Don Wilson Varner (25 June 1943 – 7 October 2002) was 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 '':wikt:soul, soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The ea ...

singer. Varner was a baritone who sang both uptempo soul in the northern soul style as well as ballads.

Career

Born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

, Varner grew up in the same neighborhood as

Eddie Kendricks Edward James Kendrick (December 17, 1939 – October 5, 1992), better known as Eddie Kendricks, was an American singer and songwriter. Noted for his distinctive falsetto singing style, Kendricks co-founded the Motown singing group the Temptati ...

co-founder of

The Temptations The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top ...

.Andrew Hamilton
"Don Varner"
at AllMusic.com. Retrieved 5 September 2013. Varner moved to Chicago after high school to pursue his music career but returned to Alabama after six years to record in Muscle Shoals. at

Rick Hall Roe Erister "Rick" Hall (January 31, 1932 – January 2, 2018) was an American record producer, songwriter, and musician who became known as the owner of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. As the "Father of Muscle Shoals Music", he was ...

FAME Studios FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) Studios is a recording studio located at 603 East Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, an area of northern Alabama known as the Shoals. Though small and distant from the main recording locations of th ...

. He wrote songs including "I Keep Holdin' On" for

Sam & Dave Sam & Dave were an American soul and R&B duo who performed together from 1961 until 1981. The tenor (higher) voice was Sam Moore (born 1935) and the baritone/tenor (lower) voice was Dave Prater (1937–1988). Nicknamed "Double Dynamite", "The ...

(with William Crump). Varner also worked with Quin Ivy in

Sheffield, Alabama Sheffield is a city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Shoals metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 9,039. Sheffield is the birthplace of "country-soul pioneer" and songwriter Art ...

and released several songs including "Masquerade"(1967), "Down in Texas"(1967), and "Tear Stained Face" on the South Camp and Quinvy labels. Varner did not release many recordings but performed numerous live shows in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

with other major soul performers. He moved to California in the 1980s and toured as the lead singer of the Johnny Otis Show. He toured numerous European music festivals in 1985. In his later, career, he began to record gospel music. He died in

Moreno Valley, California Moreno Valley is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and is part of the Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario metropolitan area. It is the second-largest city in Riverside County by population and one of the Inland Empire's ...

in 2002 of a heart attack at the age of 59. An album of his music from 1968 to 1974 entitled ''Finally Go Over!'' was released posthumously.

References

American soul singers African-American male singer-songwriters Musicians from Birmingham, Alabama 1943 births 2002 deaths People from Ensley, Alabama 20th-century African-American male singers Singer-songwriters from Alabama {{US-singer-stub