"Uptight (Everything's Alright)" | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 14 |- |"Blowin' in the Wind" | style="text-align:center;"| 9 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 36 |- |"A Place in the Sun" | style="text-align:center;"| 9 | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 20 |- ||1967 |"I Was Made to Love Her" | style="text-align:center;"| 2 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 5 |- |rowspan="2"|1968 |"For Once in My Life" | style="text-align:center;"| 2 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 3 |- |"Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day" | style="text-align:center;"| 9 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |rowspan="2"|1969 |"My Cherie Amour" | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 4 |- |"Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday" | style="text-align:center;"| 7 | style="text-align:center;"| 5 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 2 |- |rowspan="3"|1970 |"Never Had A Dream Come True" | style="text-align:center;"| 26 | style="text-align:center;"| 11 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 5 |- |"Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 15 |- |"Heaven Help Us All" | style="text-align:center;"| 8 | style="text-align:center;"| 2 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 29 |- |rowspan="2"|1971 |"We Can Work It Out" | style="text-align:center;"| 13 | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 27 |- |"If You Really Love Me" | style="text-align:center;"| 8 | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 20 |- |rowspan="2"|1972 |"Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)" | style="text-align:center;"| 33 | style="text-align:center;"| 13 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |"Superstition" | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 11 |- |rowspan="3"|1973 |"You Are the Sunshine of My Life" | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 3 |- |"Higher Ground" | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 29 |- |"Living for the City" | style="text-align:center;"| 8 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 15 |- |rowspan="3"|1974 |"He's Misstra Know It All" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 10 |- |"You Haven't Done Nothin'" ^{(with The Jackson 5)} | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 30 |- |"Boogie On Reggae Woman" | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 12 |- |rowspan="4"|1977 |"I Wish" | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 5 |- |"Sir Duke" | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 2 |- |"Another Star" | style="text-align:center;"| 32 | style="text-align:center;"| 18 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 29 |- |"As" | style="text-align:center;"| 36 | style="text-align:center;"| 36 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- ||1979 |"Send One Your Love" | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| 5 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |rowspan="2"|1980 |"Master Blaster (Jammin)" | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 2 |- |"I Ain't Gonna Stand For It" | style="text-align:center;"| 10 | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 11 |- |rowspan="3"|1981 |"Lately" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 3 |- |"Happy Birthday" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 17 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 2 |- |"That Girl" | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 39 |- |rowspan="3"|1982 |"Do I Do" | style="text-align:center;"| 7 | style="text-align:center;"| 2 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 10 |- |"Ebony and Ivory" (with Paul McCartney) | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 8 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 1 |- |"Ribbon in the Sky" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 9 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- ||1984 |"I Just Called to Say I Love You" | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 |- |rowspan="3"|1985 |"Part-Time Lover" | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 3 |- |"That's What Friends Are For" ^{(with Dionne Warwick, Elton John and Gladys Knight)} | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 16 |- |"Love Light In Flight" | style="text-align:center;"| 17 | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| 6 | style="text-align:center;"| 10 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |rowspan="3"|1986 |"Go Home" | style="text-align:center;"| 10 | style="text-align:center;"| 2 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |"Land Of La La" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 19 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |"Overjoyed" | style="text-align:center;"| 24 | style="text-align:center;"| 8 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 17 |- ||1987 |"Skeletons" | style="text-align:center;"| 17 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 20 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |rowspan="3"|1988 |"Get It" (with Michael Jackson) | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 37 |- |"My Eyes Don t Cry" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 6 | style="text-align:center;"| 12 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |"You Will Know" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- ||1989 |"With Each Beat Of My Heart" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 28 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- ||1990 |"Keep Our Love Alive" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 24 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |rowspan="2"|1991 |"Fun Day (From "Jungle Fever")" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 6 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |"Gotta Have You (From "Jungle Fever")" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- ||1992 |"These Three Words" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 7 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- ||1995 |"For Your Love" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 11 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 30 | style="text-align:center;"| 23 |- |rowspan="2"|2005 |"So What The Fuss" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 34 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 40 | style="text-align:center;"| 19 |- |"From The Bottom Of My Heart" | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 25 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 7 | style="text-align:center;"| - |}

U.S. and UK albums

{|class="wikitable" |- ! style="width:28px;" rowspan="2"| Year ! style="width:250px;" rowspan="2"| Album ! colspan="3"| Chart positions |- ! style="vertical-align:top; width:30px;"| US ! style="vertical-align:top; width:30px;"| US R&B; ! style="vertical-align:top; width:30px;"| UK |- |1963 | | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |1966 |Up-Tight | style="text-align:center;"| 33 | style="text-align:center;"| 2 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |1966 |Down to Earth | style="text-align:center;"| 72 | style="text-align:center;"| 8 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |1967 |I Was Made to Love Her | style="text-align:center;"| 45 | style="text-align:center;"| 7 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |1968 |For Once in My Life | style="text-align:center;"| 50 | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |1969 |My Cherie Amour | style="text-align:center;"| 34 | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| 17 |- |1970 |Signed, Sealed, and Delivered | style="text-align:center;"| 25 | style="text-align:center;"| 7 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |1971 |Where I'm Coming From | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 7 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |1972 |Music of My Mind | style="text-align:center;"| 21 | style="text-align:center;"| 6 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |1972 |Talking Book | style="text-align:center;"| 3 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 16 |- |1973 |Innervisions | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 6 |- |1974 |Fulfillingness' First Finale | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 5 |- |1976 |''Songs in the Key of Life | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 2 |- |1979 |Journey through the Secret Life of Plants | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| 7 |- |1980 |Hotter than July | style="text-align:center;"| 2 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 2 |- |1982 |''Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 8 |- |1984 |The Woman in Red | style="text-align:center;"| 4 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 2 |- |1985 |In Square Circle | style="text-align:center;"| 5 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 5 |- |1987 |Characters | style="text-align:center;"| 17 | style="text-align:center;"| 1 | style="text-align:center;"| 33 |- |1995 |Conversation Peace | style="text-align:center;"| 17 | style="text-align:center;"| 2 | style="text-align:center;"| 8 |- |1996 |Natural Wonder | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 88 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |1997 |Song Review A Greatest Hits Collection | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 100 | style="text-align:center;"| 19 |- |2000 |At the Close of a Century | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 100 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |2002 |The Definitive Collection | style="text-align:center;"| 35 | style="text-align:center;"| 28 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |2004 |Best Of Stevie Wonder: 20th Century Masters Christmas Collection | style="text-align:center;"| - | style="text-align:center;"| 90 | style="text-align:center;"| - |- |2005 |A Time To Love | style="text-align:center;"| 5 | style="text-align:center;"| 2 | style="text-align:center;"| 24 |- |2007 |Number 1's | style="text-align:center;"| 171 | style="text-align:center;"| 40 | style="text-align:center;"| 23 |}

Awards and recognition

Grammy Awards

Wonder has received 25 Grammy Awards: |- |1976 || Best Producer of the Year* || N/A |- |1976 || Album of the Year || Songs in the Key of Life |- |1985 || Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance|| In Square Circle |- |1986 || Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal ''(awarded to Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Wonder) || "That's What Friends Are For" |- |1995 || Best Rhythm & Blues Song || "For Your Love" |- |1995 || Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance || "For Your Love" |- |1996 || Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award || General |- |1998 || Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) ''(awarded to Herbie Hancock, Robert Sadin, and Wonder)|| "St. Louis Blues" |- |1998 || Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance || "St. Louis Blues" |- |2002 || Best R&B; Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals ''(awarded to Wonder and Take 6)|| "Love's in Need of Love Today" |- |2005 || Best Male Pop Vocal Performance || "From the Bottom of My Heart" |- |2005 || Best R&B; Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals ''(awarded to Beyoncé and Wonder)|| "So Amazing" |- |2006 || Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals ''(awarded to Tony Bennett and Wonder) || "For Once In My Life" |}

Between 1965 and 1980, a self-produced artist won an additional Grammy as a producer as well as an artist.

Other awards and recognition

1983: inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. 1999: received the Polar Music Prize 2002: received the George and Ira Gershwin Lifetime Achievement Award at UCLA's Spring Sing. The same year, Wonder received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. 2004: received the Billboard Century Award. Also in 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Rock and Roll Artists of All Time. 2006: was inducted, as one of the first inductees, into the Michigan Walk of Fame. The same year, Wonder received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. 2008: Ranked at number five on "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists", making him as the third most successful male artist in the history of Billboard Hot 100 chart. 2009: Recipient of the second Gershwin Prize For Popular Song.

2009: Recipient of the Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award. This special award underlines a popular artist’s extraordinary contribution to the musical world. The Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award is in bronze.

2009: Named a Messenger of Peace by the United Nations.

