Solomon Burke
Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke (born James Solomon McDonald, March 21, 1940 – October 10, 2010) was an American singer who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues as one of the founding fathers of soul music in the 1960s.[2] He has been called "a key transitional figure bridging R&B and soul",[3] and was known for his "prodigious output".[4][5][6]
Solomon Burke
James Solomon McDonald
Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke
March 21, 1940[1]
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
October 10, 2010 (aged 70)
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands
- Preacher
- singer
- Vocals
- guitar
1955–2010
He had a string of hits including "Cry to Me", "If You Need Me", "Got to Get You Off My Mind", "Down in the Valley", and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love". Burke was referred to honorifically as "King Solomon", the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", "Bishop of Soul", and the "Muhammad Ali of Soul".[7][8][1] Due to his minimal chart success in comparison to other soul music greats such as James Brown, Wilson Pickett, and Otis Redding, Burke has been described as the genre's "most unfairly overlooked singer" of its golden age.[9] Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler referred to Burke as "the greatest male soul singer of all time".[1][8][10]
Burke's most famous recordings, which spanned five years in the early 1960s, bridged the gap between mainstream R&B and grittier R&B.[11] Burke was "a singer whose smooth, powerful articulation and mingling of sacred and profane themes helped define soul music in the early 1960s."[12] He drew from his roots—gospel, jazz, country, and blues—as well as developing his own style at a time when R&B, and rock were both still in their infancy.[13] Described as both "Rabelaisian"[14] and also as a "spiritual enigma",[15] "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."[16]
During the 55 years that he performed professionally, Burke released 38 studio albums on at least 17 record labels and had 35 singles that charted in the US, including 26 singles that made the Billboard R&B charts. 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 Annual Grammy Awards in 2003. By 2005 Burke was credited with selling 17 million albums.[13][17][18] Rolling Stone ranked Burke as No. 89 on its 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".[19]
Early life and career[edit]
Burke was born James Solomon McDonald,[20] according to some sources on March 21, 1936, in the upper floor of his grandmother Eleanor Moore's home,[21] a row house in West Philadelphia.[1][15][22][23] Other sources give a similar date and month, but with the year as 1939[24] or 1940.[25]
Burke was the child of Josephine Moore[26] and an absentee father. His mother Josephine was a nurse, schoolteacher, concert performer and pastor.[27][28] Burke was consecrated a bishop at birth by his grandmother in the Solomon's Temple, a congregation of the United House of Prayer for All People, which she founded at her home in Black Bottom, West Philadelphia.[29][30] When Burke was nine, his mother married rabbi and butcher Vincent Burke[15] and had his name changed to Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke.[28] Burke's friends and family called him "Sol".[28] Burke was the godson of Daddy Grace.[31]
Burke credited his grandmother as his main spiritual and musical influence.[32][33] He learned how to sing all forms of music from his grandmother's coaching him to listen to music on the radio.[18][30][32] Burke began preaching at the age of seven at the Solomon's Temple.[28] He was described in his young preaching years as a "frantic sermonizer" and "spellbinding in his delivery",[34] and was soon nicknamed the "Boy Wonder Preacher" for his charismatic preaching in the pulpit.[35] Burke became a pastor of the congregation at the age of 12, appeared on the radio station WDAS,[36][37] and later hosted a gospel show on WHAT-AM, mixing songs and sermons in broadcasts from Solomon's Temple.[38] On weekends he traveled with a truck and tent, to Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas to carry on the spiritual crusade of his church.[15] Influenced by Superman,[39] "the first sign of a royal persona was evident in the cape that he wore only on Sundays, made from his "blankie"[35] by his grandmother.[40]
Burke had six younger siblings – a sister, Laurena Burke-Corbin (born June 23, 1946),[28] and five brothers: Elec Edward "Alec" (born February 16, 1948),[41] Vladimir H. "Laddie" (born July 31, 1949),[42] Mario "Chuck" (born September 13, 1953),[41] Daniel S. "Danny" (born March 10, 1955),[41] and Jolester R. M. Burke (born September 24, 1958).[22][28][41][43] From an early age Solomon Burke worked to supplement his family's income. He recalled: "I used to deliver grocery orders in a little wagon I made out of fish boxes. When I was seven, I sold newspapers out of my own newsstand on the corner of 40th and Lancaster. I had the first 99-cent car wash, which was located at 40th and Wallace outside Al's Barber Shop. We had it there because he was the only one who would let us use his water. We could wash your car in 20 minutes. I had four or five guys, gave 'em each a nickel for each car."[1] Another briefly held early job was as a hot dog seller at Eddie's Meat Market, where his friend Ernest Evans, later known as Chubby Checker, also worked.[1] Burke eventually graduated from John Bartram High School.[28][44][45] He first became a father at 14.[46]
