R&B singer Tommy Edwards died of a brain aneurysm today (October 22, 1969).
Edwards began performing in Richmond, Virginia at the tender age of nine.
He would make his impact in the R&B world in 1946, when he wrote the single “That Chick’s Too Young to Fry.”
Edwards’ success as a songwriter lead to a deal with MGM in 1949.
If the old saying that “bad news comes in threes” is to be believed, then last week’s news about the deaths of Albertina Walker, Solomon Burke and General Norman Johnson certainly proved the saying to be true.
First Albertina Walker passed away on October 8th then the soul world was rocked by the death of Solomon Burke on October 10th.
Then on October 13 General Norman Johnson of the Chairmen of the Board passed away. Although General Norman Johnson’s death was not as widely reported, the impact on Soul music was just as great.
Here is an exclusive clip of Lamont Dozier, owner of the Hot Wax/Invictus label.
October 19, 2010 Numero Group will release Syl Johnson: Complete Mythology in a four CD+six LP boxset (both formats, one package).
Four years in the making, this is by far the most exhaustively researched and meticulously presented work from Numero Group to date.
Encompassing a career that spans half a century, Syl Johnson: Complete Mythology not only covers his obvious hits like the Billboard charting “Is It It Because I’m Black” (the first black concept record) and “Different Strokes” (one of the most heavily sampled songs in the history of recorded music – N.W.A., Kid Rock, Michael Jackson, J. Dilla and countless others) but shines a light into the corners of a true musical visionary.