See also

Best selling music artists

List of number-one hits (United States)

List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones

List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)

References

External links

Official Site

Stevie Wonder Website Coming Soon

IMDB Profile

Category:1950 births Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:African American drummers Category:African American singer-songwriters Category:African American pianists Category:African American record producers Category:African Americans' rights activists Category:American child singers Category:American composers Category:American funk drummers Category:American funk keyboardists Category:American funk singers Category:American harmonica players Category:American male singers Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American rhythm and blues keyboardists Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters Category:American soul keyboardists Category:American soul singers Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:Blind musicians Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Frank Farian artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:Motown artists

Category:Musicians from Detroit, Michigan Category:Musicians from Michigan Category:People from Saginaw, Michigan

Category:Rhythm and blues pianists Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees‎ Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Soul drummers Category:United Nations Messengers of Peace

Name	Solomon Burke
Landscape	yes
Background	solo_singer
Alias	"The King of Rock 'N Soul""The Bishop of Soul""King Solomon""The Wonder Boy preacher""Lord Solomon"
Born	March 21, 1940West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	October 10, 2010Haarlemmermeer (Amsterdam Airport Schiphol), Netherlands
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	Blues, gospel, R&B;, soul
Occupation	Preacher, singer
Years active	1955–2010
Label	Apollo RecordsTriumph RecordsSingular RecordsAtlantic RecordsBell RecordsMGM RecordsABC Dunhill RecordsChess RecordsAmherst RecordsInfinity RecordsSavoy RecordsRounder RecordsBlack Top RecordsPoint Blank RecordsGTR RecordsFat Possum RecordsANTI-Shout! FactoryE1 Music
Url	http://www.thekingsolomonburke.com

Solomon Burke (March 21, 1940 – October 10, 2010) was an American singer/songwriter, entrepeneur, 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 '50s, 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 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 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 Box's 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".

Early life and influences

James Solomon McDonald (later Solomon McDonald Vincent Burke) was born on the second floor of the home of his maternal grandmother, Eleanor A. "Mother" Moore (born about 1900 in Florence, South Carolina; died 19 December 1954 in Philadelphia), in a row house at 3036 Mt Vernon Street, West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 21 March 1940. 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 concert singer, At birth he was consecrated a bishop by his grandmother in the Solomon's Temple, a 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: “My grandmother was born a prophetess 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.” In 2002 Burke described his grandmother: "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." and 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."

At the age of 7 Solomon preached "He is My Life", In his youth, "he was so charismatic in the pulpit that he was known as the Boy Wonder Preacher". 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" From age 12 Burke became a pastor of the congregation, and also 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." 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." At the time of his death, it is estimated that he weighed at least 350 pounds.

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, After this Sol changed his name to Solomon McDonald Vincent Burke, but was often called "Sol" by family and friends. Solomon Burke had six younger siblings - a sister, Laurena Burke-Corbin (born 23 June 1946), Mario "Chuck" (born 13 September 1953), One of his earliest jobs was as a hot dog seller at Eddie's Meat Market, where his friend Chubby Checker also worked.

Education

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 Tyner; 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. From 1954 Burke attended the Roman Catholic High School for Boys, where he played American football, and later John Bartram High School in Philadelphia.

Musical preparation

Burke formed and fronted a quartet 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". which he recorded in the local penny arcade After Burke sang at her funeral on 24 December 1954, some local church people asked him to perform at their Christmas program.

Career

In December 1954 Burke and the Gospel Cavaliers entered a gospel talent show at the Cornerstone Baptist Church at 2117 North 33rd Street, Philadelphia, which offered a recording contract as a prize. However, the rest of the Gospel Cavaliers, who were "disheartened by their belief they were getting nowhere fast", 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. Burke wrote or co-wrote many of those songs. He indicated: "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". 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),

Burke's best-selling release at Apollo was a "mellow spiritual" called "You Can Run (But You Can't Hide)" b/w "A Picture of You" (Apollo 505), although it didn’t chart nationally. 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. 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.

By 1957 Burke became convinced that Kae Williams and Apollo were cheating him out of most of his record royalties, which, after a confrontation, resulted in Burke shooting Williams. Burke's Apollo contract was terminated and 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.

After being dropped by Apollo Records, Burke was evicted from his home by his mother and began living on the streets in 1957. 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.” At the age of 14 Burke had fathered his first child, During this period Burke met Brother Rashish who taught him the Islamic faith and became a mentor to him.

After being hit by a motor vehicle in a Philadelphia street, Burke was taken into the home of the driver, Lathella Thompson, a dentist's wife, whose niece Delores Clark, Burke had once dated and would later marry. Soon after Burke trained as a mortician at Eckels College of Mortuary Science 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 aunt, Anna. Burke later had his own mortuary business in Los Angeles.

Triumph Records (1958-1959)

By December 1958 Herb Abramson, founder of the newly established Triumph Records, signed Burke to a recording contract, with an eye on the pop market. Burke was unable to record for Triumph as it was discovered that his contract with Apollo Records had not expired.

Singular Records (1959-1960)

In 1959 Philadelphia businessman Marvin Leonard "Babe" Chivian (born 24 August 1925; died January 1972) offered Burke a red Lincoln Continental 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: 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. 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 entrepeneurial activities included 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. 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.

Apollo Records (1961)

Burke returned to Apollo for one more single (Apollo 747) in 1961, 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. had left for other record lablels - Darin for Capitol Records, and Charles for a "mega-deal" with ABC Records. Atlantic Vice-President and producer Jerry Wexler admits that by this time he was feeling creatively exhausted. 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 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, but were waiting for Burke's contract with Apollo Records to expire. 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). 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, 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". In a 1996 interview Burke claimed to have invented "soul music".

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", deciding eventually that "secular music was not the anithesis of the church but, rather, 'a new avenue, a new dimension to spread the gospel'". 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." 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, that had been a minor hit for Faron Young in 1952, 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.". 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 ballads 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), This song, which was "especially well received down South", "successfully appealed to white consumers by using tidy tone quality, minimal improvisation, and standard, middle-American dialect", 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'".

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.

"Cry to Me" (1962)

On December 6, 1961 Burke recorded one of his best known songs, "Cry to Me", "an ode to loneliness and desire" 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 disparingly, but later acknowledged Berns as "a genius", and "a great writer, a great man". 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."

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. "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. 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 melismas" are salient. Burke always had his 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 Hat For You" (#15 R&B; #85 Pop) b/w "Down In The Valley" (#20 R&B; #71 Pop) (Atlantic 2147).

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. 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 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"), to mostly mixed white and black audiences, including a concert at Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park.

"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 Pickett 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, Wilson gave the song to him on a tour bus, but 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. Although the latter ultimately won the chart war, he 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". In 1964 Atlantic would sign Pickett. 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".

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.

After a string of a dozen hit records, 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".

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.

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 paraphenalia.

Over the years Burke "evolved a fervently demonstrative stage act", that were often compared with religious revival meetings. 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.

"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" (1964)

On May 28, 1964 Burke recorded two unreleased songs, and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" (Atlantic 2241), thar 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 1997 interview Burke recalled the song's origins: "It came from the church. 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.'" 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, "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 1980 film The Blues Brothers. I 1989 it was released as a single in the UK, backed by "Think" and it peaked at #12.

"The Price" (1964)

His 1964 song "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 Soul great Teacho Wilshire and produced by Bert Berns. 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. 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)

"Got to Get You Off My Mind" (Atlantic 2276), Burke's "signature single", and his biggest hit (#1 R&B;, #22 pop), which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame called "one of the premier soul hits of the 1960s". Written by Burke, but also credited to 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", 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, it became his only #1 hit.

"Tonight's the Night" (1965)

Burke collaborated with his friend Don Covay to write the follow-up to "Got to Get You Off My Mind", "Tonight's the Night" (Atlantic 2288), which was another big hit (#2 R&B; #28 Pop) also in the summer of 1965.

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.

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. 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 performed on Discs a Go-Go with the Fortunes and The Moody Blues.

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". 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 Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, and Stevie Wonder) were "solidifying their respective stardoms". I Wish I Knew, at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio." 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.

The Soul Clan (1966-1969)

In 1966 Burke teamed with fellow Atlantic artists Wilson Pickett, 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 KFCs out of the box... the possibillities were endless." 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", For Burke, Soul Clan was "an expression of solidarity and mutual support by five pillars of soul music". and a 1969 album, Soul Clan, featuring both sides of the single and several solo tracks from the individual Clan members.

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 Cadillacs. 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. but it was the last time they would work together" 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 Records 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 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." The single reached #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"". 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 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. In 2008 Burke acknowledged his Christian methodology differed from that of his uncle, Pastor Harry R. Moore (born 1933; died 1982): "Mine was more: God, money and women, hey hey hey; truth, love, peace and get it on."

At the same time Burke was deeply involved in community work, assisting The Cripple Children's Foundation for blind and underprivileged children, while personally being responsible for more than 120 adopted children. 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.

MGM Records (1970-1974)

Through the efforts of his manager, Buddy Glee, by November 1970 Burke signed with Mike Curb's MGM label, 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."

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.

In January 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.

The Sons and Daughters of Solomon (1970-1973)

By December 1970 Burke formed seven of his children, including Vern, Sharon, J.F.K., Melanie (born 1960), Gemini C. (born September 1, 1960), and Solomon Vincent, Jr. (born 15 October 1961), into a "kiddie-soul" group, the Sons and Daughters of Solomon, whose entire output consisted of "Think of 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 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 Turner'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."

ABC Dunhill Records (1974)

As his star was continuing to wane, following the example of bluesmen B.B. King and Bobby Bland, 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"'. 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.

Infinity Records (1979)

Burke released Let Your Love Flow on Infinity Records (also known as Sidewalks, Fences and Walls) (INF-9024) in 1979.

"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)

In 1979 Burke returned to his gospel music roots by signing with gospel label Savoy Records. 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".

In 1980 "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!'"

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), one of which picked up a Gospel Grammy nomination.

Rounder Records (1984-1986)

Soul Alive! (1984)

In 1984 Rounder Records 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."

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 oldie".

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.

Bizarre/Straight (1991)

By the beginning of the 1990s, Burke was averaging less than a dozen concert performances a year.

Black Top Records (1993-1994)

By 1993 Burke had signed with Black Top Records, 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. 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". 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."

