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Willie Hale | |
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| Birth name | Willie George Hale |
| Also known as | Little Beaver |
| Born | August 15, 1945 Forrest City, Arkansas, U.S. |
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| Instrument | Guitar |
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Willie George Hale (born August 15, 1945), 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.
Hale was born on August 15, 1945, in Forrest City, Arkansas, United States, and acquired the nickname "Little Beaver" as a child because of his prominent teeth. He became a virtuoso guitarist at an early age. In the early 1960s, he moved to Florida and in 1969 was signed by musician and songwriter Willie Clarke to the Cat label, an offshoot of Henry Stone’s TK Records, based in Hialeah, near Miami.
As a session musician, his characteristic guitar sound was soon heard on many hit TK recordings, including Betty Wright's "Clean Up Woman". (However, contrary to some sources, he did not play on George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby", which featured Jerome Smith of KC and the Sunshine Band). [1]
He initially recorded three singles for Frank Williams' local Saadia label and one released on Philadelphia's Phil L.A. of Soul in the late 1960s, all produced by Williams and featuring his Rocketeers band. [2]
Hale launched his TK solo career on Cat in 1972 with "Joey", produced by TK's senior producer, Steve Alaimo. His biggest hit came in 1974 with "Party Down", which made No. 2 on the US Billboard R&B chart. He released five albums as Little Beaver in the 1970s, a mixture of blues, soul and funk. However, he lost out commercially at the height of the disco boom. Many of his records featured other key Florida R&B musicians including Wright, pianist Benny Latimore, and organist Timmy Thomas. His 1974 album Party Down also featured, on one track, bassist Jaco Pastorius, credited as Nelson "Jocko" Padron. Reviewing the album in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said: "The great T.K. guitarist (né Willie Hale) has a problem when he sings, which is that he can't. Ruined last year's blues album, but somehow it doesn't get in the way of this dance-groove item. The lyrics sound as if they were made up on the spot by somebody with a lot of common sense, and Beaver talks that talk as he goes about his work, which is seeing to the aforementioned groove." [3]
Hale's recording career effectively ended in the early 1980s, with his seemingly final album in 1980 and the closure of TK Records, due to bankruptcy, a year later. Hale was recruited by Betty Wright in 2003 to play on Joss Stone's albums The Soul Sessions and Mind Body & Soul , and he released a new album in 2008 on the Henry Stone Music label, which also issued re-workings of his Cat recordings and re-issues of his 1970s albums.[ citation needed ]
Some of his tracks have been sampled by hip hop artists in recent years. The Los Angeles hip hop duo People Under the Stairs sampled "Get into the Party Life" and "I Can Dig It Baby," for two tracks on their 2002 album, O.S.T. , and titled the songs "Suite for Beaver, Part 1" and "Suite for Beaver, Part 2," respectively, as a tribute. "Get into the Party Life" was also later sampled on Jay-Z’s track "Party Life" from his 2007 album American Gangster , and covered by Lion Babe on their 2019 album Cosmic Wind. Corona used "Get into the Party Life" in their 2020 commercial featuring Snoop Dogg. Kendrick Lamar later sampled "Give Me a Helping Hand" for track "peekaboo" on his 2024 album GNX.
Booker T. & the M.G.'s were an American instrumental, R&B, and funk band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1962. The band is considered influential in shaping the sound of Southern soul and Memphis soul. The original members of the group were Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass), and Al Jackson Jr. (drums). In the 1960s, as members of the Mar-Keys, the rotating slate of musicians that served as the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists including Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, and Albert King. They also released instrumental records under their own name, including the 1962 hit single "Green Onions". As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of its era.
Robert Hunter Caldwell was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He released several albums spanning R&B, soul, jazz, and adult contemporary. He is known for his soulful and versatile vocals. Caldwell released the hit single and his signature song "What You Won't Do for Love" from his double platinum debut album Bobby Caldwell in 1978. After several R&B and smooth jazz albums, Caldwell turned to singing standards from the Great American Songbook. He wrote many songs for other artists, including the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single "The Next Time I Fall" for Amy Grant and Peter Cetera. Caldwell's musical catalog is perhaps best known today for its later sampling by several prolific hip hop and R&B artists.
