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Homer Banks
Homer Banks (August 2, 1941 – April 3, 2003) was an American songwriter, singer and record producer. Although best known by many for his songwriting for Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s, some of his own releases from the 1960s are considered classics on the Northern Soul scene. Many of the songs he wrote have become contemporary classics. Life Banks was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, and at the age of 16 formed the Soul Consolidators gospel group which toured around the southern states, often performing his own material. After military service, he returned to Memphis in 1964, and started a singing career with the small Genie label where he met Isaac Hayes and David Porter. Soon, Stax founder Estelle Axton hired him to work at the record shop attached to the company's Satellite Studios, where he stayed for three years, also recording for the Minit label. His three consecutive releases, "A Lot of Love", "60 Minutes of Your Love" (both 1966), and "Hooked By ...
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Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tennessee, second-most populous city in Tennessee, the fifth-most populous in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the List of United States cities by population, 28th-most populous in the nation. Memphis is the largest city proper on the Mississippi River and anchors the Memphis metropolitan area that includes parts of Arkansas and Mississippi, the Metropolitan statistical area, 45th-most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. with 1.34 million residents. European exploration of the area began with Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1541. Located on the high Chickasaw Bluffs, the site offered natural protection from Mississippi River flooding and became a contested location in the colonial era. Modern Memphis was founded in 181 ...
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Jim Stewart (record Producer)
James Frank Stewart (July 29, 1930 – December 5, 2022) was an American record producer and executive who in 1957 co-founded Stax Records with his sister Estelle Axton. Stax was one of the leading recording companies during soul and R&B music's heyday. The label also scored many hits on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart, and internationally, during this time. Life and career Stewart was born on July 29, 1930. Raised on a farm in Middleton, Tennessee, he moved to Memphis in 1948 after graduating from high school, then worked at Sears and the First National Bank before being drafted into the United States Army. After serving for two years, Stewart returned to his job as a bank clerk in Memphis in 1953. Stewart was a part-time fiddle player and joined a local country music group, the Canyon Cowboys. He worked days as a banker at Union Planters Bank. In 1957, Stewart launched his own record label, then called Satellite Records, which issued country music and rockabilly ...
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Barbara Mandrell
Barbara Ann Mandrell (born December 25, 1948) is an American retired country music singer and musician. She is also credited as an actress and author. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, she was considered among country's most successful music artists. She had six number one singles and 25 top ten singles reach the ''Billboard'' country songs chart. She also hosted her own prime–time television show in the early 1980s that featured music, dance numbers and comedy sketches. Mandrell also played a variety of musical instruments during her career that helped earn her a series of major–industry awards. Mandrell was born in Texas and raised mostly in California. Mandrell is from a musical family; she played several instruments by the time she was a teenager. Her skills on the steel guitar were noticed by country music entertainers, who gave Mandrell the chance to perform in public at age 13. During this period she became a regular on the television program '' Town Hall Party ...
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Millie Jackson
Mildred Virginia Jackson (born July 15, 1944) is an American R&B and soul recording artist. Beginning her career in the early 1960s, three of Jackson's albums have been certified gold by the RIAA for over 500,000 copies sold. Jackson's songs often include long spoken sections, sometimes humorous, sometimes sexually explicit. According to the cataloguing site WhoSampled.com, her songs have appeared in 189 samples, 51 covers, and six remixes. Since she always enjoyed writing poems, in the early '70s Jackson began crafting such proto-rap R&B singles as the outspoken "A Child of God (It's Hard to Believe)". Early life Born in Thomson, Georgia, Jackson is the daughter of a sharecropper, Jubilee Jackson. Her mother died when she was a child and subsequently, she and her father moved to the New York City area and settled in Newark, New Jersey. By the time Jackson was in her mid-teens, she had moved into New York City to live with an aunt who resided in Brooklyn. She found an occasio ...
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Luther Ingram
Luther Thomas Ingram (November 30, 1937 – March 19, 2007) was an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter. His most successful record, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right", reached No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart and No. 3 on the Hot 100 in 1972. Life and career Luther Thomas Ingram was born in Jackson, Tennessee on November 30, 1937. His family moved to Alton, Illinois in 1947. Ingram's early interest in music led to formation of a gospel group, the Alton Crusaders, which included his brothers Archie and Richard. They eventually began singing doo-wop, and accompanied by bandleader Ike Turner, they recorded as the Gardenias for Federal Records in 1956. In 1965, Ingram recorded his first solo record. His first three recordings failed to chart but that changed when he signed for KoKo Records in the late 1960s, and his first hit "My Honey And Me" peaked at #55 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on 14 February 1970. Many of his songs appeared in the pop and R&B ...
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The Emotions
The Emotions are an American soul/ R&B vocal group from Chicago. The group started out in gospel music but transitioned into R&B and disco music. The Emotions were named by VH1 as one of the 18 most influential girl groups of all time. History Early career The group was originally a gospel outfit known as the Hutchinson Sunbeams who toured the gospel circuit with their father Joe Hutchinson. The Sunbeams sang on Jerry Van Dyke’s “Children’s Gospel” television show and also occasionally performed in the concert with Mahalia Jackson. They eventually became an R&B/Soul act with a popular following in their hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Soon being renamed as The Emotions, and now managed by Pervis Staples (formerly with the Staple Singers, another father/children gospel group), they signed with the Memphis-based Volt imprint of Stax Records in the late 1960s. Under the production of Isaac Hayes and David Porter the group issued their 1969 debut album entitled '' So I ...
