IN REMEMBRANCE.... DIED ON THIS DAY: Joseph Arrington, Jr. August 8, 1935– August 13, 1982 better known as Joe Tex, was a musician who gained success in the 1960s and 1970s with his brand of Southern soul, which mixed the styles of country, gospel and rhythm and blues. Born in Rogers, Texas, and raised in Baytown, Texs career started after he was signed to King Records in 1955 following four wins at the Apollo Theater. Between that year and 1964, however, Tex struggled to find hits and by the time he finally recorded his first hit, Hold What Youve Got, in 1964, he had recorded thirty prior singles that were deemed failures on the charts.Tex went on to have four million-selling hits, Hold What Youve Got (1965), Skinny Legs and All (1967),I Gotcha (1972), and Aint Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman) (1977). Texs style of speaking over the background of his music helped to make him one of the predecessors of the modern style of rap music. Joe Tex was born Joseph Arrington, Jr. in Rogers, Texas to Cherie Sue (née Jackson) and Joseph Arrington. After Texs parents divorced, his mother moved him and his sister Mary to Baytown, Texas.In high school, Tex played baritone saxophone in his high school band and also sang for a local Pentecostal church choir.Tex entered a number of talent shows and after an important win in Houston, the 18-year-old won $300 and a trip to New York City.While in New York, Tex took part in the amateur portion of the Apollo Theater, winning first place four times, leading to his discovery by A&R man Henry Glover, who offered to give him a contract with King Records. Due to his mothers strong convictions that he should finish high school first, Glover waited a year before Tex signed with the label at the age of 19.. Tex recorded for King Records between 1955 and 1957 with relative failures. Tex would claim later that he sold musical rights to the composition, Fever to King Records staff, due to failure to pay rent. The songs credited songwriters, Otis Blackwell (who used the pseudonym John Davenport) and Joe Cooley disputed Texs claims.Labelmate Little Willie John had a hit with Fever, later inspiring Tex to write the first of his answer songs, Pneumonia. In 1958, he signed with Ace and continued to have relative failures but was starting to build a unique stage reputation while opening up for artists such as Jackie Wilson, James Brown and Little Richard, perfecting the microphone tricks and dance moves that would define the rest of his career. It has been insisted by many, including Little Richard, that Texs future nemesis James Brown stole Texs dance moves and microphone tricks. In 1960, he left Ace and briefly recorded for Detroits Anna Records label, where he scored a Bubbling Under Billboard hit with his cover version of Etta James All I Could Do Was Cry. By then, Texs usage of rapping over his music was starting to become commonplace. In 1961, he recorded his composition, Baby Youre Right, for Anna. Later that year, James Brown recorded a cover version, albeit with different lyrics and a different musical composition, winning songwriting credit, making the song a hit in 1962, reaching #2 on the R&B chart. It was during this time that Tex first began working with Buddy Killen, who formed the Dial Records label behind Tex. After a number of songs failed to chart, Killen decided to have Atlantic Records distribute his recordings with Dial in 1964. By the time he signed with Atlantic, Tex had recorded thirty songs, all of which had failed to make an impact on the charts.. Tex recorded his first hit, Hold On To What Youve Got, in November 1964 at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.Tex was not convinced the song would be a hit and advised Killen not to release it.However, Killen felt otherwise and released the song in early 1965. By the time Tex got wind of its release, the song had already sold 200,000 copies. The song eventually peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Texs first number-one hit on the R&B charts, staying on the charts for 11 weeks and selling over a million copies by 1966. Tex would place six top 40 charted singles on the R&B charts in 1965 alone, including two more number-one hits I Want To (Do Everything For You) and A Sweet Woman Like You.[He followed that with two successive albums, Hold On To What Youve Got and The New Boss.Tex placed more R&B hits than any artist, including his nemesis James Brown. In 1966, five more singles entered the top 40 on the R&B charts including The Love You Save and S.Y.S.L.J.F.M. or The Letter Song, which was an answer song to Wilson Picketts 634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.). His 1967 hits included Show Me, which became an often-covered tune for British rock artists and later some country and pop artists, and his second million-selling hit, Skinny Legs and All. The latter song, released off Texs pseudo live album, Live and Lively, stayed on the charts for 15 weeks and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in January 1968. After leaving Atlantic for Mercury, Tex had several more R&B hits including Buying a Book in 1970 and Give the Baby Anything the Baby Wants in 