Latimore (musician)

Last updated
Latimore
Latimore.jpg
Latimore in October 1983
Background information
Birth nameBenjamin William Lattimore
Born (1939-09-07) September 7, 1939 (age 84)
Charleston, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres Blues, R&B, soul
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter
Instrument(s)Vocals, piano
Years active1965–present
LabelsDade, Glades, Malaco

Benjamin William Lattimore (born September 7, 1939), known professionally as Latimore, is an American blues and R&B singer, songwriter and pianist. [1] In 2017, Latimore was inducted in to the Blues Hall of Fame. [2]

Contents

Life and career

Latimore was born in Charleston, Tennessee, [1] and was influenced by country music, his Baptist church choir, and the blues. [3] His first professional experience came as a pianist for various Florida-based groups including Steve Alaimo. [1] He first recorded around 1965 for Henry Stone's Dade record label in Miami, Florida. [4] In the early 1970s, he moved to the Glades label, and had his first major hit in 1973 with a jazzy reworking of T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday", [1] which reached No. 27 on the R&B chart.

Latimore's first national hit was "If You Were My Woman," a gender-modified cover of "If I Were Your Woman" (written by Pam Sawyer, Clay McMurray and Gloria Jones and first popularized by Gladys Knight & the Pips), which reached No. 70 on the R&B chart. His biggest success came in 1974, with "Let's Straighten It Out", a No. 1 R&B hit, [1] which also reached No. 31 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. He followed it up with more hits, including "Keep The Home Fire Burnin'" (No. 5 R&B, 1975) and "Somethin' 'Bout 'Cha" (No. 7 R&B, 1976). The hits dissipated in the late 1970s.

"He likes what he's singing so much that he doesn't have to go for the simulated high emotion of some fancy vocal embellishment—he just puts those lyrics across, intelligent and matter-of-fact, as if you've never heard them before, which maybe you haven't."

More More More Latimore review in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981) [5]

Latimore moved to Malaco Records in 1982, [1] releasing seven albums of modern blues music with that label. He briefly left the label in 1994 and released a song for the J-Town label, Turning Up The Mood, before returning to Malaco in 2000 with You're Welcome To Ride. Next, Latimore recorded an album with Mel Waiters' label, Brittney Records, called Latt Is Back. [6]

Later, Latimore collaborated with Henry Stone on a new record label called LatStone; which released his first new album in six years, Back 'Atcha.

He has continued to work as a session pianist. He appeared most recently on Joss Stone's albums, The Soul Sessions (2003) and Mind Body & Soul (2004), along with fellow Miami music veterans Betty Wright, Timmy Thomas and Willie Hale, and made an appearance in May 2014 on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon .

In 2017, Latimore was inducted in to the Blues Hall of Fame. [2]

Discography

Albums

1973 Latimore
1974 More, More, More Latimore, (Let's Straighten It Out) - Black Albums No. 13
1975 Latimore III - Black Albums No. 49
1976 It Ain't Where You Been...It's Where You're Goin' - Pop Albums No. 181, Black Albums No. 47
1978 Dig a Little Deeper - Black Albums No. 51
1980 Getting Down to Brass Tacks
1982 Singing in the Key of Love - Black Albums No. 61
1983 I'll Do Anything for You - Black Albums No. 66, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 67
1985 Good Time Man
1986 Every Way But Wrong
1987 Slow Down
1991 The Only Way Is Up - Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 34
1993 Catchin' Up
1995 Best of Latimore: Sweet Vibrations
1995 Straighten It Out: The Best of Latimore
1996 Turnin' Up the Mood
1998 All You'll Ever Need
2000 You're Welcome to Ride
2003 Latt Is Back
2004 Sweet Vibrations: The Best of Latimore
2005 The Early Years
2007 Back 'Atcha
2009 All About the Rhythm and the Blues
2010 Live in Vienna
2011 Ladies Choice
2012 Henry Stones's Best Of: Latimore
2013 Latimore Remembers Ray Charles

Charted singles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilson Pickett</span> American singer (1941–2006)

Wilson Pickett was an American singer and songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobby Bland</span> American blues and soul singer and musician (1930–2013)

Robert Calvin Bland, known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnnie Taylor</span> American singer and songwriter (1934–2000)

Johnnie Harrison Taylor was an American recording artist and songwriter who performed a wide variety of genres, from blues, rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel to pop, doo-wop, and disco. He was initially successful at Stax Records with the number-one R&B hits "Who's Making Love" (1968), "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone" (1971) and "I Believe in You " (1973), and reached number one on the US pop charts with "Disco Lady" in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Z. Z. Hill</span> American blues singer (1935–1984)

Arzell J. "Z. Z." Hill was an American blues singer best known for his recordings in the 1970s and early 1980s, including his 1982 album for Malaco Records, Down Home, which stayed on the Billboard soul album chart for nearly two years. The track "Down Home Blues" has been called the best-known blues song of the 1980s. According to the Texas State Historical Association, Hill "devised a combination of blues and contemporary soul styling and helped to restore the blues to modern black consciousness."

