Cuba Mark Gooding Sr. (April 27, 1944 – April 20, 2017) was an American singer. He was the most successful lead singer of the

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

group

The Main Ingredient The Main Ingredient was an American soul and R&B group best known for their 1972 hit song " Everybody Plays the Fool". Early history The group was formed in Harlem, New York City in 1964 as a trio called the Poets, composed of lead singer Do ...

, replacing former lead singer Donald McPherson who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1971. According to ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'', as the lead vocalist he scored five top 10 hits, most notably, " Everybody Plays the Fool" (1972), peaking at No. 2 for three weeks, and peaking at No. 3 on ''Billboard''′s all-genre Hot-100 list. " Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" (1974), "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend" and "Rolling Down a Mountainside" were also top 10 hits on ''Billboard'' charts. He also recorded as a solo artist with hits of his own.

Early life

Born in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Gooding was a son of Dudley MacDonald Gooding (1890–1955) and his wife Addie Alston. The elder Gooding was a native of

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estima ...

who fled the island in 1936 to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

, and met and married a woman there. When she was murdered because of their affiliation with Pan Africanist leader

Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African ...

, Dudley Gooding promised his wife on her deathbed that he would name his first son Cuba. His father died when Cuba was 11 years old. Gooding's father was a taxi driver in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Career

Gooding Sr. joined

as a back-up vocalist. He became the lead singer after lead singer Donald McPherson died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

in 1971. The 1973 album ''Afrodisiac'' featured several songs co-written by

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, s ...

. Gooding left The Main Ingredient in either 1977 or 1978. He had a brief solo career on

Motown Records Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''mot ...

during the late 1970s and early 1980s making two albums; the first was titled ''The 1st Cuba Gooding Album''. His biggest international success was

Brian Auger Brian Albert Gordon Auger (born 18 July 1939) is an English jazz rock and rock music keyboardist who specialises in the Hammond organ. Auger has worked with Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Sonny Boy Williamson, an ...

's "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend" in 1983, which has in recent times been sampled by several R&B artists, as well as hitting the charts again as a

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

by UK Hardcore

Rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mu ...

group Altern-8 in 1991. In 1980, Gooding returned to The Main Ingredient and made two more albums for

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. In 1991, samples from the song also featured prominently in

Bizarre Inc Bizarre Inc were an English techno group. Formed in 1989 as a duo between English DJs Dean Meredith and Mark "Aaron" Archer (not to be confused with the film producer of the same name), they later re-formed as a trio consisting of Meredith, ...

's single "Playing With Knives". Gooding released a single called "Politics" in September 2007. He was also developing a film project called ''Everybody Plays the Fool: The Cuba Gooding Story''. The film highlights three generations of the Gooding Family: Dudley "Cuba" Gooding, Cuba Gooding Sr., Cuba Gooding Jr. and Omar Gooding. On the '' Boat Trip'' DVD trivia track, it was stated that he was going to appear in the 2003 romantic-comedy ''

The Fighting Temptations ''The Fighting Temptations'' is a 2003 American musical comedy film directed by Jonathan Lynn, written by Elizabeth Hunter and Saladin K. Patterson, and distributed by Paramount Pictures and MTV Films. The main plot revolves around Darrin Hill ( C ...

'', which stars his son Cuba Gooding Jr., but he is not in the movie. Gooding appeared on the ''Beach Music Super Collaboration'' CD, performing the Charles Wallert composition, "Meant To Be In Love". This led to the duo's project, “Never Give Up” (Bluewater Recordings), which debuted at the 2009 presidential inauguration.

Personal life and death

Gooding moved from the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

to southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in the 1970s. Gooding and his wife, singer Shirley Gooding (née Sullivan) had four children: actors

Cuba Gooding Jr. Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination. After his breakthrough role as Tre Styles in ''Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), he appear ...

, Omar Gooding, actress April Gooding and musician Tommy Gooding. Gooding Sr. later became a minor actor himself. Gooding Sr. separated from his wife in 1974. In 1995, the Goodings remarried. In 2011, he had a residence in Rosarito Beach, Mexico where he performed at least one charity concert. He also had a residence in

Flagler Beach, Florida Flagler Beach is a city in Flagler County in the U.S. state of Florida. The population was 4,484 at the 2010 census. Flagler Beach is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, FL metropolitan statistical area. It is named for oil ty ...

. On April 20, 2017, one week before his 73rd birthday, Gooding was found dead in his vehicle while parked on a street in

Woodland Hills, Los Angeles Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Geography Woodland Hills is in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, which is located east of Ca ...

CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spont ...

was performed by the fire department but they were unable to revive him. An autopsy determined he died of natural causes. He is interred at the

Trinity Church Cemetery The parish of Trinity Church has three separate burial grounds associated with it in New York City. The first, Trinity Churchyard, is located in Lower Manhattan at 74 Trinity Place, near Wall Street and Broadway. Alexander Hamilton, Albert Gal ...

in Manhattan.

References

Notes

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

gives the year as 1977.

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

gives the year as 1978.

Citations

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gooding, Cuba 1944 births 2017 deaths 20th-century African-American male singers American male singers American soul musicians Motown artists American expatriates in Mexico American people of Barbadian descent Singers from New York City Burials at Trinity Church Cemetery 21st-century African-American people