During high school, Burke formed and fronted the quartet, the Gospel Cavaliers.[47] He received his first guitar from his grandmother, later writing his first song, "Christmas Presents".[1][48] The Cavaliers began performing in churches. It was around this time that Burke met Kae "Loudmouth" Williams, a famed Philadelphia deejay with help from Williams' wife, Viola, who saw Burke and the Cavaliers perform at church.[49][50] Before entering a gospel talent contest in which a record deal was first prize, the group split up.[28]
Burke entered the contest, held at Cornerstone Baptist Church, as a solo artist and won the contest against eleven other competitors.[28] Soon, several labels including Apollo, Vee-Jay Records and Peacock Records pursued the 15-year-old.[51] Before pursuing the deal, Burke signed Kae Williams as his manager.[28] Williams then took him to Apollo Records introducing him to Bess Berman, who signed him to the label.[15] The move was made after Williams added four years to Burke's age, which led to confusion from the press about his age.[15]
Career[edit]
Early recordings[edit]
Burke signed with Apollo Records in late 1955, following the departure of gospel singer and the label's primary star Mahalia Jackson to Columbia.[52][53] After he signed with Apollo, the label's founder Bess Berman and its handlers were reportedly trying to make Burke "the next Harry Belafonte".[15]
Burke recorded nine singles for the label during his two-year tenure,[47][54] releasing his first single, "Christmas Presents", on Christmas Eve of 1955.[44][55][56]
He recorded with musicians including King Curtis and Lester Young.[57] His other Apollo recordings during this early period included "I'm in Love",[58] "I'm All Alone"[59] and "No Man Walks Alone",[59] later collected as his first long-player, Solomon Burke. These early records did not sell well, although the self-titled album was re-released in 1964 after Burke had experienced some chart success.
Burke gained some notoriety for the Apollo single, "You Can Run (But You Can't Hide)", which he wrote with Charles Merenstein.[60][61] Due to the song's title borrowing from Joe Louis' quote, "he can run, but he can't hide", Louis was credited as co-writer.[62] Louis helped promote the song by having Burke appear on the Steve Allen Show in early 1957.[63] Burke was abruptly dropped from Apollo following a violent argument with manager Kae Williams over performance royalties;[44] Burke claimed Williams had him "blackballed" from the industry following this move.[64] After releasing a few singles for other labels, Burke briefly returned to Apollo under the pseudonym "Little Vincent", releasing one song in 1961,[65] and the label issued a self-titled album in 1962.[66]
Following his initial Apollo departure, Burke struggled to record or get club dates,[64] and an argument with his mother left him homeless.[7][17][67] He later moved into a home owned by Ohella Thompson, after Thompson accidentally hit him with her car outside a club.[17][68][69]
During this time, Burke studied the Islamic faith[7][70] and married, but the marriage was annulled.[7][64][70] Soon afterwards, he married Delores Clark, Thompson's niece, and soon had seven children.[44][68]
As his family grew, Burke trained for a while to be a mortician at Eckels College of Mortuary Science, graduating from mortuary science, and finding work at a funeral home.[68][71][72] Burke later had his own mortuary business in Los Angeles.[73]
Burke was briefly signed to Herb Abramson's Triumph Records.[74][75] However, Burke could not record for the label because his contract with Apollo had not yet been dissolved.[76]
In 1959, Philadelphia businessman Marvin Leonard "Babe" Chivian (1925-1972), a "body-and-fender man"[45] and real estate speculator,[77] offered Burke a red Lincoln Continental convertible if he would agree to a management contract with him.[78] Chivian arranged for Burke to be signed to Singular Records,[1][17][79] a Philadelphia-based label that was owned by WPEN disc jockey Edwin L. "Larry" Brown and vocal coach Arthur "Artie" Singer, who had a distribution deal with Chess Records.[80] Burke released just two singles for Singular,[54] "Doodle Dee Doo" and "This Little Ring", written by Delores Burke and Marvin Chivian"; neither song charted.[65]
Work with Atlantic Records[edit]
In November 1960, he signed with Atlantic Records. According to Burke, he signed with the label within ten minutes of entering Jerry Wexler's office,[69][81] reportedly signing a "handshake deal" with Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun.[82][83]
At the time of Burke's signing, two of Atlantic Records' major stars, Bobby Darin and Ray Charles, had left the label for better deals with Capitol and ABC respectively.[21][69] 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."[84] Burke reportedly helped keep Atlantic Records solvent from 1961 to 1965 with his steady run of hit records.