Blue-eyed soul is rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music performed by white artists. The term was coined in the mid-1960s, to describe white artists whose sound was similar to that of the predominantly black Motown and Stax record labels. Though many R&B radio stations in the United States in that period would only play music by black musicians, some began to play music by white acts considered to have "soul feeling"; their music was then described as "blue-eyed soul".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyrone Davis</span> American musician

Tyrone Davis was an American blues and soul singer with a long list of hit records over more than 20 years. Davis had three number 1 hits on the Billboard R&B chart: "Can I Change My Mind" (1968), "Turn Back the Hands of Time" (1970), and "Turning Point" (1975).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobby Rush (musician)</span> American singer-songwriter

Bobby Rush is an American blues musician, composer, and singer. His style incorporates elements of blues, rap, and funk, as well as a comic sense about blues tropes.

<i>Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul</i> 1965 studio album by Otis Redding

Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul is the third studio album by American soul singer and songwriter Otis Redding. It was first released on September 15, 1965, as an LP record through the Stax Records subsidiary label Volt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Milton</span> American blues singer and guitarist (1934–2005)

James Milton Campbell Jr., better known as Little Milton, was an American blues singer and guitarist, best known for his number-one R&B single "We're Gonna Make It". His other hits include "Baby, I Love You", "Who's Cheating Who?", and "Grits Ain't Groceries ".

<i>Miss Thang</i> 1995 studio album by Monica

Miss Thang is the debut studio album by American R&B recording artist Monica. It was released by Rowdy Records and distributed through the Arista label on July 18, 1995, in the United States. Recorded throughout her early teenage years, the album was conceived under the guidance of Rowdy head Dallas Austin who would emerge as a tutor and father figure to Monica and serve as Miss Thang's sole executive producer. Austin recruited protégés from his DARP production camp such as Tim & Bob, Arnold Hennings, and Colin Wolfe as well as Daryl Simmons, and Soulshock & Karlin to work on the album. It incorporates a wide range of contemporary genres such as soul, pop, hip hop and blues.

James Eddie Lewis was an American soul singer, songwriter, arranger and producer. He was a member of the Drifters in the 1960s, worked as a songwriter and producer with Ray Charles, and wrote songs for Z. Z. Hill among many others.

Overton Vertis Wright was an American singer who is generally regarded as a blues artist by African-American fans in the Deep South; he is also regarded as one of Southern soul's most authoritative and individual artists. His best known songs include "That's How Strong My Love Is" (1964), "You're Gonna Make Me Cry" (1965), "Nucleus of Soul" (1968), "A Nickel and a Nail" (1971), "I Can't Take It" (1971) and "Ace of Spades" (1971).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaco Records</span> American record label founded 1962

Malaco Records is an American independent record label based in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, that has been the home of various major blues and gospel acts, such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, Mel Waiters, Z. Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle, Latimore, Dorothy Moore, Little Milton, Shirley Brown, Tyrone Davis, Marvin Sease, and the Mississippi Mass Choir. It has received an historic marker issued by the Mississippi Blues Commission to commemorate its important place on the Mississippi Blues Trail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denise LaSalle</span> American singer (1934–2018)

Ora Denise Allen, known by the stage name Denise LaSalle, was an American blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and record producer who, since the death of Koko Taylor, had been recognized as the "Queen of the Blues". Her husband was rapper Super Wolf.

Willie George Hale, often known by the name Little Beaver, is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, who has been featured on many hit records since the 1960s.

"Let's Straighten It Out" is the name of a hit song by blues singer Latimore. The first version of the song appeared on his second album More, More, More, the single spent two weeks at number one on the R&B singles chart in November, 1974. It also peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. After signing with Malaco Records, Latimore would re-record the song in 1983 for his eighth album, I'll Do Anything For You, with a spoken introduction.

<i>Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul</i> 1966 studio album by Otis Redding

Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, or simply Dictionary of Soul, is the fifth studio album by American soul singer-songwriter Otis Redding and his last solo studio album released before his death. The successful Otis Blue and the following performance at Whisky a Go Go led to his rising fame across the United States. The first side of the album mainly contains cover versions, and the second songs mainly written by Redding.

George Henry Jackson was an American blues, rhythm & blues, rock and soul songwriter and singer. His prominence was as a prolific and skilled songwriter; he wrote or co-wrote many hit songs for other musicians, including "Down Home Blues," "One Bad Apple", "Old Time Rock and Roll" and "The Only Way Is Up". As a southern soul singer he recorded fifteen singles between 1963 and 1985, with some success.

Willie Clayton is an American Chicago blues and soul-blues singer and songwriter. He has recorded over 25 albums since the 1980s. He has been performing since the late 1960s. His chart successes span the decades from the 1980s onward.

<i>Get It Outcha System</i> 1978 studio album by Millie Jackson

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.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Colin Larkin, ed. (1995). The Guinness Who's Who of Blues (Second ed.). Guinness Publishing. pp. 229/230. ISBN   0-85112-673-1.
  2. 1 2 "BLUES HALL OF FAME - ABOUT/Inductions - Blues Foundation". Blues.org. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  3. "Soul-Patrol Salutes Soul Music Icon Benny Latimore & his New CD: The Early Years". Soul-patrol.com. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  4. "Latimore - Biography & History". AllMusic . Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  5. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: L". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved March 1, 2019.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  6. "All About Jazz". All About Jazz . Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2017.