GTR Records (from 1999)

By 1999 Burke had started his own record labels: GTR Records (an abbreviation of Gospel Truth Recordings) for gospel music projects, which was owned by his children, and was also 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 Bells", "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."

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 Group. 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 Family 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 ackowledging 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.

Fat Possum Records (2002)

Don't Give Up on Me (2002)

Burke's career was revived with the July 23, 2002 release of Don't Give Up on Me 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 exclaimed: "We got a Grammy, baby!"

On 27 September 2002 Burke performed on Norwegian talk show Først & sist. and in an episode of Swesish 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, , 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.

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,

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! Factory, 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.

Make Do With What You Got (2005)

For the album Make Do With What You Got songs were contributed by Bob Dylan, 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 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 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.

Nashville (2006)

Burke returned to his country roots with the release on September 26, 2006 of a 14-track country album titled Nashville, produced 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. 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.

Like a Fire (2008)

In January 2008, Solomon returned to the recording studio 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". According to Don McLeese, in "Oh What a Feeling”, "Burke commands it like the chitlin’ circuit 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. 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.

Personal

Burke was married four times, including a two-month marriage to Doris P. Williams that was annulled by August 1958, which resulted in the birth one child, Valerie Doris Gresham (born 16 September 1957). His other wives were Jair Besalu, with whom he had 4 children; Delores Clark Burke Perkins (born 1937), with whom he had 13 children; and Sunday, whom he married in 1969, including King Solomon Haile Selassie Burke (born 7 August 1972), Queen Sunday Victoria Burke (born 24 February 1974), Queen Elizabeth Burke-Maynard (born 12 March 1975), and his youngest child, Candy Burke (born about 1977). 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. including Melanie Burke (born 1960), Solomon Vincent Burke, Jr. (born 15 October 1961). In total Burke fathered at least 21 children (14 daughters and 7 sons), and had 90 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren at the time of his death.

Burke indicates: "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." 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 discothèque hit (#33) in 1971, just before the group disbanded after a series of flops. a Neo Soul singer who is 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. 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. 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, 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.

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.

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, 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".

Discography

Singles (chart hits only)

{|class=wikitable |- ! Year ! Title ! Label & Cat. No. ! U.S. Pop ! U.S. R&B; |- | 1961 | "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" /
"Be Bop Grandma" | Atlantic 2114 | 24 | 7 |- | 1962 | "Cry to Me" /"I Almost Lost My Mind" | Atlantic 2131 | 44 | 5 |- | 1962 | "I'm Hanging Up My Heart for You" /
"Down in the Valley" | Atlantic 2147 | 85
71 | 15
20 |- | 1962 | "I Really Don't Want to Know" /"Tonight My Heart Is Crying" | Atlantic 2157 | 93 | - |- | 1963 | "If You Need Me" /"I Can Make It If I Try" | Atlantic 2185 | 37 | 2 |- | 1963 | "Can't Nobody Love You" | Atlantic 2196 | 66 | - |- | 1963 | "You're Good for Me" /"Beautiful Brown Eyes" | Atlantic 2205 | 49 | 8 |- | 1964 | "He'll Have to Go" /"Rockin' Soul" (instrumental) | Atlantic 2218 | 51 | n/a |- | 1964 | "Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)" /"Someone To Love Me" | Atlantic 2226 | 33 | n/a

References

External links

Solomon Burke - official website

Solomon Burke discography at Discogs

Solomon Burke discography at Soul Express

The Soul of the Net's Solomon Burke Discography

"Christmas Presents from Heaven" mp3 at CD Baby

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 Fame

[ Solomon Burke] page at AllMusic

Rock Hall Inductee

Audio Interview with Ron Bennington

Recent Live Review

An interview in May 2010 at Soul Express

Solomon Burke in-depth interview by Pete Lewis, Blues & Soul July 2010

Newby, Tim, "Solomon Burke Gets His Due", in Honest Tune (The Southern Journal of Jam) magazine, Oxford, Mississippi, June 18, 2008

Solomon's life and career, in his own words - at Soul Express

Category:1940 births Category:2010 deaths Category:American blues musicians Category:American blues singers Category:American gospel singers Category:American male singers Category:American rhythm and blues musicians Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American soul musicians Category:American soul singers Category:Fat Possum Records artists Category:Black Top Records artists Category:Bell Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Atlantic Records artists

Name	Robbie Williams
Landscape	No
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Robert Peter Williams
Born	February 13, 1974Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, synthesiser, drums, piano, violin, harmonica, marimba
Genre	Pop, Pop rock, dance
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, vocal coach, record producer, actor
Years active	1990–present
Label	Chrysalis, Virgin, EMI
Associated acts	Take That
Url

Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch his solo career. On 15 July 2010, it was announced he had rejoined Take That and that the group intended to release a new album in November 2010.

Williams has sold more than 57 million albums worldwide. He is the best-selling British solo artist in the United Kingdom and the best selling non-Latino artist in Latin America. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the United Kingdom. He has also been honoured with fifteen BRIT Awards—more than any other artist—and seven ECHO Awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted as the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s."

Life and career

1974–89: early life

Williams was born to Peter and Janet Williams in Stoke-on-Trent on 13 February 1974. He and his older sister, Sally, were raised by his mother, Janet, as she and his father, stand-up comedian Peter "Parp" Conway, separated when Williams was three days old and have since divorced. Williams attended Mill Hill Primary School at Stoke-on-Trent then St Margaret Ward Roman Catholic School in Tunstall, and also attended dance school UKDDF in Tunstall. He participated in several school plays, and his biggest role was that of the Artful Dodger in a production of Oliver!. A talented footballer, Williams briefly played for Port Vale Football Club.

1990–95: Take That

In 1990, the sixteen year old Williams was the youngest member to join Take That. According to the documentary , his mother read an advertisement seeking members for a new boy band and suggested that he try out for the group. He met fellow member Mark Owen on the day of his audition/interview with Nigel Martin-Smith. During the heights of the band's popularity, Williams was known as the extrovert and practical joker of the band. Although the majority of the band's material was written and performed by Gary Barlow, Williams did perform lead vocals on their first Top Ten hit "Could It Be Magic", "I Found Heaven", and "Everything Changes". However, he had conflicts with Martin-Smith over the restrictive rules for Take That members, and he began drinking more alcohol and dabbling in cocaine.

In July 1995, Williams's drug abuse had escalated to the point of his having a near drug overdose the night before the group was scheduled to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards. According to the documentary For the Record, he stated that he was unhappy with his musical ideas not being taken seriously by lead singer Barlow and Nigel Martin-Smith, because his desire to explore hip hop and rap conflicted with the band's usual ballads. Barlow explained in interviews that Williams had given up trying to offer creative input and merely did as he was told. As well as Williams's friction with the management of the band, Jason Orange had problems with his increasingly belligerent behaviour, his lack of interest in performing, and his frequent habit of missing the band's rehearsals.

Both Orange and Barlow confronted Martin-Smith about the internal conflict, because they did not want him dropping out while touring and before any possible future touring of America, which never took place. During one of the last rehearsals before the tour commenced, the group confronted Williams about his attitude and stated they wanted to do the tour without him. He agreed to quit the band and left; it would be the last time for twelve years that they were all together. Despite the departure of Williams, Take That completed their Nobody Else Tour as a four-piece band. They later disbanded on 13 February 1996, Williams's twenty-second birthday.

Shortly afterwards, Williams was photographed by the press partying with the members of Oasis at Glastonbury Festival. Following his departure, he became the subject of talk shows and newspapers as he acknowledged his plans to become a solo singer, and he was spotted partying with George Michael in France. However, a clause in his Take That contract prohibited him from releasing any material until after the group was officially dissolved, and he was later sued by Martin-Smith and forced to pay $200,000 in commission. After various legal battles over his right to a solo career, Williams was victorious in getting released from his contract with BMG. On 27 June 1996, Williams formally announced that he had signed with Chrysalis Records.

1996–98: Life Thru a Lens and I've Been Expecting You

After leaving Take That, Williams launched his solo career starting things off in 1996 by covering George Michael's "Freedom", the single reached number two in the UK Singles Chart, twenty-six places higher than George Michael's original.

Recordings for Williams's first album began at London's Maison Rouge studios in March of that year. Shortly after his introduction to Guy Chambers, Williams released "Old Before I Die" which would be the first single taken from his début album. Co-written by Williams with Eric Bazilian and Desmond Child, the single was released in April 1997, hitting number two on the UK Charts; The song, apart from becoming a hit around Europe and Latin America, caused sales of his album to skyrocket. The album remained inside the British top ten for forty weeks and spent 218 weeks there altogether, making it the 58th best selling album in UK History with sales of over 2.4 million. The album eventually managed to sell over three million copies in Europe alone.

Williams and Chambers started writing the second album in Jamaica in early 1998. The first single, "Millennium", was inspired by John Barry's, theme song for You Only Live Twice, the James Bond movie. The song became Williams' first solo number one single in the United Kingdom when it was released in September of that year. It also became a top twenty hit in many European countries, as well becoming a hit in Latin America and Australia.

When the album I've Been Expecting You was released in late October 1998, it débuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart. The album received more attention outside the United Kingdom, leaving its mark in the European and Latin American markets with hits such as "No Regrets", a collaboration with The Pet Shop Boys' singer Neil Tennant and The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon. The single "No Regrets" was released in November 1998, reaching number four in the UK Singles Chart, backed with the cover of Adam and the Ants, "Antmusic". The single eventually sold over 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom being certified Silver in October 2004, almost six years after its original release.

