From The Page of The National R&B Music Society. facebook/pages/The-National-RB-Music-Society-Inc/459607965482 our website RnBmusicsociety A Big HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY to a Legend & Soul Singer Jerry The Iceman Butler!! Jerry Butler (born Jerry Butler Jr., December 8, 1939, Sunflower, Mississippi) is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. The mid 1950s had a profound impact on Butlers life. He grew up poor, having lived in Chicagos Cabrini–Green housing complex. Music and the church provided solace from a city that was as segregated as those in the Deep South. He performed in a church choir with Curtis Mayfield. As a teenager, Butler sang in a gospel quartet called Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers, along with Mayfield. Mayfield, a guitar player, became the lone instrumentalist for the six-member Roosters group, which later became The Impressions. Inspired by Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, and the Pilgrim Travelers, getting into the music industry seemed inevitable. Butlers younger brother, Billy Butler, also had a career in the music industry. Today, Billy plays guitar with Jerrys band, which tours throughout the country. Butler was dubbed the Iceman by WDAS Philadelphia disc jockey, Georgie Woods, while performing in a Philadelphia theater. He co-wrote, with Otis Redding, the song Ive Been Loving You Too Long in 1965. Butler’s solo career had a string of hits, including the Top 10 successes He Will Break Your Heart, Find Another Girl, Im A-Telling You (all written by fellow Impression Curtis Mayfield and featuring Mayfield as harmony vocal), the million selling Only the Strong Survive, Moon River (note that it was Jerrys vocal, not Andy Williams, that hit on single records), Need To Belong (recorded with the Impressions after he went solo), Make It Easy On Yourself, Let It Be Me (with Betty Everett), Brand New Me, Aint Understanding Mellow (with Brenda Lee Eager), Hey, Western Union Man, and Never Give You Up. Butler released two successful albums, The Ice Man Cometh (1968) and Ice On Ice (1970). The Ice Man Cometh garnered Butler three Grammy nominations. He collaborated on many of his successful recordings with the Philadelphia-based songwriting team, Gamble and Huff. With Motown, in 1976 and 1977, Butler produced and co-produced (with Paul David Wilson) two albums: 1.) “Suite For The Single Girl” and 2.) “It All Comes Out In My Song.” Tony Orlando and Dawn revived He Will Break Your Heart in 1975, with a new title, He Dont Love You (Like I Love You), and it was more successful than Butlers original, going to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. Subsequently, Butler and Wilson produced an album with Dee Dee Sharp-Gamble with Philadelphia International. In 1981 with Breaking and Entering / Easy Money, from Sharp-Gambles album Dee Dee, Butler/Wilson’s production spent four weeks at number one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart and Dance Chart Billboard
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 18:16:20 +0000
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