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Today's artist never had a big crossover hit, "the King of Rock and Soul" is not as widely known as others from the golden age of soul music. But his dramatic, sonorous voice — seasoned by his days as a boy preacher — is unrivaled in its ability to move effortlessly between R&B, pop, country and gospel. "My grandmother made sure that we listened to a variety of music, and that always stayed with me,". Recently, he's picked up a Grammy and long-overdue recognition, and tracks such as "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" are now part of the soul canon. "He is Solomon the Resonator," Tom Waits has said, "the golden voice of heart, wisdom, soul and experience."  . ..... N'joy

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He was proclaimed the “King of Rock and Soul” in 1964 and has also been anointed “the Bishop of Soul.” No less an authority than Jerry Wexler, the legendary Atlantic Records producer, has proclaimed, “The best soul singer of all time is Solomon Burke.”

Burke’s versatile, force-of-nature voice combines gospel fervor, country gentility and R&B grit. He can swing from a satiny croon to gruff soul shout to a deep, caressing baritone. From 1961 to 1968, Burke released 32 memorable singles on Atlantic. These included six Top 10 R&B hits, four of which crossed over to the pop Top 40: “Cry to Me” (Number Five R&B), “Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)” (Number Seven R&B, Number 24 pop), “Got to Get You Off of My Mind” (Number One R&B, Number 22 pop), “You’re Good for Me” (Number Eight R&B), “Tonight’s the Night” (Number Two R&B, Number 28 pop) and “If You Need Me” (Number Two R&B, Number 37 pop).

Many more of Burke’s singles cracked both the R&B Top 40 and the Top Pop 100 charts. Yet his lasting significance as a recording artist and performer goes beyond numbers. Burke was a consummate showman who adopted the role of “King of Rock ‘n’ Soul” onstage by adorning himself in a regal robe of velvet and ermine. One of the greatest vocalists of the soul era, Burke has been credited for helping to keep Atlantic Records solvent from 1961 to 1964 with his steady run of hit records. Jerry Wexler pronounced Burke a “vocalist of rare prowess and remarkable range. His voice is an instrument of exquisite sensitivity.” He is also a colorful and even eccentric figure - one of the true characters in the world of popular music.

Burke was born in Philadelphia and gravitated to the church through the influence of his grandmother, preaching his first sermon at age seven. He was broadly exposed to music, absorbing the varied likes of jazz-pop vocalist Nat King Cole, cowboy singers Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, bluesmen Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, gospel queen Clara Ward, and R&B kingpins Ray Charles and Big Joe Turner. This accounts for Burke’s stylistic breadth as a soul singer. He recorded for the New York-based Apollo Records from 1955-1958, where he scored a minor hit with “You Can Run (But You Can’t Hide),” a song whose authorship was co-credited to Burke and boxer Joe Louis

In 1960, Burke signed to Atlantic Records, where it was believed that his flexible voice and roots in gospel and country would earn him a wide, bi-racial audience. His first hit for the label was the uptempo “Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)” in the fall of 1961. Burke’s first single to cross over from R&B to pop was a soulful cover of the country song “Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms).” Burke wrote or cowrote much of his material, and he also recorded songs by soul singers Wilson Pickett (“If You Need Me’) and Don Covay (“You’re Good for Me”). Burke and Covay cowrote one of his biggest hits, “Tonight’s the Night.” Burke’s signature song, “Got to Get You Off of My Mind,” stands as one of the premier soul hits of the Sixties. “Got to Get You Off of My Mind” and “Tonight’s the Night” appeared in 1965, Burke’s biggest year, and hit Number One and Number Two on the R&B charts, respectively.

In 1968, Burke teamed with fellow Atlantic artists Don Covay, Ben E. King, Arthur Conley and Joe Tex to record a single ("Soul Meeting") as the Soul Clan, an expression of solidarity and mutual support by five pillars of soul music. “We wanted to interlock ourselves as a group, to express to the younger people how strong we should be and to help one another, work with one another and support one another,” Burke has said of the Soul Clan’s lone single.

After leaving Atlantic, Burke signed with Bell Records where he released five singles in the next eighteen months. In 1969 he had a small hit with his second release for Bell, a reworking of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" b/w "What Am I Living For" (Bell 783). This was co-produced by Tamiko Jones, who was being rehabilitated after a bout of polio, and was at the time Burke's manager. Burke recorded a cover of "Proud Mary" prior to Ike & Tina Turner's version, and according to Burke was the one who convinced the duo to record it. The song became a brief hit reaching #15 R&B and #45 pop. All but four of the tracks Burke recorded during an 18-month stay with Bell Records were packaged on the Proud Mary LP. After this album and the two following singles - his own "Generation of Revelations", and the Mac Davis song "In the Ghetto", which had previously been a hit for Elvis Presley - failed to chart, his contract was not renewed.