The third single "Strong" from the album debuted at number four in the United Kingdom and number nine in New Zealand, however peaked moderately at only number 68 in Germany, number 99 in France and number 55 in the Netherlands. The fourth single, "She's the One", a cover of a track from World Party's album, Egyptology, became his second number one hit in the United Kingdom. Williams finished the year with an extensive European Tour late in 1999.

The album I've Been Expecting You was a smash hit, selling almost 3 million copies in the United Kingdom alone: certified 10x Platinum by the BPI. In Europe alone, the album sold over 4 million copies.

1999–2001: Sing When You're Winning and Swing When You're Winning

In 1999, Williams was signed to Capitol Records in the United States, which is a part of EMI. Williams embarked on a US promotional tour and when his first U.S. and Canadian single, "Millennium" was released, it hit number 72 on the Billboard Hot 100, the album The Ego Has Landed was released in July 1999 in the United States and Canada, not having the success that he enjoyed in Europe - the album peaked at number 63 in the U.S. Billboard Albums Chart and number 17 on the Canadian SoundScan album chart. Despite this, Williams enjoyed good video airplay and received a nomination for the MTV Video Music Awards for "Best Male Video" he did not win, but the exposure helped sales of the album.

Capitol Records, trying to make Williams a bigger star, released a second single from the album, the ballad "Angels". Williams shot a new video for it, and when it was released in fall of that year, the song became a somewhat bigger hit than "Millennium", peaking at number 53, but this was not enough for Williams, so he concentrated on the rest of the world where he was already an established act. The album went on to sell 596,000 copies in the United States, certified Gold by the RIAA in November of that year. The compilation was released worldwide (as a limited edition in Europe); the album was a success in New Zealand reaching number one on the official album charts.

In the middle of promotion and the tours in 1999, becoming an established worldwide pop star, Williams found time to start work on what would be his third studio album. This time he had finally found his inner confidence.

The first single taken from the album was "Rock DJ", a song inspired by Williams's UNICEF mentor, the late Ian Dury. The video showed Williams in an attempt to get noticed by a group of females, first stripping and then tearing chunks of skin and muscle from his body, and caused controversy in the United Kingdom and many other countries. The video was edited by Top of the Pops for its graphic content and many other channels followed suit. The song became an instant hit, making number one in the United Kingdom and becoming his third number one single as a solo artist exactly a year after his sell-out concert at the Slane Castle. The song also reached number one in New Zealand and hit the Top 10 placings in many countries including Germany, Despite this success, the song failed to break into the United States charts, but it did get some TV Airplay on channels such as MTV and VH1. The song went on to win several awards; among them, "Best Song of 2000" at the MTV Europe Music Awards, "Best Single of the Year" at the BRIT Awards and an MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects. It sold over 600,000 copies in the UK alone, being certified Platinum by the BPI.

When the album, Sing When You're Winning was released in August 2000, it topped the charts in many different countries all over the world including Germany, New Zealand and The Netherlands and secured top ten placings in Italy, Austria, Australia, Finland and Sweden, among many others. As for the UK, the album débuted at number one being certified 2x Platinum on its first week of release.

The album's second single, a collaboration with Australian singer Kylie Minogue, titled "Kids", was written when Minogue approached Williams to write material for what would be her first album Light Years under Parlophone; Williams decided to include the track on his album and release it as a single. It was an instant hit when it was released in October of that year, hitting number two in the United Kingdom and reaching top twenty placings in countries like Australia and New Zealand. Kids became one of the biggest hits of that year selling over 200,000 copies in the UK alone and was certified Silver.

Further singles, such as "Supreme" (which Williams also recorded in French), and "Better Man" became big hits reaching the top 10 in numerous countries around the world.

"Eternity", a track that was not featured on the album, was released in mid 2001 backed with "The Road to Mandalay" - the former was written by Williams. It became his fourth number one single in the United Kingdom, selling over 70,000 copies in its first week in the UK alone, and also hit the top 10 in many countries including Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy among others.

The album spent 91 weeks inside the UK Charts, going on to sell 2.4 million copies in the UK alone and was certified 8x Platinum by the BPI. It became the 51st Best Selling album in UK Music History Born from his life-long love for Frank Sinatra combined with the success of the track "Have You Met Miss Jones?" that he recorded for the film Bridget Jones' Diary in early 2001 the album was recorded at the Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, California.

Williams took the chance to duet with his long-time friend Jonathan Wilkes, Little Voice star Jane Horrocks, Saturday Night Live star Jon Lovitz, Rupert Everett and the Academy Award winning actress Nicole Kidman. The first single released from the album was a duet with Kidman, on "Somethin' Stupid". Originally a hit for Frank and Nancy Sinatra, the song became Williams' fifth number one hit in the United Kingdom, selling almost 100,000 copies in its first week of release, as well as hitting the top 5 in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and New Zealand. It eventually went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2001, selling over 200,000 copies in the UK alone. After spending three weeks at the top of the charts in 2001, it was certified Silver in January 2002.

When the album Swing When You're Winning (in reference to his 2000 studio album Sing When You're Winning) was released in late 2001, it became an instant hit in the United Kingdom (spending six consecutive weeks at number one), Ireland, New Zealand, Austria, Germany and Switzerland and it reached the top ten in the rest of the world, going on to sell over 2 million copies by the end of 2001 and over 7 million altogether. A second single was released from the album, a double a-side "Mr. Bojangles/I Will Talk and Hollywood Will Listen". It was, however, released only in Central and Eastern Europe. "Mack the Knife" was released as a radio single in Mexico.

The album spent 57 weeks inside the UK Charts, selling more than 2.1 million copies. It was certified 7x Platinum in the United Kingdom and ultimately became the 49th Best Selling Album in UK Music History. "Beyond the Sea" was put in the credits of the film Finding Nemo in 2003 and was also released on the film's soundtrack CD.

A DVD called Robbie Williams Live at the Albert Hall was released in December of that year. So far, it has become one of the best selling music DVDs in Europe, being certified 6x Platinum in the United Kingdom and 2x Platinum in Germany.

2002–05: Escapology and Intensive Care

In 2002, Williams signed a record-breaking £80 million contract with EMI. The contract included a number of provisos, including the label ceding greater creative control to the artist and a commitment to breaking Williams into the US market. So far it is the biggest music deal in British history. The deal was brokered by Ingenious Media, a leading UK corporate finance advisory business.

Williams began working on what would be his fifth studio album, spending a year in the recording studio. The album heralded a new era for Williams. He had taken a more active role in the making of this album, giving an indication of his growing confidence in the studio. "One Fine Day", "Nan's Song", and "Come Undone" were the first songs that Williams wrote without the input of Guy Chambers. Most of the songs were recorded in Los Angeles. When the single was released in late 2002, it became Williams' biggest international hit, going number one in countries like The Netherlands and Italy, as well as reaching the top ten in almost every single European country.

When Williams' fifth studio album, Escapology, was released in late 2002, it hit number one in at least 10 countries around the world including the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. Elsewhere, it made the top ten. In the United States, however, it failed to make such an impact, reaching only number forty-three on the Billboard Albums Chart.

The album's second single, "Come Undone" became a top ten hit around the world. Due to its controversial video, it was heavily censored by MTV Networks Europe for depicting a debauched (but fully-clothed) Williams having three-way sex with two women. The video was about some young people having a party and it showed footage of fights, drug taking and alcohol abuse. It also showed unsettling images of insects and reptiles. The uncensored version of the video was released on DVD single in Europe and was also included on the Enhanced CD Single. BBC Radio 2 also banned the song for its explicit content. At that time, it was confirmed that Williams and Guy Chambers were to officially split up. The single was released in mid-2003. While it had minor success compared to Williams' previous songs, it did manage to enter the top ten in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Denmark. However it failed to make much of an impact in the music charts in other countries. The video featured a number of people from all over Europe vying to win the chance to perform as Robbie Williams at the end of the same video. The three winners had the chance to meet Williams. Three different versions of the video were released in different parts of the world, featuring the different winners. Williams started his world tour in the mid-2003, and he was about to do three live concerts in Knebworth. The Knebworth shows attracted a total of 375,000 fans.

Escapology ended up selling almost 2 million copies by the end of 2003 in the United Kingdom. It was certified 6x Platinum by the BPI, becoming the 60th best selling album in UK music history.

In October 2003, Williams released his first live album, Live at Knebworth which peaked at number two in the UK. The live record ended up selling a little over 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom and was certified 2x Platinum by the BPI. It sold a total of 2 million units in Europe alone. "Radio", the compilation's first single was released in October 2004, which debuted at number one of the UK Singles Chart The song was also a number one hit in Denmark, and it hit the top ten in The Netherlands, Italy, Austria and Norway.

When the compilation Greatest Hits was released two weeks later, it went on to sell 320,000 copies in its first week in the United Kingdom debuting at number one.

The album's second single, the ballad "Misunderstood", which was also the soundtrack of the film hit the top ten in Italy and Denmark in December of that year, making the album the best selling album of the year in the United Kingdom and becoming the 61st Best Selling Album in UK Music History, It also became the best selling album of the year in Europe, being certified 5x Platinum, with over 5 million copies sold.

Eight years after the release of "Angels", in February 2005 the British public voted it as the "Best Single of the Past Twenty-Five Years" at the 2005 BRIT Awards.

