History
The group, based in Memphis, Tennessee, was founded as The Gospel Writer Juniors, later changing its name to The Dixie Nightingales. The founding members included Ollie Hoskins (born 1936 in Batesville, Mississippi, United States, died October 26, 1997, Memphis, Tennessee), [1] Willie Neal, Nelson Lesure, Bill Davis, and Rochester Neal. With Hoskins as lead singer, The Dixie Nightingales became one of the most prominent and successful southern gospel groups of the 1950s and 1960s, and made their first records for Pepper Records in 1958. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, one of their members was a teen-aged David Ruffin, who would later go on to find fame as lead singer of The Temptations. [2]
In 1962, The Dixie Nightingales moved to Nashboro Records. Three years later, Randle Catron brought the group to Stax Records, where new executive Al Bell had started a gospel subsidiary, Chalice Records. The Dixie Nightingales recorded three singles for Chalice, including "The Assassination", about the murder of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. [3]
After some convincing from Al Bell, the group decided to turn to secular soul music in 1968. [4] Willie Neal left the act that this time, and was replaced by Quincy Billops Jr., a former member of Stax's The Mad Lads.
Changing their name to Ollie & the Nightingales, the group moved to the main Stax label, where they released a number of singles. Their most successful was 1968's "I Know I've Got a Sure Thing", a William Bell/Booker T. Jones composition which peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Black Singles chart. Follow-ups such as "I've Got a Feeling" and "You're Leaving Me" were not as successful. [5] Ollie & the Nightingales also sung backing vocals for Eddie Floyd on his 1968 hit single "I've Never Met a Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)" [6]
In 1969, the group released a long-playing album, Ollie & the Nightingales; "I Got a Sure Thing" was not included because Atlantic Records retained ownership of that single and all other pre-1968 Stax material after Stax severed its distribution deal with Atlantic. [7]
In 1970, Hoskins left to pursue a solo career as "Ollie Nightingale". [8] He recorded a few R&B charting singles before moving on to perform blues in Memphis. [9] Stax's Sir Mack Rice recruited Tommy Tate [10] to replace Hoskins, and the group recorded three singles for Stax in the early 1970s before disbanding. [2] Bill Davis, Quincy Billops Jr., and Rochester Neal left Stax, and went on to join The Ovations.
Ollie Nightingale appeared in the 1993 film The Firm , starring Tom Cruise, and recorded four albums for Ecko Records afterwards. He died in Memphis on October 26, 1997 of a heart attack. [8]
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).
Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. was an American singer, songwriter, actor, and producer. Hayes was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a session musician and record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the mid-1960s. Hayes and Porter were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of writing scores of songs for themselves, the duo Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, and others. In 2002, Hayes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Johnnie Harrison Taylor was a three-time Grammy-nominated 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.
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961 and shared its operations with Volt Records, a sister label created to avoid the impression of favoritism among radio stations playing their records.
James Edward Carr was an American R&B and soul singer, described as "one of the greatest pure vocalists that deep Southern soul ever produced."
"In the Midnight Hour" is a song originally performed by Wilson Pickett in 1965 and released on his 1965 album of the same name, also appearing on the 1966 album The Exciting Wilson Pickett. The song was composed by Pickett and Steve Cropper at the historic Lorraine Motel in Memphis, later the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.. Pickett's first hit on Atlantic Records, it reached number one on the R&B charts and peaked at number 21 on the pop charts.
Edward Lee Floyd is an American soul-R&B 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".
William Bell is an American soul singer and songwriter. As a performer, he is probably best known for his debut single, 1961's "You Don't Miss Your Water"; 1968's top 10 hit in the UK "Private Number", a duet with Judy Clay; and his only US top 40 hit, 1976's "Tryin' to Love Two", which also hit No. 1 on the R&B chart. Upon the death of Otis Redding, Bell released the well-received memorial song "A Tribute to a King".
David Porter is an American record producer, songwriter, singer, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
The Soul Children was an American vocal group who recorded soul music for Stax Records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They had three top 10 hits on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart – "The Sweeter He Is" (1969), "Hearsay" (1972), and "I'll Be the Other Woman" (1973) – all of which crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100.
Home is the debut album by husband-and-wife singers Delaney & Bonnie, released on the Stax label. Most of the album was recorded at Stax Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, from February to November 1968, with additional overdubs in July 1969, and features many of Stax's house musicians, including Donald "Duck" Dunn, Steve Cropper, Booker T. Jones, and Isaac Hayes.
David Prater Jr. was an American Southern soul and rhythm & blues singer and musician, who was the deeper baritone/tenor vocalist of the soul vocal duo Sam & Dave from 1961 until his death in 1988. He is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1992), the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame (1997), and he was a Grammy Award–winning (1967) and multiple Gold Record award-winning recording artist.
The Imperial Show Band, led by Tim Whitsett, was a popular national live act in the United States in the 1960s. It is generally regarded as the first integrated band in the state of Mississippi.
Homer Banks was an 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.
Hold On, I'm Comin' is the 1966 debut album by Atlantic Records soul duo Sam & Dave, issued on the Atlantic-distributed Stax label in 1966.
Billy Butler was an American soul singer and songwriter active in the 1960s and 1970s. He was born in Chicago. His elder brother, Jerry, was also a singer and songwriter for whose band Billy played the guitar.
Barbara and the Browns were an American soul and gospel vocal group, fronted by Barbara Brown who also recorded as a solo singer.
Josephine Armstead, also known as "Joshie" Jo Armstead, is an American soul singer and songwriter. Armstead began her career singing backing vocals for blues musician Bobby "Blue" Bland before becoming an Ikette in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in the early 1960s. She also had some success as a solo singer, her biggest hit being "A Stone Good Lover" in 1968. As a songwriter, Armstead teamed up with Ashford & Simpson. The trio wrote hits for various artists, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Tina Britt, Ronnie Milsap, and Syl Johnson. In the 1970s, Armstead appeared in the Broadway musicals Don't Play Us Cheap! and Seesaw.
The Ovations were an American rhythm and blues vocal group who recorded in the 1960s and 1970s. Their biggest hit, a remake of Sam Cooke's "Having a Party", reached no.7 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1973.
Johnnie Frierson was a soul and gospel singer and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. After a short-lived musical career with Stax Records, he served in the U.S. Army and worked as a mechanic, carpenter, and teacher. In the 1990s, he produced homemade cassette recordings of gospel-inspired songs, which were posthumously reissued as Have You Been Good to Yourself in 2016.
