Bobby Womack 1944-2014 RIP

The American soul singer and songwriter Bobby Womack has died at the age of 70. His career spanned more than 50 years.

He was born in Cleveland, the third of five children. His father was a church minister but was also an amateur musician, and his mother played the organ in church, so it was no surprise that his early musical years were spent in playing gospel music.

Womack had only minor chart success as a solo artist, with just one single reaching the Top 10 and one album making the Top 30 in the Billboard Charts, although he had several dozen minor hits which reached the 40 - 75 range and had far more success in the specialist R&B chart.

Most of his commercial success came as a songwriter. He wrote and originally recorded The Rolling Stones' first UK No. 1 hit, "It's All Over Now" and New Birth's "I Can Understand It" among other songs. As a singer he is most notable for the hits "Lookin' For a Love", "That's The Way I Feel About Cha", "Woman's Gotta Have It", "Harry Hippie", "Across 110th Street" and his 1980s hit "If You Think You're Lonely Now".

In 1965 he caused a minor celebrity scandal when at the age of 21 he married 29 year old Barbara Campbell, the widow of Sam Cooke, just three months after Cooke's death.

His career went into decline due to the cocaine addiction which plagued him for many years and in later life he suffered from diabetes, pneumonia and cancer.

In 2008, Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child recorded her own version of his 1976 R&B hit "Daylight" with Travis McCoy of the Gym Class Heroes, which reached number 14 in the UK Singles Chart.

In 2009, Bobby Womack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

(NB - Womack's younger brother Cecil later married Cooke and Campbell's daughter Linda, and it was these two who had hits in the 1980s as "Womack and Womack")

R.I.P Bobby Womack you will be missed .

(28-06-2014 10:48 )mr williams Wrote:  In 2008, Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child recorded her own version of his 1976 R&B hit "Daylight" with Travis McCoy of the Gym Class Heroes, which reached number 14 in the UK Singles Chart.

Ooh, I didn't realise that. That's a bloody good song.

70's a fine age, and he gave us some fine songs. RIP