After touring Latin America in late 2004 for the promotion of his Greatest Hits album, Williams started working on his sixth studio album. Recorded in his bedroom in the Hollywood Hills, the album was co-written by Stephen Duffy over the course of 24 months.

The track "Ghosts" was inspired by the Human League's "Louise", about a man who breaks off a relationship with his partner and realises he still has strong feelings for her.

The album Intensive Care was launched in Berlin, Germany on 9 October. It became a smash hit around the world, hitting number one in the United Kingdom, as well as topping the charts in Germany,

In November 2005, Williams took home the MTV Europe Music Award for 'Best Male', but also, entered in The Guinness Book of World Records when he announced his World Tour for 2006, selling 1.6 million tickets in one single day. But after the success, Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Jason Orange, and Howard Donald had agreed to reunite in Notting Hill, west London, for a preview screening of a documentary about Take That. The documentary screened on ITV1 on 16 November 2005. Unfortunately, according to a source quoted by The Sunday Mirror, "Robbie announced he wasn't coming. The rest of the band were gutted but felt the show had to go on."

By December, the second single from the album was released. The ballad "Advertising Space" reached the top ten in some European countries including the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy.

Williams kicked off his Close Encounters World Tour in South Africa in April 2006, when he finished his European leg of the tour. 2.5 million had seen the show, and after touring Latin America and Australia the numbers went up to 3 million.

After a long gap between singles, the third cut from the album was released in the mid-2006. "Sin Sin Sin" was the first song Williams and Duffy wrote together, the video of which was shot in Cape Town, South Africa right before the start of his tour. The track became Williams' first single not to make the UK Top 20, charting at only number 22, but managed to enter the top 20 in some countries including Germany,

By the end of the promotion of the album, it was announced that it had sold over five million copies in Europe alone, and was certified 5x Platinum by the IFPI. It was also certified 5x Platinum in the United Kingdom becoming, at the time, his lowest selling studio album in the country.

2006–09: Rudebox and Reality Killed the Video Star

, Germany in 2006]] Williams's seventh studio album was announced in early 2006. It was to be a dance/electro album with collaborations with the Pet Shop Boys, William Orbit, Soul Mekanik, Joey Negro, Mark Ronson, Chris Grierson, The Orr Boys and more.

The first single, "Rudebox", was premièred on radio by Scott Mills on his show on BBC Radio 1. The event caused some controversy, as the record label's embargo date was broken, although the artist himself later backed the presenter for doing so. More controversy followed due to the first single's radical change of direction when compared to his older releases. British newspaper The Sun named the song "The Worst Song Ever". However, Victoria Newton stated that there were sure-fire hits on the album. The song was released in September that year reaching number four in the UK Singles Chart. It hit the number one spot in Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

Williams released his much anticipated dance/electro album, Rudebox, on 23 October 2006. It received mixed reviews: Allmusic gave it a four star rating, the NME 8 out of 10, and Music Week and MOJO were equally positive, but it received much weaker reviews from some of the British press. Despite reaching the number one spot, sales were far below what was expected by his label, and overall sales in the UK were overtaken by his former band, Take That's Beautiful World. The album has sold a little under 500,000 copies in the United Kingdom, becoming his lowest-selling album in the country, being certified 2x Platinum by the BPI. The album was received with a warmer reception by the public in other parts of the world where it hit number one including Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Finland and Italy.

The album sold 2x Platinum in Europe with sales of over 2 million making it the fastest platinum-selling album of 2006. The album finished at number eighteen in the list of 2006's best selling albums worldwide. Neil Tennant claimed the album had sold 4.5 million copies by early 2007.

The second single, "Lovelight", came out right before the release of the album, and was commercially released on 13 November. The single reached the top ten in the United Kingdom, but failed to reach the success of Williams' previous releases when the track showed no longevity in the charts.

The third single, "She's Madonna" included remixes from Kris Menace and Chris Lake and was released on European radio in late January to precede the commercial release which was scheduled for 5 March 2007. The track reached only number sixteen on the Singles Chart in the United Kingdom, but fared better in Continental Europe hitting the top ten in most countries. It rose to number one on the European Airplay Chart after spending four weeks at number two, a feat his former band, Take That, failed to achieve. It was confirmed that this single was not going to be released in Latin America or Australia, but did receive heavy airplay in the latter country. Despite this, the single was released as Digital Download in Mexico in four different formats. In August 2007, the single reached number 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart.

"Bongo Bong and Je Ne T'Aime Plus", a collaboration with British singer Lily Allen, was released as the third single in Latin America and other European countries, hitting radio in January 2007, and as a Digital Download in February. To promote his album, Williams commissioned a series of short films. Goodbye to the Normals was directed by Jim Field Smith and features "Burslem Normals" by Robbie Williams.

On 4 October 2007, Williams made a return to the live stage after almost ten months, when he made a guest appearance at Mark Ronson's concert in Los Angeles. He performed The Charlatans' song "The Only One I Know", which features on Ronson's album Version.

Rumours of a new studio album co-written with Guy Chambers had surfaced in early 2007, along with known commitments required by Williams to his EMI contract. British singer-songwriter Laura Critchley commented that she had sung vocals for three songs, and said that it would not be released until 2009.

On 16 January 2008 UK tabloid The Sun announced that Williams had been working on some songs with The Blockheads member Chaz Jankel. The article went on to state that the reunion with Chambers hadn't worked out and that the material that Williams is working on with Jankel will form the basis of his next studio album. However, although it had been confirmed on the Blockheads' official site that Jankel was writing with Williams, the rumour that Chambers was no longer working with him was not official. In late August 2008, Williams' friend Callum Blue commented that he was still working on the album.

In February 2009, it was confirmed that Williams had written material with Guy Chambers and Mark Ronson. A spokesman said that Williams was planning to begin the recording sessions in March and that the new album would be released in late 2009. This will probably be the last Williams album released by EMI. On his official website, Williams confirmed that he is working with producer Trevor Horn on his new album; he described himself as "buzzing" and that the new album sounds "big. Very, very big". The new album will be titled Reality Killed the Video Star, a reference to the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" by Horn's former band The Buggles. The album was released on 9 November 2009 in the United Kingdom. The new song "Bodies" saw its first play on 4 September 2009 during the Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1, where Moyles described it as "a grower", with Williams later agreeing that it may take a few listens for people to like it.

On 11 October 2009 Williams published a 12-track compilation album, titled Songbook, as a free CD for the newspaper The Mail on Sunday. The CD is a one-off album of some of his biggest hits - including several rare live performances and images from his new album. The CD also included the 'completemyartist' software which gave access to more exclusive content and playlists online. That same evening, Williams made his "comeback" on The X Factor results show, performing his new single "Bodies" for the first time live. The appearance proved to be somewhat controversial as press and viewers alike questioned Williams' well-being following a bizarre and erratic performance. A spokesperson for Williams later issued a public statement declaring that Williams had not been taking drugs. On 12 December 2009 Williams appeared again on the show to duet with finalist Olly Murs. There were claims that Robbie missed his cue, and he was unaware of the long instrumental and therefore began too early. However, after laughing it off and picking up his place again from Olly Murs, he managed to complete the performance without any other negative incidents.

On 20 October 2009 Williams opened the BBC Electric Proms at the London RoundHouse. It was his first live concert for 3 years and was beamed across 200 cinemas around the world. Accompanied by a string section, horn section, full band and producer Trevor Horn, Williams performed several new tracks from Reality Killed the Video Star and several of his greatest hits. Among the musicians, the harpist in the band Lucinda Belle was spotted in this live show by BBC DJ Fearne Cotton, which directly led to her being signed by Universal Records with a five-record deal worth 1.25 million pounds.

Reality Killed the Video Star was exclusively previewed in the UK on the Spotify music streaming service on 6 November 2009, three days before its official release on 9 November. In a high profile chart battle, Williams' album was pitted against X Factor 2008 runners-up JLS who released their debut album the same day. JLS beat Williams to the number one spot by 1500 sales - both were the two biggest-selling albums of the year so far in the UK - making Reality... Williams' first studio album not to reach no.1 in the UK. However it reached number 1 globally that week.

The album was also released in the United States (Williams' first album to be released there since 2002's Escapology). However, the album peaked at #160 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and dropped out of the chart after only one week.

In late November 2009, Williams traveled to Australia to perform at the ARIA Music Awards of 2009.

2010–present: In and Out of Consciousness and reunion with Take That

In June 2010, it was officially announced that Williams was ready to release his second greatest hits album, , to celebrate his 20 years as a performing artist. Williams new single, also included on the album, will be "Shame", which is written and sung by Williams and Gary Barlow, his Take That bandmate.

On 26 August 2010, it was announced Williams would become a guest vocal coach on the ninth series of German reality television show to teach candidates for a girl group. On 20 September 2010, Williams released his second book called "You Know Me" in collaboration with Chris Heath. The book features a personal photo collection from the past 20 years of his career and behind-the-scenes insight from Williams.

In October, Media Control named Robbie Williams the most successful album-artist of the millennium due to the fact that he had spent No. 1 on the German Albums Chart for 38 weeks since 2000. He also reached that chart's Top Ten 135 times.

Other projects

Reunion of Take That

Williams announced in December 2008 that he was planning to relocate to the UK prior to releasing his eighth studio album in late-2009, and a possible reunion with Take That. Photos also showed Williams with his new tattoo of the Take That logo on his right arm, in tribute to his former bandmates. Williams bought a £7 million home in the village of Compton Bassett, Wiltshire.

