Born in Philadelphia, Solomon Burke started preaching at the age of seven, sang on the radio at 12, was signed to the Apollo label by 15, blackballed and sleeping in abandoned cars by 18.
He was training as a mortician at his aunt’s funeral home whenΒ Atlantic RecordsΒ came knocking in 1960.
The countrifiedΒ Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)Β was a minor hit in 1961, but it was the impassioned soul of the following year’sΒ Cry To MeΒ that really put him on the map.
It was the first of a string of classic 45s, includingΒ If You Need MeΒ and the spectacularΒ Everybody Needs Somebody To Love.Β The latter was soon covered byΒ The Rolling Stones, followed byΒ Wilson PickettΒ and, in 1980,Β The Blues Brothers.
In December 1964, Burke was due to meet up with his great friendΒ Sam CookeΒ in LA on the day Cooke was murdered. On his way back to Philadelphia, Burke wroteΒ Got To Get You Off My Mind. It became his biggest US hit when it was issued a few months later.
But soul music was changing and Burke was overtaken atΒ AtlanticΒ by the secular stirrings ofΒ Sam & Dave, and in 1968 he switched to Bell.
The 1970s saw him record less successfully for a number of labels while concentrating on his ministerial career. His church grew to encompass over 170 missions. At other times he also owned drug stores and restaurants.
Burke’s real revival didn’t happen until 2002, when he recordedΒ Don’t Give Up On MeΒ on the Fat Possum label.
Under the guidance of producer Joe Henry, his dazzling versions of unreleased songs fromΒ Bob Dylan,Β Tom Waits,Β Brian WilsonΒ and others earned him a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
Another couple of well-received LPs followed – the country/soul flavouredΒ NashvilleΒ (2006) andΒ Like A FireΒ (2008).
Solomon Burke died in 2010.