Bobby Womack

One of the greatest soul singers of all time, Bobby Womack channelled emotions from his turbulent personal life into his music. • The Cleveland native was originally a member of the sibling gospel quintet the Womack Brothers. The group was discovered by Sam Cooke, who signed them to his SAR Records label in 1961 and changed their name to The Valentinos. • Encouraged by Cooke to record secular music, The Valentinos scored a Top 10 R&B hit with their 1962 single “Lookin’ For a Love”. In 1964, the Rolling Stones went to No. 1 in the UK with their cover of the group’s “It’s All Over Now”, penned by Bobby. • After Cooke’s tragic death in 1964, Womack pivoted to a solo career. But after marrying Cooke’s widow, Barbara, just three months after her husband’s death, Womack was blackballed by the music industry. • Womack found work as a session musician, playing guitar for artists like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett. His 1969 debut solo album, Fly Me to the Moon, yielded a pair of Top 20 R&B hits. • His third solo album, 1971’s Communication, spawned the hit “That’s the Way I Feel About ‘Cha”. The single reached No. 2 on the R&B charts and became Womack’s first Top 40 pop hit. • Hit hard by the deaths of his brother in 1974 and infant son in 1978, Womack briefly stepped back from music. He reached the top of Billboard’s R&B albums chart with 1981’s The Poet, featuring the Top 5 R&B hit “If You Think You’re Lonely Now”. • Womack was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. • He appeared alongside Mos Def on the 2010 Gorillaz single “Stylo”. Gorillaz musical mastermind Damon Albarn co-produced Womack’s 2012 late-career triumph The Bravest Man in the Universe, the final studio album released in his lifetime. • Following a series of health complications, Womack died in 2014. He was 70.