Burke recorded thirty-two singles with Atlantic, most of which hit both the pop and R&B charts. Burke's second single for the label was the country single, "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)", which became his first charted single, reaching No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaking at No. 7 on the R&B charts. The song also became Burke's first million-seller.[85] His next hit came with "Cry to Me", which reached No. 5 on the R&B chart in 1962 and was described as one of the first songs to mix country, R&B and gospel.[86] After the release of "Cry to Me", Burke was one of the first artists to be referred to as a "soul artist".[87][88][89] Other hits included Wilson Pickett's "If You Need Me"; "You're Good for Me"; his co-written classic, "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love";[90] his only number-one single, "Got to Get You Off My Mind";[82][91] and "Tonight's the Night".[7][92] Burke became the first R&B artist to cover a Bob Dylan song with his cover of "Maggie's Farm", which became the B-side of "Tonight's the Night".[93][94] In 1965, Atlantic released his fifth album, The Best of Solomon Burke, which peaked at No. 22 on the US charts.[91]
Entrepreneurship[edit]
From an early age Burke was "always an enterprising personality".[138] In addition to his recording career, Burke ran funeral homes, owned two drugstores and a popcorn business in Philadelphia,[1] and later had the first Mountain Dew franchise in Philadelphia.[109]
Burke's entrepreneurial activities included cooking and selling barbecued chicken sandwiches backstage,[139][140] as 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.[1][38][141] 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."[138] Trombonist Fred Wesley was one who was critical of Burke's business practices.[142] Burke demanded and operated the concessions at the Apollo Theater when he performed there in 1966.[143] This was very profitable for him but so enraged the owner Frank Schiffman that he was banned from performing at the Apollo for life.[1][144][145] After playing at the reopening of The Cavern Club in Liverpool in July 1966, Burke said: "The Cavern was a great place to play. The groove was there, the people were there, and it was wonderful. I remember them selling hot Pepsis. What a mistake—you gotta put ice in those things. Think of how many more they could have sold with ice in them."[93]
Burke owned funeral parlors in California, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, and two of his children have turned the mortuary business into a franchise.[48] Additionally, Burke owned and operated a limousine service.[96] 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.[146][147]
Bishopric and community work[edit]
From the early 1970s, after having moved to Los Angeles, 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.[30][148] Within three decades his church grew to have about 170 missions and 40,000 members.[149] 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. At the time of his death, there were about 180 churches that were established under the charter of his denomination, with Burke indicating: "We're non-sectarian, non-denominational. Ours is an open door."[36] In 2008 Burke acknowledged his Christian methodology differed from that of his maternal uncle, Pastor Harry R. Moore (1933–1982), the founder and pastor of Our First Temple of Faith, at Front and Susquehanna Streets, Philadelphia: "Mine was more: God, money and women, hey hey hey; truth, love, peace and get it on."[7] While pursuing other interests, Burke was also deeply involved in community work, assisting The Crippled Children's Foundation for blind and underprivileged children, while personally being responsible for more than 120 adopted children.[15]
Burke was also a mentor to up-coming Soul and Blues musicians, including a young Reggie Sears.[150]
Declining health[edit]
For many years Burke struggled with his health, with his "weight estimated somewhere between 300 and 400 pounds" in 2006.[172] 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."[173] In the later years of his life, "arthritis and weight ... limited his mobility"[172] and made him reliant on a wheelchair.[174]
In an interview in 2008, Burke said that "God put me in this wheelchair", and that God's message to him was: "'You are too fat!'" Burke denied having an eating disorder: ... I guess God let me develop into what I am now and allowed me to live. It's not an eating disorder. If I had an eating disorder, I wouldn't travel."[7] In 2006 Burke acknowledged: "It's very rough. I love to eat and I love to cook—as you can see. But my hip has to be replaced and a knee has to be replaced and I've got to lose 150 pounds before they can do that. And that's a lot. But it's NOT! God knows I've enjoyed every kind of food there is, all around the world. It's not like I'm going to miss any of it. Because I've had it all!"[172] Despite his efforts, at the time of his death, Burke's weight still exceeded 350 pounds.[79]