Jerry Butler

Jerry Butler ( born December 8, 1939 in Sunflower, Mississippi) is an American soul singer and songwriter. He was mainly successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Since 1985 he is active as a politician.

Biography

Butler initially grew up in Sunflower, then his family moved in 1943 to Chicago. As a member of a church choir he first came into contact with singing. There he met Curtis Mayfield, with whom he later worked on for years. Both belonged to the founders in 1957 of the rhythm-and - blues vocal group The Roosters, which renamed itself in 1958 in The Impressions. Their first single contained the texted from Buttler at the age of 16 years Title For Your Precious Love, which was released by the record label Vee -Jay with Jerry Butler and The Impressions with the catalog number 280. The title was successful, could ascend into the R & B charts in 1958 to 3rd place and was later awarded with the Golden Record.

In 1960, Butler the Impressions after he had released solo albums as early as 1959. This appeared first under the Abner label, a subsidiary of Vee -Jay. The first solo single containing the title Lost / One By One and appeared in the catalog no. Abner 1024. Two of the titles published by Abner, Lost and Lonely Soldier A could be placed back in the R & B charts ( 17, 25 ). In the course of 1960, Butler was taken by Vee -Jay, where he brought out about 30 single plates until 1965. Eight of them were listed on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the R & B charts in the Top 50. He Will Break Your Heart (1960) and Let It Be Me (1964, duet with Betty Everett ) were No. 1 hits on the R & B charts.

1966 Butler moved to Chicago record label Mercury Records. There, too, he had two R & B number - one hits with Hey, Western Union Man ( 1968) and Only the Strong Survive (1969). While he was until 1972 also regularly represented on the Billboard Hot 100, it was then, with the exception of Title I Wanna Do It to You ( 1977, # 51) listed only in the R & B charts, but this until 1982. According to over 30 single releases took Butler again a change of record company before and joined in 1976 the Motown label in Los Angeles. There, however, there were only four solo singles and two duet boards with Smokey Robinson and Thelma Houston, of which only the titles I Wanna Do It to You and Chalk It Up at the R & B charts were successful (seats 7 and 28). From 1978 to 1980, some singles were released on Philadelphia International Records, of which only the 1978 title Cooling Out has had some success (# 14 R & B). In 1980 the title Do not Be in Iceland, which made ​​reference to Butler's now acquired synonym "The Isman ," which he had acquired because of its supercooled occurrence.

After his success text 1958 Butler was still successful as an author. At almost all sung by him hits he was involved as a songwriter. He had his greatest success author with the title He Do not Love You, which reached 1975 sung by Tony Orlando & Dawn # 1 on the Hot 100. In 1999, Jerry Butler drew Was That All It Was sung by Hannah Jones, the poster for the Hot Dance No. 5 titles.

Even after the turn of the millennium Jerry Butler appeared still in nightclubs, concerts and music festivals. He was nominated three times for a Grammy for singing and composition, 1991, he was received with the Impressions in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ( ASCAP ) awarded him several times as a song writer from Billboard magazine he received two awards as a writer and singer.

After he had operated a beer publishing since 1973 in addition to his artistic activity to Butler engaged since 1985 in local politics of Cook County, Illinois, as an elected Commissioner in charge of prisoners and health care. A post he held in 2010 and was longest-standing commissioner of Cook County.

Top 50 in the U.S. charts

U.S. LP Discography

Compact Disk

His Best ( Neon 34536, 2000) Track: 1 He Will Break Your Heart, 2nd For Your Precious Love, Let It Be Be 3, 4 Moon River 5 Come Back My Love, Lost 6, 7, Find Another Girl, 8 I ' m A- Telling You, Make It Easy on Yourself 9, 10 You Can Run 11 Whatever You Want 12 Need to Belong 13 Giving Up on Love 14 I Stand Accused, 15 Smile, 16. Good Times, 17 A Lonely Soldier 18 For Your Precious love (re -cut)