On 27 March 2009, Williams stated he felt ready to re-join Take That. He said: "I'm in regular contact with them, even Gaz, and it's looking more likely by the week. The lads all seem up for it and some people think it's a done deal. I think it would be fun." Williams was eager to re-join the band on their The Circus Live tour, but these plans never materialised. In September 2009, Williams was reported to be working in New York with Take That, however these rumours were never confirmed.

While it was rumoured that Williams would reunite with Take That on 12 November 2009 for a Children In Need charity concert at The Royal Albert Hall, they merely greeted each other warmly on stage between performances. However, both did join with the other acts in the final song of the evening, with Robbie putting his arm around Gary Barlow and singing Hey Jude happily together. Williams subsequently implied in an interview that a proper reunion was still a distinct possibility. On 15 February 2010, tabloid newspaper The Sun printed an interview with Robbie, stating that he and Take That had been sighted going to an Los Angeles studio together. It was announced on 15 July that Robbie Williams had rejoined Take That. In November 2010 the Take That album Progress'' was released and became the fastest selling album of the century and second fastest selling album in UK history.

The band also announced the Progress Live 2011 tour which will travel across the UK in the Summer and finish with a record breaking 8 nights at Wembley Stadium in London. The tour will also visit some of the biggest venues across Europe after the tour of the UK. The tour was the fastest selling tour in UK history with ticket hotlines and websites crashing under the demand. Its highest position on American charts was #20 in Top 40 Mainstream. His second single, "Angels", was a success on the Hot Adult Contemporary Chart where it peaked at #10. It also hit #41 in the Hot 100, becoming his highest peaking track on the main American chart and the most commonly known Robbie Williams song in the United States (later covers by Jessica Simpson and David Archuleta would be released as singles). In 1999, Williams released a special, US only, compilation of his first two albums, titled The Ego Has Landed. The album peaked at #63 and went Gold selling over 500,000 copies in the US. but failed to chart on the Hot 100. The album peaked at #110 on the Billboard 200 and only stayed on the charts for four weeks.

Together with a promotional tour, EMI hoped that the release of Escapology would be the album to successfully break the American market. Williams performed the lead song "Feel" on such shows as Good Morning America and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. However, this single did not reach Hot 100 but peaked at #28 on the Adult Top 40. The album Escapology also failed to catch fire in America and peaked at #43 on the US Album Billboard Charts. Intensive Care and Rudebox were not released on an American label, but they were made available on iTunes. Williams's 2009 album, Reality Killed The Video Star, was released in the US, but was also a commercial failure, peaking at #160 and remained on the chart for only one week.

Williams's single "Lovelight" was released in the United States by Virgin Records, debuting at #23 in the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart on March 2008 and eventually peaking at #8 by May 2008.

Collaborations

One of his most famous collaborations was on the song "Kids", a duet with Australian pop star Kylie Minogue. The single peaked at number 2 on the UK singles charts in 2000. Williams also collaborated with Australian film star Nicole Kidman on a cover of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's "Somethin' Stupid". The single reached number 1 on the UK singles chart in 2001. His single "No Regrets" featured Neil Tennant, and Neil Hannon on backing vocals.

In 2002, Williams appeared on the track "My Culture" on the 1 Giant Leap album, alongside rapper Maxi Jazz (which features lyrics from the hidden track "Hello Sir" from Life Thru a Lens). Williams also features on a double CD titled Concrete which was released on the same day as Rudebox. The CD features a concert recorded for the BBC featuring the Pet Shop Boys and Williams singing their classic hit "Jealousy". Their joint effort, "She's Madonna", was released as a single in March 2007. On 13 August 2007, a Dean Martin duets album was released, on which Williams sings "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone". Most recently it was announced that Williams has recorded what is going to be Mexican singer Thalía's first single from her upcoming English-language album. In 2010 he announced that he was to release "Shame", a duet with Take That lead singer songwriter Gary Barlow as the first single from his greatest hits collection .

Video game

Williams features in his own karaoke video game, "We Sing Robbie Williams." It will feature 25 tracks accompanied by all the original videos. The game is to be released by publisher Nordic Games, which struck a licensing deal with EMI. The game also features the single Shame featuring both Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow as an extra 26th playable track.

Achievements

It has been claimed that Williams has sold more albums in the UK than any other British solo artist in history and has won more BRIT Awards than any other artist to date. His album sales stands at over 57 million worldwide. Williams was entered in The Guinness Book of World Records when, after he announced his World Tour for 2006, 1.6 million tickets were sold in one single day.

He has been presented many awards, including sixteen BRIT and seven ECHO awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, after being voted as the Greatest artist of the 1990s.

He appears in the list of the all-time Top 100 biggest selling albums in the United Kingdom six times.

On 23 October 2009 it was announced that he would receive the Outstanding Contribution To British Music award at the 2010 BRIT Awards. Williams received his award on 16 February 2010 at the end of the ceremony and performed a live medley of his greatest hits including Let Me Entertain You, No Regrets, and Angels.

On Friday 3 September 2010, on a show that included "The Wanted" and Alesha Dixon, he switched on the world famous Blackpool illuminations, stating that it was one of the greatest honours he'd ever achieved.

Personal life

Since 2006, Williams has spent most of his time in Los Angeles, California, and has commented many times on how he enjoyed the freedom and privacy because he is not so famous there. Williams moved back to the UK in 2009 when he bought an £8.5 million mansion in Compton Bassett, Wiltshire, nearby to close friend Jonathan Wilkes who lives in Swindon. Williams sold the mansion a year later to move back to Los Angeles.

Williams has reportedly battled mental illness, obesity, self-esteem issues, alcoholism, and substance abuse throughout his life. He once discussed how his friend Elton John booked him into a clinic to cope with his drug use that emerged from the depression he was experiencing while still in Take That. Williams used to smoke up to 60 cigarettes a day; he gave up in 2009 for his girlfriend Ayda Field.

Williams has a strong interest in UFOs and related paranormal phenomena, and has pursued this interest during his 2007–08 sabbatical. His interest in the subject led to him taking part in a documentary for BBC Radio 4 with Jon Ronson. The documentary followed them to a UFO convention in Nevada. During an interview with Joss Stone on The Jeremy Kyle Show in 2008, Williams revealed that while out of his head on dispirin he has seen UFOs three times. Williams said his first UFO sighting was when he was a child in Britain while he spotted his second in Beverly Hills, and added that the third sighting was just after he had written a song about alien contact.

Relationships

Williams has had romantic relationships with several well-known female celebrities, including Rachel Hunter. The book Feel, written by Williams' friend, writer Chris Heath, details Williams' many sexual conquests during his European tour in 2003.

In January 2007, Williams has been in a relationship with Turkish American actress Ayda Field. They have reportedly been together for almost three years. Despite several break up stories in the press Williams and Field have been spotted together many times this year. On 29 January 2008 they were pictured on vacation together at Mammoth Ski Resort in California, accompanied by Max Beesley. She was featured in a UFO documentary that Williams did for BBC Radio 4 in April and took part in a field investigation he did in Trout Lake, Washington in August 2008.

On 8 November 2008, Williams was spotted with Field at football match at the Emirates Stadium, where he was also seen with Gary Barlow accompanied by his two oldest children, and Williams' longtime friend Jonathan Wilkes. The couple has been living together in a mansion in Wiltshire since the beginning of 2009 according to The Sun. In October 2009, Field appeared in the video of Williams comeback single Bodies. Williams has been referring to Field as his "wife" in recent interviews.

In November 2009, Williams announced to Jonathan Ross that he was 'in love' with Field. On 26 November 2009, Williams proposed to Ayda Field live on the Australian radio channel 2dayfm in an interview on the Kyle and Jackie O Show. However, it was later revealed by Williams' manager that it was "done as a joke following suggestions it was a stunt which was set up prior to the radio show." His spokesman confirmed: 'He did say it, but he did it in a jocular manner. They are not engaged.' A few days later Williams himself denied the engagement, using his official blog to say "Hey all. We are not engaged. Rob.". On 7 August 2010, Williams and Field married at his home in Los Angeles.

Sexuality

Williams won a libel case against MGN and Northern & Shell in December 2005 relating to articles which had reported he was a closet homosexual. In the libel action that resulted from this, Williams accepted substantial damages, and the publishers accepted that the stories were untrue. His counsel, Tom Shields QC, told the court, "Mr Williams is not, and has never been, homosexual." Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called for any damages paid out from the libel case to be donated to gay charities, claiming Williams' legal actions had created the impression that it is "bad to be gay." Williams retorted that he was not bothered about being labelled as a gay man, and he would have taken the same action had it been regarding a heterosexual relationship. In 2008, Williams' friend, actor Max Beesley, rejected claims that Williams was gay. Beesley said, "Some of the stuff written about him is enough to make me mad, the rumours about him being gay, for example. Not true. I've never met anybody less gay in my life!"

Wealth

In 2009, the Sunday Times Rich List claimed he was worth over £130 million.

Williams is a lifelong supporter of Port Vale, based in his home town of Stoke-on-Trent. In February 2006 he bought £240,000 worth of shares in the club, making him the majority shareholder. He also has a restaurant at Vale Park named in his honour.

Charity

Williams has set up a charity in his home town entitled Give It Sum, with its goal being to "improve local conditions and strengthen community life by giving money to those who are disadvantaged." Williams, with the help of friend Jonathan Wilkes, organised a charity football match Soccer Aid to raise money for UNICEF UK. This match was played in May 2006 at Old Trafford, Manchester. The participants were a mixture of celebrities and professional football players. It was continued in September 2008 and again in June 2010. Williams has been the Patron of the children's charity the Donna Louise Trust based in his home town of Stoke-on-Trent, for the last 8 years. The charity offers respite and palliative care to terminally ill and life-limited children who are not expected to live past the age of 16.

