Womack's voice is silenced
Bobby Womack, a prolific gospel-soul singer who also wrote songs recorded by the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, George Benson and others, died Friday. He was 70.
The streetwise vocalist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 was mentored by Sam Cooke and played alongside Elvis Presley, Sly Stone and Damon Albarn throughout his storied career. “It’s All Over Now,” a bitter kiss-off Womack wrote and sang in a passionately gravelly voice on a recording by his group the Valentinos, became a No. 1 hit for the Rolling Stones in 1964.
Born Robert Dwayne Womack on March 4, 1944, in Cleveland, Womack began his career singing with his four brothers on the gospel circuit in the 1950s, initially known as the Womack Brothers. Womack was 10 when he started making records.
The act was eventually noticed by Cooke. The rhythm and blues legend behind the topical “A Change Is Gonna Come” signed the Womack siblings to his label, SAR Records, in 1960, and changed the act’s name to the Valentinos. Womack’s career as an in-demand session musician began when he was drafted to play guitar in Cooke’s band, but his career was also marked by turbulence.
Shortly after Cooke was shot and killed in Los Angeles in 1964, Womack married his widow, Barbara, considered a scandal by some in the business. But his influence also started spanning soul and pop, and Womack worked alongside Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Ray Charles and others. During the ’70s, Womack hit a groove as a songwriter and collaborator.