Through the efforts of his manager, Buddy Glee, by November 1970 Burke signed with Mike Curb's MGM label, and formed MBM Productions, his own production company. Burke's record debut for MGM, "Lookin' Out My Back Door", another Creedence Clearwater Revival song, had disappointing sales. His first MGM album, Electronic Magnetism, also failed to chart. In 1972 Burke had a #13 R&B hit for MGM with "Love Street and Fool's Road" (MGM 14353).[13] In 1972, he recorded the soundtrack to two films, Cool Breeze and Hammer. He left MGM for ABC-Dunhill Records in 1974, recording the album, I Have a Dream, which produced the #14 R&B hit, "Midnight and You". By 1975 Burke was signed to Chess Records. He recorded two albums for Chess: Music to Make Love By and Back to My Roots, and had a top 20 R&B hit in 1975 with "You And Your Baby Blues". However, his follow-up single "Let Me Wrap My Arms Around You" only reached #72 on the R&B chart. In 1978 Burke released an album Please Don't Say Goodbye To Me, which was produced by Jerry "Swamp Dogg" Williams, though Amherst Records.[78] On September 23, 1978, Burke charted for the 31st and last time when "Please Don't Say Goodbye to Me" reached #91 on the R&B chart. He released the album Sidewalks, Fences and Walls on Infinity Records in 1979 (reissued as Let Your Love Flow in 1993 by Shanachie Records).

Between 1979 and 1984, Burke recorded four gospel albums for Savoy Records, starting with the album, Lord I Need a Miracle Right Now. He was nominated for his first Grammy in the Best Male Gospel Soul category for his rendition of "Precious Lord, Take My Hand", but complained later that he did not receive royalties from his Savoy work. He then recorded for smaller labels such as Rounder, MCI/Isis, Bizarre/Straight, Black Top, Point Blank and GTR Records. Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 19, 2001 in New York City by Mary J. Blige, after eight previous nominations since 1986.

In 2002, Burke signed with Fat Possum Records and released the album, Don't Give Up on Me. The album became critically acclaimed and later resulted in Burke's first Grammy Award win. Burke later signed with Shout! Factory to release the album, Make Do With What You Got, which became another critically acclaimed success. In 2006, Burke returned to his country roots with the album, Nashville. In 2008, he received another Grammy nomination for the album, Like a Fire. That same year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Burke as #89 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In 2010, Burke came out with the Willie Mitchell-produced Nothing's Impossible for E1 Entertainment. Later in 2010, he released his final album, Hold on Tight, a collaboration album with De Dijk, a Dutch band.

A lifelong entrepreneur, Burke also owned a string of mortuaries and attended to a lifelong ministry from his home in Beverly Hills, California, up until his death in Amsterdam in 2010. Burke was married four times. In total Burke fathered at least 14 children (9 daughters and 5 sons), including at least two fathered outside any of his marriages. He had 7 step children, 90 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren at the time of his death
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It's a sad irony that in the 1980s and '90s, many of the great artists of soul and R&B suffered musically at the hands of those who professed to love them the most. After soul had dropped off the major-label radar in favor of hip-hop and new jack sounds, a number of smaller companies stepped forward to record veteran artists who were still giving their all on the road, but for every truly inspired release from labels such as Malaco, Bullseye, or Alligator, there were a dozen others which featured rote, generic production and arrangements which attempted to recapture the thrilling sound of soul's glory days without coming within driving distance of conjuring their ineffable magic. Solomon Burke was one of the greatest talents of '60s soul, whose strong, burnished voice resonated with a churchy fervor that could speak volumes about either triumph or hurt, but while he continued to record regularly through the '70s, '80s and '90s and always sounded splendid, the records themselves often weren't much to write home about, with Burke using his gifts to prop up second-rate material or re-record tunes he'd performed definitively in the past. So it's good news indeed to report that Burke's new album, Don't Give Up on Me, is nothing short of revelatory, a superb set which presents "the King of Rock and Soul" at the very top of his form. Singer and songwriter Joe Henry produced the set, and rather than trying to replicate the sound of a vintage Jerry Wexler session, he's taken a very different approach, going for a spare and open sound, with nothing but a subdued rhythm section, a guitar, and an organ (the latter played by Rudy Copeland, who performs the same honors at the church where Burke preaches) accompanying Burke on most of these 11 songs. Henry also put out a call for material worthy of Burke's gifts, and a number of his better-known fans responded, including Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Brian Wilson, and Nick Lowe, all of whom contributed songs to the project. But for all the songwriting starpower on deck, the focus is squarely on Solomon Burke throughout, and he proves he's lost none of the power, force, or dramatic intensity of his glory days. Henry's low-key production captures the nooks and crannies of Burke's voice, and he delivers a performance worthy of a great actor on each cut, from the deep soul of "Don't Give Up on Me" and the blues-based swagger of "Stepchild" to the inspired tall tales of "Diamond in Your Mind" and the near-operatic passion of "The Judgement." His voice is in superb shape, too, sounding no less powerful at age 66 than he did in his glory days, and with a depth of emotion and gift for phrasing that's only grown with the passage of time. In many ways, Don't Give Up on Me most closely resembles Johnny Cash's superb American Recordings, in that the spare simplicity of the album's presentation reveals the rich complexities of the singer's gifts as they've rarely been allowed in the past; while it's a very different kettle of fish from his classic sides for Atlantic in the 1960s, Don't Give up on Me leaves no doubt that Solomon Burke is still one of the finest voices of his time, and anyone who has ever been moved by the power of soul music needs to hear this album.

Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up On Me    (flac  277mb)

01 Don't Give Up On Me 3:45
02 Fast Train 5:43
03 Diamond In Your Mind 4:24
04 Flesh And Blood 6:07
05 Soul Searchin' 3:59
06 Only A Dream 5:09
07 The Judgement 3:30
08 Stepchild 5:10
09 The Other Side Of The Coin 3:46
10 None Of Us Are Free 5:29
11 Sit This One Out 4:33

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One of the great pleasures of Solomon Burke's 2002 "comeback" album, Don't Give Up on Me (Burke never really went away, but this time around folks were paying attention), was the fact it was so unexpected -- instead of trying to replicate the sound and feeling of the records Burke made in the 1960s, producer Joe Henry conjured up a warm but skeletal backdrop which allowed the once and future King of Rock 'n' Soul to dig into the heart of the songs (contributed by the likes of Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and Brian Wilson) in a manner unlike anything he'd done before. Conversely, the greatest disappointment of Burke's next "big-league" album, 2005's Make Do With What You Got, is that it sounds almost exactly the way you'd expect it to. The spare approach of Don't Give Up on Me has been abandoned in favor of a high-gloss production from Don Was, and Was has set up a bombastic soul session replete with horns, massed keyboards, and big vocal choruses, but while the accompaniment is strong, professional, and occasionally even enthusiastic (where has Ray Parker, Jr. been hiding his razor-sharp guitar skills for the past two decades?), Make Do With What You Got sounds like an overly anxious attempt to re-create the sound of vintage R&B sides that gets the surfaces right but never quite captures the heart and soul of the music. Of course, Was' overly slick production and the less impressive set list does nothing to hold back Solomon Burke -- his performances are typically superb, and he gives this album enough soul power to fuel a small city for a month, even bringing chestnuts like "It Makes No Difference" and "I've Got the Blues" to vivid and passionate life that's thrilling to hear. No one can sing a song quite Solomon Burke, and that's what makes Make Do With What You Got worth a listen; unfortunately, lots of people could have produced these sessions as well if not better than Don Was, and that's this album's Achilles' heel.

Solomon Burke - Make Do With What You Got    (flac 273mb)

01 My Babe 5:13
02 Good Rockin' Tonight 5:30
03 Sufferin' Mind 3:55
04 Letter From My Darling 5:00
05 Don't Deceive Me 3:35
06 Candy 4:10
07 Crawdad Hole 2:57
08 Along About Midnight 4:02
09 Pledging My Love 4:23
10 Lonesome Highway 4:50
11 Street Walking Woman 5:41
12 No Nights By Myself 7:10