Awards

Williams has won a large number of awards over the years, including more BRIT Awards than any other artist in music history (16), as well as six Echo Awards in six consecutive years from 2001 until 2007.

Discography

; Studio albums

Life Thru a Lens (1997)

I've Been Expecting You (1998)

Sing When You're Winning (2000)

Swing When You're Winning (2001)

Escapology (2002)

Intensive Care (2005)

Rudebox (2006)

Reality Killed the Video Star (2009)

; Compilation albums

The Ego Has Landed (1999)

Greatest Hits (2004)

The Best So Far (2006) (released only in Brazil)

Songbook (2009) (released only in the UK with The Mail on Sunday)

(2010)

; Live albums

Live at Knebworth (2003)

Tours

The Show Off Must Go On (October–November 1997)

The Ego Has Landed (May–June 1998)

One More for the Rogue Tour / For a Few Dollars More... Tour (1998–99)

Robbie Williams North American Tours (1999)

The Sermon on the Mount Tour (2000–01)

Weddings, Barmitzvahs & Stadiums Tour / Sing When You're Pacific Rimming Tour (2001)

Weekends of Mass Distraction Tour / Cock of Justice/Aussie Typo Tour (2003)

Close Encounters Tour (2006)

References

External links

180 years of Robbie's Farrell Family Tree

Category:1974 births Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Capitol Records artists Category:English dance musicians Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:English football chairmen and investors Category:English-language singers Category:English male singers Category:English pop singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Music from Stoke-on-Trent Category:People from Stoke-on-Trent Category:Port Vale F.C. Category:Take That members Category:World Music Awards winners

Name	Carole King
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Carol Klein
Born	February 09, 1942
Origin	New York City, New York, United States
Instrument	PianoVocalsGuitar
Genre	Folk rock Pop Jazz
Occupation	Singer-songwriter
Years active	1958–present
Label	RockingaleOde/Epic/CBS RecordsPriority/EMI Records
Associated acts	James TaylorThe CityDanny Kortchmar
Url	CaroleKing.com

Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King's album Tapestry topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks, in 1971, and remained on the charts for more than six years.

She was most successful as a performer in the first half of the 1970s, although she was a successful songwriter long before and long after. She had her first No. 1 hit as a songwriter in 1961, at age 18, with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", which she wrote with Gerry Goffin. In 1997, she co-wrote "The Reason" for Celine Dion.

In 2000, Joel Whitburn, a Billboard Magazine pop music researcher, named her the most successful female songwriter of 1955-99, because she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100.

King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry. Her most recent non-compilation album is Live at the Troubadour, a collaboration with James Taylor, which reached #4 on the charts, in its first week, and has sold over 400,000 copies.

She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting. In 2009, Carole King was inducted into the "Hit Parade" Hall of Fame. She holds the record for the longest time for an album by a female to remain on the charts and the longest time for an album by a female to hold the #1 position, both for Tapestry.

Biography

Born Carol Klein (she added the "e" to her first name) in 1942 to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York, King grew up in Brooklyn. She learned the piano, then began singing with a vocal quartet called the Co-Sines at James Madison High School. As a teenager dreaming of having a successful entertainment career, she decided to give herself a new last name, stumbling upon "King" in a telephone directory. She attended Queens College, where she was a classmate (and girlfriend) of Neil Sedaka and inspired Sedaka's first hit, "Oh! Carol." She responded with "Oh! Neil". At Queens College, she befriended Paul Simon and Gerry Goffin.

The City

The City was a short-lived popular music trio consisting of Charles Larkey, bass, Danny Kortchmar, guitar and vocals, and Carole King, piano and vocals. The trio was assisted by Jim Gordon on drums. The City produced one album, Now That Everything's Been Said in 1969 but the album was a commercial failure. The group disbanded in 1969, and the members went on to other things; King emerged as a solo performer on her album Writer (1970), another failure, followed by the groundbreaking and highly successful Tapestry (1971); Kortchmar became a successful guitarist performing on a number of recordings, including King's solo efforts, as did Larkey.

Partnership and marriage with Gerry Goffin

Goffin and King formed a songwriting partnership for Aldon Music at 1650 Broadway in New York. Their partnership's first success was "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", recorded by The Shirelles. It topped the American charts in 1961, becoming the first No. 1 hit by a girl group. It was later recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Ben E. King, Dusty Springfield, Laura Branigan, Little Eva, Roberta Flack, The Four Seasons, Bryan Ferry and Dionne Warwick, as well as by King herself.

Goffin and King married in September 1960 and had two daughters, Louise Goffin and Sherry Goffin Kondor, both also musicians.

In 1965, Goffin and King wrote a theme song for Sidney Sheldon's television series, I Dream of Jeannie, but an instrumental by Hugo Montenegro was used instead. Goffin and King's 1967 song, "Pleasant Valley Sunday", a number 3 for The Monkees, was inspired by their move to suburban West Orange, New Jersey. Goffin and King also wrote "Porpoise Song (Theme from Head)" for Head, the Monkees' film.

Goffin and King divorced in 1968 but Carole consulted Goffin on music she was writing. King lost touch with Goffin because of his declining mental health and the effect it had on their children.

Hits and charted songs by Goffin and King

Recording artist

In 1967, King had a hit "Windy Day" with The Executives. In 1968, she was hired with Toni Stern to write for Strawberry Alarm Clock - "Lady of the Lake" and "Blues for a Young Girl Gone"—which appeared on the album, The World in a Seashell.

King sang backup vocals on the demo of Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion". She had had a modest hit in 1962 singing one of her own songs, "It Might As Well Rain Until September" (22 in the US and top 10 in the UK, later a hit in Canada for Gary and Dave), but after "He's a Bad Boy" made 94 in 1963, it took King eight years to reach the Hot 100 singles chart again as a performer.

As the '60s waned, King helped start Tomorrow Records, divorced Goffin and married Charles Larkey (of the Myddle Class), with whom she had two children (Molly and Levi). Moving to the West Coast, Larkey, King and Danny Kortchmar formed The City, which made one album, Now That Everything's Been Said, a commercial failure. King made Writer (1970), also a commercial failure.

Tapestry and beyond

King followed Writer in 1971 with Tapestry, featuring new folk-flavored compositions, as well as reinterpretations of two of her songs, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." Tapestry was an instant success. With numerous hit singles – including a Billboard #1 with "It's Too Late" – Tapestry held the #1 spot for 15 consecutive weeks, remained on the charts for nearly six years, sold 10 million copies in the United States, and 25 million worldwide. The album garnered four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; Record of the Year ("It's Too Late," lyrics by Toni Stern); and Song of the Year ("You've Got a Friend"). The album signalled the era of platinum albums, though it was issued prior to the invention of the platinum certification by the RIAA. It would eventually be certified Diamond.

Tapestry was the top-selling solo album until Michael Jackson's Thriller in 1982. The album was later placed at 36 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

Wrap Around Joy

In September 1974, King released her album Wrap Around Joy, which was certified gold on 16 October 1974 and entered the top ten at 7 on 19 October 1974. Two weeks later it reached 1 and stayed there one week. She toured to promote the album. Wrap Around Joy spawned two hits. Jazzman was a single and reached 2 on 9 November but fell out of the top ten the next week. Nightingale, a single on December 17, went to #9 on 1 March 1975.

Beyond Wrap Around Joy

In 1975, King scored songs for the animated TV production of Maurice Sendak's Really Rosie, released as an album by the same name, with lyrics by Sendak.

Thoroughbred (1976) was the last studio album she made under the Ode label. In addition to enlisting her long-time friends such as David Crosby, Graham Nash, James Taylor and Waddy Wachtel, King reunited with Gerry Goffin to write four songs for the album. Their partnership continued intermittently. King also did a promotional tour for the album in 1976.

In 1977, King collaborated with another songwriter Rick Evers on Simple Things, the first release with a new label distributed by Capitol Records. Shortly after that King and Evers were married; he died of a heroin overdose one year later. Simple Things was her first album that failed to reach the top 10 on the Billboard since Tapestry, and it was her last Gold-certified record by the RIAA, except for a compilation entitled Her Greatest Hits the following year. Neither Welcome Home (1978), her debut as a co-producer on an album, nor Touch the Sky (1979), reached the top 100.

Pearls - The Songs of Goffin and King (1980) yielded a hit single, an updated version of "One Fine Day." Pearls marked the end of King's career as a hitmaker and a performer, no subsequent single reaching the top 40.

Later life and work

in the Mediterranean in 2000]] King moved to Atlantic Records for One to One (1982), and Speeding Time in 1983, which was a reunion with Tapestry-era producer Lou Adler. In 1983, she played piano in "Chains and Things" on the B.B. King album Why I Sing The Blues. After a well-received concert tour in 1984, journalist Catherine Foster of the Christian Science Monitor dubbed King as "a Queen of Rock." She also called King's performing as "all spunk and exuberance."

In 1985, she wrote and performed "Care-A-Lot," theme to The Care Bears Movie. Also in 1985, she scored and performed (with David Sanborn) the soundtrack to the Martin Ritt-directed movie Murphy's Romance. The soundtrack, again produced by Adler, included the songs "Running Lonely" and "Love For The Last Time (Theme from 'Murphy's Romance')," although a soundtrack album was apparently never officially released. King made a cameo appearance in the film as Tillie, a town hall employee.