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(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right
"(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" is a song written by Stax Records songwriters Homer Banks, Carl Hampton, and Raymond Jackson. Originally written for The Emotions, it has been performed by many singers, most notably by Luther Ingram, whose original recording topped the R&B chart for four weeks and rose to number 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1972. ''Billboard'' ranked it as the No. 16 song for 1972. In 1972–73, The Faces recorded the song as an outtake for '' Ooh La La'' (1973), their final studio album. In 1974, Millie Jackson released her version of the song which received two Grammy Award nominations. In 1978, Barbara Mandrell's version topped the U.S. country chart, reached number 31 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 (number 27 Cashbox), and was nominated for Single of the Year at the 1979 CMA (Country Music Association) Awards. Rod Stewart recorded the song for '' Foot Loose & Fancy Free'' (1977), his eighth album; as a single it peaked at nu ...
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Raymond Jackson (songwriter)
Raymond Earl Jackson (September 11, 1941 – November 10, 1972) was an American rhythm and blues songwriter, guitarist and record producer. His most successful songs, mostly written at Stax Records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, were " Who's Making Love", co-written with Homer Banks and Bettye Crutcher; "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right", and " If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)", both co-written with Banks and Carl Hampton. Life Jackson grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. With his friend and lifelong musical partner Homer Banks, he formed his first group, the Soul Consolators, in his teens, and the pair wrote the group's songs together. After serving in the US Army between 1966 and 1968, he renewed his songwriting partnership with Banks, who had begun working at Stax Records. They wrote Johnnie Taylor's 1968 single "Next Time", before joining with a new, fellow songwriter Bettye Crutcher to write "Who's Making Love". Jackson also played guitar on the record, wh ...
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Bettye Crutcher
Bettye Jean Crutcher (September 16, 1939 – October 20, 2022) was an American songwriter. She was a staff writer for Stax Records.Peter Barker, , ''Tennessee News'', October 21, 2022. Retrieved October 21, 2022. Crutcher teamed with Homer Banks and Raymond Jackson as We Three, and co-wrote " Who's Making Love" for Johnnie Taylor, which earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. Crutcher also wrote music for the Staple Singers, Sam & Dave, and Albert King. Early life and career Crutcher was born in Memphis, Tennessee on September 16, 1939, and started writing poems as a child. She became a nurse and was a single parent of three children when she applied to work for various record labels. After being rejected by other labels, she joined Stax Records as a songwriter in 1967, becoming their only female staffer. In 2019, she said: "Being the only female songwriter for Stax was quite an event ..They talk about the sexist '60s, and I really think the guys d ...
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If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)
"If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)" is a song by the Staple Singers. Released from their album '' Be What You Are'', the single spent three weeks at number one on the ''Billboard'' magazine's Hot Soul Singles chart in 1973. It peaked at number nine on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop singles chart. It became a gold record. The arrangement, tempo, cadence, and melody reflect more constant uptempo than the group's 1972 number 1 hit "I'll Take You There". Chart history Other versions * In 1985, British Jamaican singer Ruby Turner covered this song featuring South African singer-songwriter and guitarist Jonathan Butler. Her version reached #30 in the UK, #29 in Ireland and number three in New Zealand. * In 1987, American Contemporary Christian singer Steve Archer covered this song for his fourth solo album ''Off the Page''. * In 1991, Australian singler Wendy Matthews Wendy Joan Matthews (born 13 January 1960) is a Canadian-born Australian singer-songwriter who has bee ...
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The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers were an American Gospel music, gospel, soul music, soul, and Rhythm and blues, R&B singing group. Pops Staples, Roebuck "Pops" Staples (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000), the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha (April 11, 1934 – February 21, 2013), Pervis (November 18, 1935 – May 6, 2021), and Mavis Staples, Mavis (b. July 10, 1939). Yvonne (October 23, 1937 – April 10, 2018) replaced her brother when he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and again in 1970. They are best known for their 1970s hits "Respect Yourself", "I'll Take You There", "If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)", and "Let's Do It Again (song), Let's Do It Again". While the family name is Staples, the group used "Staple" commercially. History First child to Roebuck "Pops" Staples and his wife Oceola Staples, Cleotha was born in Drew, Mississippi, in 1934. Two years later, Roebuck moved his family from Mississippi to Chicago. Roebuck and Oceola's children, s ...
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Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical traditions of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison with the raw energy and sass that were principal ethics of punk", noting the "construction of his songs, which set densely layered wordplay in an ever-expanding repertoire of styles". His first album, '' My Aim Is True'' (1977), spawned no hit singles, but contains some of Costello's best-known songs, including the ballad " Alison". Costello's next two albums, '' This Year's Model'' (1978) and ''Armed Forces'' (1979), recorded with his backing band the Attractions, helped define the new wave genre. From late 1977 until early 1980, each of the eight singles he released reached the UK Top 30. His biggest hit single, " Oliver's Army" (1979), sold more than 500,000 copies in Britain. He has had more ...
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