Marion Black is an American

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 atte ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

from Columbus, Ohio, best known for his 1970 song "Who Knows".

Career

Black's career began in 1969, when he approached local music operator Bill Moss, with his self-penned song "Who Knows". The resultant single launched Moss's Capsoul record label. The

A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

, "Go On Fool", became a minor hit in 1971, peaking at #39 on the US '' Billboard'' R&B chart. Black continued his job as a head waiter, and only toured lightly in support of the single. After a dispute over royalties with Capsoul founder Bill Moss, Black left Capsoul for another local label, Prix Records. where he later recorded at Harmonic Sounds. His releases there included "Listen Black Brother", "I'm Gonna Get Loaded", and "(More Love) Is All We Need", but all did not achieve commercial success. Later in the 1970s, Black recorded at Jack Casey's Rome Studio on East Broad Street, which yielded another nationally distributed single, "Off The Critical List" on Shakat Records. Three decades later, a tape with a previously unreleased song entitled "Come On and Gettit" was found at an estate sale in Columbus. Black's recordings have featured on two compilation albums issued by

The Numero Group The Numero Group is an archival record label that creates compilations of previously released music, reissues original albums, and creates album reconstructions from a variety of musical genres. The label, known as Numero, was founded in 2003 b ...

. He is represented on '' Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label'' (2004) by two tracks, "Who Knows" and "Go On Fool". The compilation ''Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label'' (2007) features "Listen Black Brother", along with the unreleased track "Come On and Gettit". The track "Who Knows" was sampled by the American musician

RJD2 Ramble Jon Krohn (born May 27, 1976), better known by his stage name RJD2, is an American musician based in Columbus, Ohio. He is the owner of record label RJ's Electrical Connections. He has been a member of groups such as Soul Position, MHz Lega ...

in the song "Smoke and Mirrors", from his 2002 album '' Deadringer''.DeVille, Chris:
Headliners: Numero's Eccentric Soul Revue
" ''Columbus Alive!'' November 5, 2009. It was also featured on the 2005 soundtrack album ''Weeds: Music from the Original Series'' from the first season of '' Weeds''. "Who Knows?" was played behind the closing credits of the 2006 documentary film, ''

Who Killed the Electric Car? ''Who Killed the Electric Car?'' is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Chris Paine that explores the creation, limited commercialization and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the ...

'' In February 2013, "Who Knows" was featured on a TV

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...

advertisement shown during the U.S. Super Bowl game. "Who Knows" was featured in season 2, episode 7 of the Hulu Original series Casual. "Who Knows" was featured at the end of Michael Moore's "Rumble" podcast, Ep. 248: Forget Me Not. "Who Knows" was featured at the end of an episode of "Bad Sisters" on HBO, episode 4. "Who Knows" was featured at the end and behind the closing credits of an episode of " Griselda" miniseries on Netflix, episode 6.

Discography

References

External links

Marion Black on Last.fm

Discography at Discogs.com

"Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label" Press archive at NumeroGroup.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Marion American male singers American soul singers Singers from Ohio Living people Musicians from Columbus, Ohio Year of birth missing (living people) Avco Records artists