In 1989, she returned to Capitol Records and recorded City Streets, with Eric Clapton on two tracks and Branford Marsalis on one, followed by Color of Your Dreams (1993), with an appearance by Slash of Guns N' Roses. Her song, "Now and Forever," was in the opening credits to the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.

In 1988, she starred in the off-Broadway production A Minor Incident, and in 1994, she played Mrs Johnstone on Broadway in Blood Brothers. In 1996, she appeared in Brighton Beach Memoirs in Ireland, directed by Peter Sheridan. In 1991, she wrote with Mariah Carey the song "If It's Over", for Carey's second album Emotions. In 1996, she wrote "Wall Of Smiles / Torre De Marfil" with Soraya for her 1997 album of the same title.

In 1997, King wrote and recorded backing vocals on "The Reason" for Celine Dion on her album Let's Talk About Love. The song sold worldwide, including one million in France. It went to number 1 in France, 11 in the UK, and 13 in Ireland. The pair performed a duet on the first VH1 Divas Live benefit concert. King also performed her "You've Got A Friend" with Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain as well as "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" with Aretha Franklin and others, including Mariah Carey. In 1998, King wrote "Anyone at All", and performed it in You've Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

In 2001, King appeared in a television ad for the Gap, with her daughter, Louise Goffin. She performed a new song, "Love Makes the World," which became a title track for her studio album in autumn 2001 on her own label, Rockingale, distributed by Koch Records. The album includes songs she wrote for other artists during the mid-1990s and features Celine Dion, Steven Tyler, Babyface and k.d. lang. Love Makes the World went to 158 in the US and #86 in the UK. It also debuted on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart and Top Internet Albums chart at #20. An expanded edition of the album was issued six years later called Love Makes the World Deluxe Edition. It contains a bonus disc with five additional tracks, including a remake of "Where You Lead (I Will Follow)" co-written with Toni Stern. The same year, King and Stern wrote "Sayonara Dance," recorded by Yuki, former lead vocalist of the Japanese band Judy and Mary, on her first solo album Prismic the following year. Also in 2001, King composed a song for All About Chemistry album by Semisonic, with the band's frontman Dan Wilson.

King launched her Living Room Tour in July 2004 at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. That show, along with shows at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and the Cape Cod Melody Tent (Hyannis, Massachusetts) were recorded as The Living Room Tour in July 2005. The album sold 44,000 copies in its first week in the US, landing at 17 on the Billboard 200, her highest-charting album since 1977. The album also charted at 51 in Australia. It has sold 330,000 copies in the United States. In August 2006 the album reentered the Billboard 200 at 151. The tour stopped in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A DVD of the tour, called Welcome to My Living Room, was released in October 2007.

performing "Up on the Roof" together during their 2010 Troubadour Reunion Tour.]] In November 2007, King toured Japan with Mary J. Blige and Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas. Japanese record labels Sony and Victor reissued most of King's albums, including the works from the late 1970s previously unavailable on compact disc. King recorded a duet of the Goffin/King composition "Time Don't Run Out on Me" with Anne Murray on Murray's 2007 album . The song had previously been recorded by Murray for her 1984 album Heart Over Mind.

In 2010, King and James Taylor staged their Troubadour Reunion Tour together, recalling the first time they played at The Troubadour in Los Angeles in 1970. The pair had reunited two and a half years earlier with the band they used in 1970 to mark the club's 50th anniversary. They enjoyed it so much that they decided to take the band on the road. The touring band featured players from that original band: Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, and Danny Kortchmar. Also present was King's son-in-law, Robbie Kondor. King played piano and Taylor guitar on each others' songs, and they sang together some of the numbers they were both associated with. The tour began in Australia in March, returning to the United States in May. It was a major commercial success, with King playing to some of the largest audiences of her career. Total ticket sales exceeded 700,000 and the tour grossed over 59 million dollars, making it one of the most successful tours of the year.

During their Troubadour Reunion Tour, Carole King released two albums, one with James Taylor. The first, released on April 27, 2010, The Essential Carole King, is a two-disc compilation album. The first disc features many songs Carole King has recorded, mostly her hit singles. The second disc features recordings by other artists of songs that King wrote, most of which made the top 40, and many of which reached #1. The second album was released on May 4, 2010 and is a collaboration of King and James Taylor called Live at the Troubadour, which debuted at #4 in the United States with sales of 78,000 copies. Live at the Troubadour has since received a gold record from the RIAA for shipments of over 500,000 copies in the US and has remained on the charts for 34 weeks, currently charting at #81 on the Billboard 200.

On December 22, 2010, Carole King's mother, Eugenia Gingold, died in the Hospice Care unit at Delray Medical Center in Delray Beach, Florida at the age of 94. King stated that the cause of death was congestive heart failure. Gingold's passing was reported by the Miami Herald on January 1, 2011.

Acting career

King has appeared sporadically in acting roles, notably three appearances as guest star on the TV series Gilmore Girls as Sophie, the owner of the Stars Hollow music store. King's song "Where You Lead (I Will Follow)" was also the theme song to the series, in a version sung with her daughter Louise.

On April 9, 2009, Carole appeared as a guest on The One Show.

Political and environmental activism

After relocating to Idaho in 1977, King became involved in environmental issues. Since 1990, she has been working with the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and other groups towards passage of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA). King has testified on Capitol Hill three times on behalf of NREPA: in 1994, 2007 and again in 2009.

King is also politically active in the United States Democratic Party. In 2003, she began campaigning for John Kerry, performing in private homes for caucus delegates during the Democratic primaries. On July 29, 2004, she made a short speech and sang at the Democratic National Convention, about two hours before Kerry made his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President. King continued her support of Kerry throughout the general election.

In 2008, King appeared on the March 18 episode of The Colbert Report, touching on her politics once more. She stated that she was supporting Hillary Clinton and mentioned that the choice had nothing to do with gender. She also expressed that she would have no issues if Barack Obama were to win the election. Before the show's conclusion, she returned to the stage to perform "I Feel the Earth Move".

King has recently lent her voice and support to several robocalls supporting Democratic Party candidates in the Washington State 2010 elections.

Tributes and covers

An all-star roster of artists paid tribute to King on the 1995 album . From the album, Rod Stewart's version of "So Far Away" and Celine Dion's cover of "A Natural Woman" were both Adult Contemporary chart hits. Other artists who appeared on the album included Amy Grant ("It's Too Late"), Richard Marx ("Beautiful"), Aretha Franklin ("You've Got a Friend"), Faith Hill ("Where You Lead"), and the Bee Gees ("Will You Love Me Tomorrow?").

Many other cover versions of King's work have appeared over the years. Most notably, "You've Got a Friend" was a smash #1 hit for James Taylor in 1971 and a top 40 hit for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway that same year. Isaac Hayes recorded "It's Too Late" for his #1 R&B; live album Live at the Sahara Tahoe. Barbra Streisand had a top 40 hit in 1972 with "Where You Lead" twice — by itself and as part of a live medley with "Sweet Inspiration." Streisand also covered "No Easy Way Down" in 1971, "Beautiful" and "You've Got A Friend" in 1972, and "Being At War With Each Other" in 1974. The Carpenters recorded King's "It's Going to Take Some Time" in 1972 ,and reached number 12 on the Billboard charts. Richard Carpenter produced a version of "You've Got A Friend" with then teen singer/actor Scott Grimes in 1989. Martika had a number 25 hit in 1989 with her version of I Feel the Earth Move, and "It's Too Late" reappeared on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1995 by Gloria Estefan. Linda Ronstadt recorded a new version of "Oh No Not My Baby" in 1993. Celine Dion also recorded King's song "The Reason" on her 1997 album Let's Talk About Love with Carole King singing backup and it became a million-seller and was certified Diamond in France. "Where You Lead" (lyrics by Toni Stern) became the title song of TV show Gilmore Girls.

In 1996, a film very loosely based on her life, Grace of My Heart, was released. In the film an aspiring singer sacrifices her own singing career to write hit songs that launch the careers of other singers. Mirroring King's life, the film follows her from her first break, through the pain of rejection from the recording industry and a bad marriage, to her final triumph in realizing her dream to record her own hit album.

Awards and recognition

In 1987, Goffin and King were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In 1988, Goffin and King received the National Academy of Songwriters Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1990, King was inducted, along with Goffin, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the non-performer category for her songwriting achievements.

In 2002, King was given the "Johnny Mercer Award" by the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In 2004, Goffin and King were awarded the Grammy Trustees Award.

King was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

Discography and certifications

The years given are the years in which the albums and singles were released and not necessarilly the years in which they achieved their peak positions.

U.S. Billboard Top 10 Albums

1971 - Tapestry (#1)

1971 - Carole King: Music (#1)

1972 - Rhymes and Reasons (#2)

1973 - Fantasy (#6)

1974 - Wrap Around Joy (#1)

1976 - Thoroughbred (#3)

2010 - Live at the Troubadour (with James Taylor) (#4)

U.S. Billboard Top 10 'Pop' Singles

1971 - "I Feel the Earth Move" (#1)

1971 - "It's Too Late" (#1)

1971 - "Sweet Seasons" (#9)

1974 - "Jazzman" (#2)

1974 - "Nightingale" (#9)

Albums and singles certifications

See also

List of songwriter tandems

References

External links

www.caroleking.com

Articles on Carole King

Rachel Louis Snyder on Carole King, Salon, June 19, 1999

Franck Scheck on Carole King, Hollywood Reporter, July 15, 2005

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