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Brian in Mesa said:Singer Lou Rawls dies of lung cancer
Jan 6, 2006
By Arthur Spiegelman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Silken-voiced crooner Lou Rawls, whose career covered almost every form of black American music from gospel and blues to R&B, soul and jazz, died on Friday at age 72 after a battle with lung cancer, his spokesman said.
The pioneering crossover artist with silky voice and a four-octave range was known for such signature hits as "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine," "Lady Love" and "Love is a Hurtin' Thing." His 1960s "talking the song" style on some recordings was called pre-rap by critics.
He once said, "I've gone the full spectrum -- from gospel to blues to jazz to soul to pop and the public has accepted what I have done through it all. I think it means I have been doing something right at the right time."
Even Frank Sinatra was big fan and once said Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game."
Rawls died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, spokesman Paul Shefrin said. He quoted the singer's family as saying he was 72 years old but some reference books place his age at 70.
Rawls won three Grammy awards and 13 nominations in a career that lasted more than 40 years.
He made more than 60 albums, acted in 18 movies, including "Blues Brothers 2000" and "Leaving Las Vegas," and appeared in 16 television series, starting with a small role in "77 Sunset Strip."
Rawls received many honors during his lifetime including having a street named after him in Chicago.
Ill for more than a year with lung cancer that spread to his brain, Rawls recently filmed public service announcements for Hurricane Katrina relief. His last public performances were a series of three concerts he gave in San Diego in mid-November, Shefrin said.
In an interview last month with the Arizona Republic, Rawls was optimistic despite his cancer.
"Don't count me out, brother," he said. "There's been many people who have been diagnosed with this kind of thing and they're still jumpin' and pumpin'."
VERSATILE VOCALIST
Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, called Rawls one of the world's most versatile vocalists with "one of the most recognizable voices anywhere."
Rawls was born in Chicago's South Side and was raised by his grandmother, who insisted he sing in the choir at her Baptist church.
As a teenager he sang with several gospel groups and after a stint in the Army as a paratrooper, he joined the Pilgrim Travelers with Sam Cooke, a soul singer to whom he was often compared.
During one tour in the late 1950s, he was involved in a crash where he was pronounced dead but was actually in a coma that lasted for 5 1/2 months.
It took him more than a year to recuperate. When he recovered he switched to secular music, providing back-up on some of Cooke's seminal recordings and releasing a jazz album of his own called "Stormy Monday" in 1962.
His first full-fledged R&B album "Soulin"' in 1966 contained his first hit "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing."
In 1971, Rawls hit the Top 20 again with "Natural Man," a song whose theme was black pride.
Also in 1971, the readers of the jazz magazine Downbeat named him their favorite male vocalist, topping Sinatra, who was the usual winner.
Although he never went to college, Rawls became a major fund-raiser for the United Negro College Fund. He recalled that a woman once came up to him and said, "Thank you, you made my grandson the first college grad in our family."
RIP to groovy Lou. He was my grandmother's favorite singer.