1971. The intro saxophone riffs in his 1969 song, Youre Right, Ray Charles later influenced Funkadelics Standing on the Verge of Gettin It On. Tex recorded his next big hit, I Gotcha, in December 1971. The song was released in January 1972 and stayed on the charts for 20 weeks, staying at #2 on the Hot 100 for two weeks and sold over two million copies becoming his biggest-selling hit to date.Tex was offered a gold disc of the song on March 22, 1972. The parent album reached #17 on the pop albums chart. Following this and another album, Tex announced his retirement from show business in September 1972 to pursue life as a minister for Islam. Tex returned to his music career following the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975, releasing the top 40 R&B hit, Under Your Powerful Love.His last hit, Aint Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman), was released in 1977 and peaked at #12 on the Hot 100 and #2 in the UK. Texs last public appearances were as part of a revised 1980s version of the Soul Clan in 1981. After that, Tex withdrew from public life settling at his ranch in Navasota, Texas and watching football games by his favorite team, the Houston Oilers.. The feud between Tex and fellow labelmate James Brown took its origins allegedly sometime in the mid-1950s when both artists were signed to associated imprints of King Records when Brown allegedly called out on Tex for a battle during a dance at a local juke joint. In 1960, Tex left King and recorded a few songs for Detroit-based Anna Records, one of the songs he recorded was the ballad Baby, Youre Right. A year later, Brown recorded the song and released it in 1961, changing up the lyrics and the musical composition, earning Brown co-songwriting credits along with Tex. By then, Brown had recruited singer Bea Ford, who had been married to Tex prior but had divorced in 1959. In 1960, Brown and Ford recorded the song, Youve Got the Power. Shortly afterwards, Tex got a personal letter from Brown telling him that he was through with Ford and if Tex wanted her back, he could have her. Tex responded by recording the diss record, You Keep Her, where he called Browns name out. In 1963, their feud escalated when Brown and Tex performed at what was Browns homecoming concert at Macon, Georgia. Tex, who opened the show, arrived in a tattered cape and began rolling around on the floor as if in agony, and screamed, please - somebody help get me out of this cape! This allegedly resulted in Brown finding Tex at an after show party at a nightclub and shooting at the place with his armed gun.Tex would later claim that Brown stole his dance moves and his microphone stand tricks. In a few interviews he gave in the sixties, Tex dismissed the notion of Brown being called Soul Brother No. 1 insisting that Little Willie John was the original Soul Brother No. 1. Tex even claimed Brown stopped radio disk jockeys from not playing his hit, Skinny Legs and All, which Tex claimed prevented Tex from taking down one of Browns number-one songs at the time.During a 1968 tour, Tex had the words, The New Soul Brother No. 1, on his bus, leading to people heckling him. This led to Tex immediately taking the name off of the bus and had it repainted.Tex even offered to challenge Brown to contest who was the real soul brother. Brown reportedly refused the challenge stating at the time to the Afro-American newspaper, I will not fight a black man. You need too much help. A convert to Islam in 1966, he changed his name to Yusuf Hazziez, and toured as a spiritual lecturer. He had one daughter, Eartha Doucet, and four sons, Joseph Arrington III, Ramadan Hazziez, Jwaade Hazziez and Joseph Hazziez. On August 13, 1982, Joe Tex died at his home in Navasota, Texas, following a heart attack, five days after his 47th birthday. While Tex moved on from his initial feud with Brown, Brown reportedly joked, who? in his Bobby Byrd and Hank Ballard duet, Funky Side of Town, from his Get on the Good Foot album, when Ballard mentioned Texs name as one of the stars of soul music. Several other artists have covered Texs work. The Monkees, using Sam & The Goodtimers as a backing band performed Show Me (lead sung by Dolenz) at most concerts from March to November 1969. In 1971, Barbara Mandrell had a country hit with Show Me. Including the rock band Nazareths I Want To (Do Everything for You) and Phish who performed You Better Believe It Baby on July 26, 1998 at the Starplex Amphitheater in Dallas, Texas and again on August 2, 1998 at Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. The rock band The Trews covered The Love You Save (May Be Your Own) in 2009 on their acoustic album, Acoustic - Friends & Total Strangers. Johnny Cash covered Texs Look at Them Beans in 1975. Lawrence Lipbone Redding covered The Love You Save (May Be Your Own) on his 2011 album, Unbroken. Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers covered Show Me on his 1979 solo album, Everything You Heard Is True. The UK band Q-Tips performed S.Y.S.L.J.F.M.(The Letter Song) regularly in their live shows.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 10:38:07 +0000
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