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 An
Evening of Stars Continues in Memory of Lou Rawls
Legendary Entertainer Will Perform in Recorded Segments
Legendary singer Lou Rawls, who died Friday of lung cancer, can be seen
this weekend in his final television performance on An Evening of Stars
Tribute to Stevie Wonder. The four-hour concert tribute, which airs
nationally this weekend on NBC in New York and Los Angeles, on WGN, BET
and in more than 70 markets, was recorded in September 2005. It will also
air in certain cities this Sunday, January 8th.
An Evening of Stars Tribute to Stevie Wonder raises funds and awareness
for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), the organization Lou Rawls
championed for more than 25 years as a spokesman and performer. Rawls is
credited with having created the UNCF's annual television special, known
for years as The Lou Rawls Parade of Stars. The program was re-named "An
Evening of Stars" in 1998. Rawls was honored on the 2004 program for
helping the UNCF raise more than $200 million since 1979 and was presented
with the UNCF's first "Award of Excellence" on that program.
In 2005, An Evening of Stars paid tribute to composer-producer Quincy
Jones. The 2006 tribute honors legendary singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder,
who has won 21 Grammy Awards and become an American music icon. Among
those appearing with Rawls on this weekend's broadcast salute to Wonder
are Yolanda Adams, Toni Braxton, Fantasia, Fred Hammond, Maroon 5 and
Smokey Robinson. Rawls performs two songs on the program, including "You
Are The Sunshine of My Life," a Wonder song, and "It Was A Very Good
Year."
Viewers can check local
listings for the channel and time when "An Evening of Stars Tribute to
Stevie Wonder" airs in their city this weekend. |
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|
Philadelphia Inquirer / KRT |
Grammy-Winning Singer Lou Rawls Dies
Music Icon Loses Fight With Lung Cancer
LOS ANGELES (Jan. 6) - Lou Rawls, the
velvet-voiced singer and longtime community activist who started as a
choir boy and went on to record such classic tunes as "You'll Never Find
Another Love Like Mine," died Friday of cancer. He was 72.
Rawls died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,
where he was hospitalized last month for treatment of lung and brain
cancer, said his publicist, Paul Shefrin. His estranged wife, Nina, was at
his bedside when he died.
Rawls' trademark was his smooth, four-octave voice - the "silkiest chops
in the singing game," Frank Sinatra once said. Rawls' used it in a wide
variety of genres, including commercials. For millions of television
viewers and radio listeners, Rawls was the familiar voice that said, "When
you've said Budweiser, you've said it all."
"He was one of the few singers that you knew without hearing more than a
few notes, that it was him," Burt Bacharach told The Associated Press.
A longtime community activist, Rawls played a major role in the 1980s
United Negro College Fund telethons that raised more than $200 million. In
the '60s he often visited schools, playgrounds and community centers.
"What I really loved about Lou was how his
voice was so unique," said Kenny Gamble, who with his partner Leon Huff
wrote "You'll Never Find," released in 1976.
"The other thing was that he had a sense of community," Gamble told The
AP. "Thousands and thousands of young kids benefited from his celebrity."
Aretha Franklin said in a statement that Rawls was a "memorable musical
stylist ... who made a serious impact in the interest of historically
black colleges and black folks."
Rawls was raised on the South Side of Chicago by his grandmother, who
shared her love of gospel with him. Rawls also was influenced by doo-wop
and harmonized with his high school classmate Sam Cooke. The two friends
joined groups such as the Teenage Kings of Harmony.
When he moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s, Rawls was recruited for the
Chosen Gospel Singers, then moved on to The Pilgrim Travelers. He enlisted
in 1955 as a paratrooper in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. Sgt. Rawls
rejoined The Pilgrim Travelers three years later.
While touring with the group, Rawls and Cooke were in a car crash that
nearly ended Rawls' life. Cooke was slightly hurt, but another passenger
was killed and Rawls was declared dead on the way to the hospital,
according to Shefrin.
Rawls was in a coma for 5 1/2 days and suffered memory loss, but was
completely recovered a year later.
"I really got a new life out of that," Rawls said at the time. "I saw a
lot of reasons to live. I began to learn acceptance, direction,
understanding and perception - all elements that had been sadly lacking in
my life."
Rawls performed with Dick Clark at the Hollywood Bowl in 1959. Late that
year, Rawls was singing for $10 a night plus pizza at Pandora's Box in Los
Angeles when he was spotted by Capitol Records producer Nick Venet, who
invited him to audition. He was signed by the label soon after.
The album "Stormy Monday," recorded in 1962 with the Les McCann Trio, was
the first of Rawls' 52 albums. That same year, he collaborated on Cooke's
hit "Bring It On Home to Me."
In 1966, Rawls' "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing" topped the charts and earned
Rawls his first two Grammy nominations, and he opened for The Beatles in
Cincinnati.
During that period, Rawls began delivering hip monologues about life and
love on the songs "World of Trouble" and "Tobacco Road," each more than
seven minutes long. Some called them "pre-rap."
Rawls explained that he had been working in clubs where the stage was
behind noisy bars.
"You'd be swinging and the waitress would yell, 'I want 12 beers and four
martinis!' And then the dude would put the ice in the crusher," Rawls
recalled. "There had to be a way to get the attention of the people. So
instead of just starting in singing, I would just start in talking the
song."
His "raps" were so popular that 1967's "Dead End Street" won him his first
Grammy for best R&B vocal performance. The singer won three Grammys in a
career that spanned nearly five decades and included the hits "Your Good
Thing (Is About to End)," "Natural Man" and "Lady Love." He released his
most recent album, "Seasons 4 U," in 1998 on his own label, Rawls & Brokaw
Records.
But his main legacy is "You'll Never Find," recorded after Rawls signed
with Gamble and Huff, architects of the classic "Philadelphia Sound."
"That was the first record we put out on him," Gamble said. "It captured
the best of his voice. It had all the dimensions, it had the low and it
had the excitement. And plus the lyrics were something people could relate
to."
Rawls also appeared in 18 movies, including "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Blues
Brothers 2000," and 16 television series, including "Fantasy Island" and
"The Fall Guy."
In 2001, Rawls headed to Broadway producing
and starring in the stage musical "Me and Mrs. Jones" based on Billy
Paul's 1972 hit of the same name. The show starred Rawls as the "me" who
meets Mrs. Jones at a bar every afternoon for a little extramarital nookie.
Members of the soul group the O'Jays appeared as "back stabbers," who try
to sabotage the couple's thang. Old soul favorites by the O'Jays, the
Spinners and the Three Degrees were included. And Patti LaBelle and Gladys
Knight also appeared on various dates. Rawls said he was sure the play
would be a big hit because "Everybody knows these songs and they're not
that rap crap." The play fittingly successful kick-off at the Prince
Theatre in Philadelphia before an audience including some of the city's
musical elite and sprung rave reviews.
Rawls was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2004 and brain cancer in
May 2005. Rawls told Shefrin he quit smoking 35 to 40 years ago. Asked
about reports Rawls tried to treat his cancer holistically, Shefrin said:
"He did try alternative methods. He used traditional and alternative
methods."
Along with his estranged wife, Rawls is survived by four children: Louanna
Rawls, Lou Rawls Jr., Kendra Smith and Aiden Rawls.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete, Shefrin said.
by Jeff Wilson, AP with
additions by daVault.net's editors-in-chief, kristi
Visit Lou
Rawls' official website. |