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It's all but impossible to make a bad record with Solomon Burke; as a vocalist, the man is simply a force of nature, and all you have to do is point him in front of a microphone and let him do his stuff and you'll have something worth hearing. But coming up with accompaniment that's worthy of Burke's talents isn't quite as simple, and for a man who cut his teeth working with the likes of Jerry Wexler and Bert Berns, finding the right producer in this day and age is no simple matter. Nothing's Impossible teams Burke with another legend of Southern soul, the great producer, arranger, and songwriter Willie Mitchell (best-known for his work with Al Green) who had been after Burke to make an album with him for years. One listen to Nothing's Impossible confirms that Mitchell's instincts were right on the money; this music has just the right heft and texture for Burke, rich, strong, and gospel-influenced R&B that's sturdy enough to support Burke's earth-shaking vocals while giving the star of the show enough room to move comfortably. Mitchell's subtle, expressive use of strings and horns is very much in evidence here, and the rhythm section cuts a deep, implacable groove. The church has always been one of Burke's strongest vocal influences, and on Nothing's Impossible, Mitchell and his studio crew allow Burke to raise up as much Sunday morning fervor as he needs; on longer numbers like "Dreams" and "It Must Be Love," Burke stretches out like a preacher hitting a groove in front of a congregation, and hearing the King of Rock and Soul get the spirit is a remarkable thing. Burke and Mitchell contributed to the songwriting on these sessions, with both men bringing their A game, and though the notion of Burke covering Anne Murray's hit "You Needed Me" might sound dire, once you hear him do it, it's hard not to be awestruck at the way he brings the old warhorse to life. The sad irony of Nothing's Impossible is that after decades of trying to lure Solomon Burke into his studio, Burke showed up in time for what proved to be Willie Mitchell's final production project, as Mitchell succumbed to heart failure a few months before the album was released. But if this record is Willie Mitchell's final musical offering, Solomon Burke made certain that the man closed out his career on a high note; this is old-school R&B that's smart, passionate, and powerful, and proves the King of Rock and Soul still rules his kingdom with a sure hand.

Solomon Burke - Nothing's Impossible     (flac 292mb)

01 Oh What A Feeling 3:55
02 Everything About You 3:38
03 Dreams 6:15
04 Nothing's Impossible 3:18
05 It Must Be Love 5:02
06 You Needed Me 3:46
07 Say You Love Me Too 3:23
08 You're Not Alone 4:03
09 New Company 3:11
10 When You're Not Here 4:28
11 The Error Of My Ways 5:08
12 I'm Leavin' 3:32

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Of the great soul singers of the 1960s, Solomon Burke was one of the few whose talent and power to compelled an audience never dimmed with the passage of time; if the larger audience overlooked his music through much of the '70s and '80s, and he wasn't always paired with songwriters or producers who knew what to do with his instrument, Burke himself remained The King of Rock & Soul, an artist whose music spoke powerfully with heart and soul whenever he raised his voice. Burke's mighty voice was finally silenced by his passing in October 2010, but it should come as no great surprise that the last album he finished before his death confirmed he was in full command of his talents right up to the end. What is somewhat surprising are his collaborators on his final project. De Dijk, a veteran Dutch rock and R&B band, are little known in America but they're stars in the Netherlands, and they struck up a friendship with Burke when their paths crossed on tour in 2007. The 12 songs on Hold on Tight were adapted from tunes in De Dijk's back catalog, with Burke helping to translate the lyrics into English, and lead singer Huub van der Lubbe moving over to acoustic guitar for the duration of the sessions. The strength of Burke's performance is not unexpected, but De Dijk turned out to be an inspired musical match: the band's robust fusion of classic soul and bluesy hard rock swings hard and Burke's vocals roll right along with them, filling in the spaces in the arrangements and adding a powerful shot of gospel-inspired fervor to the swagger of the guitars and horns. The melodies are clearly influenced by the structures of classic soul with an added energetic punch, and if the sound is something different from the stuff of Burke's heyday, it's close enough to give him the right platform for his declamatory style. Also, the musicians sound like a real band, intuitive and understanding the push and pull of the music, and Burke sounds like he's having a grand time working within their formula. Hold on Tight isn't revelatory like Burke's 2002 "comeback" set Don't Give Up on Me, or his 2006 pairing with Buddy Miller, Nashville, and it's not a latter-day soul masterpiece like his collaboration with Willie Mitchell, 2010's Nothing's Impossible. But it's a stronger and more satisfying piece of work than most of his other post-millennial albums, and it's the closest thing he managed to a truly effective rock & roll collaboration; it's an impressive finale to a genuinely remarkable career.

Solomon Burke and De Dijk - Hold On Tight   (flac 370mb)

01 Hold On Tight 5:27
02 My Rose Saved From The Street 3:35
03 What A Woman 3:22
04 No One 5:24
05 More Beauty 3:49
06 I Gotta Be With You 4:29
07 Seventh Heaven 4:58
08 Good For Nothing 5:03
09 Text Me 4:50
10 Don't Despair 5:15
11 The Bend 5:00
12 Perfect Song 3:30

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