Dusty in Memphis is the fifth studio album by English singer Dusty Springfield, released on 31 March 1969 in the United States by Atlantic Records and by Philips Records internationally. Springfield worked on the album with a team of musicians and producers that included Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, Tom Dowd, conductor Gene Orloff, backing vocalists the Sweet Inspirations, bassist Tommy Cogbill, and guitarist Reggie Young. Initial sessions were recorded at American Sound Studio in Memphis, while Springfield's final vocals and the album's orchestral parts were recorded at Atlantic Records' New York City studios.
Freddie King was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar". Mostly known for his soulful and powerful voice and distinctive guitar playing, King had a major influence on electric blues music and on many later blues guitarists.
TK Records was an American independent record label founded by record distributor Henry Stone and Steve Alaimo in 1972. and based in Hialeah, Florida. The record label went bankrupt in 1981.
Bessie Regina Norris, better known by her stage name Betty Wright, was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter and background vocalist. Beginning her professional career in the late 1960s as a teenager, Wright rose to fame in the 1970s with hits such as "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight Is the Night". Wright was also prominent in her use of whistle register.
Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band is an American soul and funk band. Formed in the early 1960s, they had the most visibility from 1967 to 1973 when the band had 9 singles reach Billboard's pop and/or rhythm and blues charts, such as "Do Your Thing", "Till You Get Enough", and "Love Land". They are best known for their biggest hit on Warner Bros. Records, 1970's "Express Yourself", a song that has been sampled by rap group N.W.A and others.
Eugene McDuffy, known professionally as "Brother" Jack McDuff or "Captain" Jack McDuff, was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader. He was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio. He is also credited with giving guitarist George Benson his first break.
Sylvester Johnson was an American blues and soul singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. His most successful records included "Different Strokes" (1967), "Is It Because I'm Black" (1969) later covered by reggae artists Ken Boothe and Delroy Wilson, and "Take Me to the River" (1975), covered by Al Green and Talking Heads.
Gwen McCrae is an American singer, best known for her 1975 hit "Rockin' Chair".
Roy Charles Hammond, better known as Roy C or Roy "C", was an American southern soul singer, songwriter and record executive, best known for his 1965 hit, "Shotgun Wedding". Another song, "Impeach the President", which he recorded and produced with a high school group, the Honey Drippers, has had one of the most sampled drum tracks in hip hop music.
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."
Benjamin William Lattimore, known professionally as Latimore, is an American blues and R&B singer, songwriter and pianist. In 2017, Latimore was inducted in to the Blues Hall of Fame.
Richard Raymond Finch is an American songwriter, producer, and arranger. He is best known as the co-founder, producer and former bass guitar player of KC and the Sunshine Band. Along with Harry Wayne Casey, he co-wrote the majority of the KC and the Sunshine Band music catalog, to include five No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits.
Joseph Young Jr., known as Mighty Joe Young, was an American Chicago blues guitarist.
Sons of Soul is the third album by American R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné!, released on June 22, 1993, by Wing Records and Mercury Records. It follows the success of their 1990 album The Revival, which had extended their popularity beyond R&B audiences and into the mainstream.
House of Music is the fourth and final album by American R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné!, released on November 19, 1996, by Mercury Records. It follows the success of the band's 1993 album Sons of Soul and a hiatus during which each member pursued individual musical projects.
You're the Song I've Always Wanted to Sing is the second studio album by American R&B singer Timmy Thomas, released in 1974 by Glades and TK Records. The album was re-released on CD in 2004 by EMI.
Elmer Lee Fields is an American soul singer, sometimes nicknamed "Little JB" for his physical and vocal resemblance with James Brown. He has worked with Kool and the Gang, Hip Huggers, O. V. Wright, Darrell Banks, and Little Royal. Fields has also worked with musicians such as B. B. King, Clarence Carter, Dr. John, Tyrone Davis, Johnny Taylor, Denise LaSalle, Bobby Blue Bland, Betty Wright, The Manhattans, Little Milton and Bobby Womack. He recorded his first single in 1969 and is still active. His recent work is with The Expressions, including the albums Faithful Man (2012), Special Night (2017), and It Rains Love (2019). In 2014, he provided additional vocals for the James Brown biographical movie, Get On Up.
Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul is the second studio album by American soul singer Jaguar Wright. Originally titled And Your Point Is..., Wright finished recording the album in April 2003, and it was originally slated to be released by MCA Records that year. However, after Geffen Records absorbed MCA and shelved the album, Wright secured rights to some of the tracks she had recorded and sought a new label. She ultimately signed with independent label Artemis Records, which released the album on July 12, 2005. The album was promoted by lead single "Free", which received a radio remix and was commercially released in November 2005.
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