Bradley Aaron Shapiro (born August 15, 1938) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer, whose credits have included work with Wilson Pickett, Millie Jackson, James Brown, and the J. Geils Band.
In the late 1950s, he played bass guitar in a local band, the Redcoats, in Miami, Florida, whose singer was Steve Alaimo. After Alaimo launched a solo career, the band split up, but Shapiro remained involved in the music business and received his first songwriting credit in 1965 on "I Can't See Him Again" by the Twans, co-written with Henry Stone. In 1967, his song "Girl I Got News For You", co-written with Bobby Puccetti and co-produced by Shapiro and Alaimo, was recorded by Benny Latimore, and over the next few years his songs were recorded by a number of artists on T.K. labels in Miami, including Betty Wright and Clarence Reid. He often wrote and co-produced with Alaimo. [1]
In 1970, he and Dave Crawford began working together at Atlantic Records and co-produced the debut album by The J. Geils Band. The following year, he and Crawford co-produced Wilson Pickett's "Don't Knock My Love" in Muscle Shoals, which Shapiro co-wrote with the singer. The record reached no.1 on the R&B chart. Shapiro continued to work with Pickett, as well as with Johnny Adams, Sam & Dave, Bettye LaVette and others for Atlantic.
Shapiro then became involved with producing the leading artists on the New York–based Spring Records, including Joe Simon, Garland Green and Millie Jackson. The most successful collaboration was with Jackson; the two co-produced and co-wrote several tracks on her gold albums Caught Up (1974) and Still Caught Up (1975). [1] [2] He went on to work with Millie Jackson for some years on a series of albums and major R&B hits until the Spring label closed in the mid-1980s.
In the mid-1970s, he co-founded the Kayvette record label, which issued records by Jackie Moore, Otis Clay, and the Facts of Life (formerly The Gospel Truth). [3] Shapiro produced James Brown's albums The Original Disco Man in 1979 and People in 1980.
Wilson Pickett was an American singer and songwriter.
Sam & Dave were an American soul and R&B duo who performed together from 1961 until 1981. The tenor (higher) voice was Sam Moore and the baritone/tenor (lower) voice was Dave Prater (1937–1988).
Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records.
Albert J. Jackson Jr. was an American drummer, producer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, a group of session musicians who worked for Stax Records and produced their own instrumentals. Jackson was affectionately dubbed "The Human Timekeeper" for his drumming ability. He was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Booker T. & the M.G.'s in 1992.
James Carson Whitsett was an American keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer.
The J. Geils Band is the self-titled debut studio album by American rock band The J. Geils Band. The album was released on November 16, 1970, by Atlantic Records.
Lincoln Wayne "Chips" Moman was an American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter. He is known for working in R&B, pop music and country music, operating American Sound Studios and producing hit albums like Elvis Presley's 1969 From Elvis in Memphis and the 1985 debut album for The Highwaymen. Moman won a Grammy Award for co-writing "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song", a 1975 hit for B.J. Thomas.
Eddie Lee Floyd is an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s, including the No. 1 R&B hit song "Knock on Wood".
Donald James Randolph, better known by the stage name Don Covay, was an American R&B, rock and roll, and soul singer-songwriter most active from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Jon Tiven is an American composer, guitarist, record producer, and music journalist. He has produced albums by Wilson Pickett, Frank Black and Don Covay as well as a series of tribute albums paying tribute to the songwriting of Don Covay, Arthur Alexander, Otis Blackwell, Curtis Mayfield, and Van Morrison. He was also the co-founder of the Memphis power pop band Prix, as well as the bands The Yankees and The Jon Tiven Group.
"Land of a Thousand Dances" is a song written and first recorded by American rhythm and blues singer Chris Kenner in 1962. It later became a bigger hit in versions by Cannibal & the Headhunters and Wilson Pickett. A version by Thee Midniters reached number 27 in Canada on March 22, 1965.
Charles Stephen Alaimo is an American singer who was a teen idol in the early 1960s. He later became a record producer and label owner, but he is perhaps best known for hosting and co-producing Dick Clark's Where the Action Is in the late 1960s. He had nine singles chart in the Billboard Hot 100 without once reaching the Top 40 in his career, the most by any artist.
Jerome Louis "J.J." Jackson is an American soul/R&B singer, songwriter, and arranger. His singing style is as a belter. Jackson best known for the song "But It's Alright", which he co-wrote with Pierre Tubbs. The song was released in 1966 and then re-released in 1969, to chart success on both occasions. The liner notes to his 1967 album, J.J. Jackson, on Calla Records, stated that he weighed 285 pounds.
Henry Stone, born Henry David Epstein, was an American record company executive and producer whose career spanned the era from R&B in the early 1950s through the disco boom of the 1970s to the 2010s. He was best known as co-owner and president of TK Records, but reportedly set up more than 100 record labels, and generated more than $100 million in record sales across the world. Stone was described as "an acute businessman who always made sure that contracts and publishing agreements were written in his favor."
Homer Banks was an African American songwriter, singer and record producer. Although best known by many for his songwriting for Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s, some of his own releases from the 1960s are considered classics on the Northern Soul scene. Many of the songs he wrote have become contemporary classics.
Facts of Life was an American soul/disco group formed by producer Millie Jackson, whose members were Jean Davis, Keith Williams, and Chuck Carter. They signed to independent label Kayvette Records, and a single, "Caught in the Middle", got airplay on Southern US radio stations but did not chart. Their second single was "Sometimes", a remake of country singer Bill Anderson's smash hit; Facts of Life's version hit #3 on the US Black Singles chart and #31 on the pop charts in 1977. As a result of the single's success, Kayvette rushed the album release, resulting in a bad pressing. Nevertheless, RCA picked up the group in 1978, but their second album was not very successful, and the group fizzled.
Seth Justman is the keyboard player for the U.S. rock band, The J. Geils Band.
Get It Out'cha System is a 1978 album by singer-songwriter Millie Jackson. David Van DePitte was responsible for the string and horn arrangements.
Leroy Phillip Mitchell, often credited as Prince Phillip Mitchell, is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer. He wrote "Starting All Over Again" for Mel and Tim, and "It Hurts So Good" and "Leftovers", which were both hits for Millie Jackson, as well as having some success in the 1970s and 1980s as a solo singer.
David Bernard Crawford was an American R&B musician, songwriter, radio personality and record producer. He wrote "What a Man", originally recorded by Linda Lyndell and later reinterpreted by Salt-n-Pepa; "Precious, Precious", a hit for Jackie Moore; and "Young Hearts Run Free", an international hit for Candi Staton.