(March 21, 1940 – October 10, 2010)
We are at a point again where we bid farewell to one of our greats in music. Solomon Burke passed away from natural causes while on a flight to the Netherlands. He was due to perform there on Oct. 12th.
Known to many as the "King of Rock n Soul", Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter Solomon Burke started out as a preacher in his home town of Philadelphia, then moved on to hosting a gospel radio show. His musical influences stemmed from gospel and Little Richard.
In the 60's Burke signed with Atlantic Records when he started doing more secular music and recorded "Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)", a cover of a country tune which was his first hit. Burke never could quite break through into the mainstream as did Sam Cooke or Otis Redding, who covered Burke's "Down in the Valley" for 1965's Otis Blue. Burke's best known song is "Cry to Me", which was a hit twice: first in the 60's, and again in the 1980s when it was used in the film – and appeared on the soundtrack for – Dirty Dancing. In 1964, with Bert Berns and Jerry Wexler, he wrote and recorded "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love", his most prominent bid for an enduring soul standard.
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