Percy Mayfield
A masterful songwriter whose touching blues ballad "Please Send Me Someone to Love," a multi-layered universal lament, was a number one R&B hit in 1950, Percy Mayfield had the world by the tail until a horrific 1952 auto wreck left him facially disfigured. That didn't stop the poet laureate of the blues from writing in a prolific fashion, though. As Ray Charles' favorite scribe during the '60s, he handed the Genius such gems as "Hit the Road Jack" and "At the Club."
Like so many of his postwar L.A. contemporaries, Mayfield got his musical start in Texas but moved to the coast during the war. Surmising that Jimmy Witherspoon might like to perform a tune he'd penned called "Two Years of Torture," Mayfield targeted Supreme Records as a possible buyer for his song. But the bosses at Supreme liked his own gentle reading so much that they insisted he wax it himself in 1947 with an all-star band that included saxophonist Maxwell Davis, guitarist Chuck Norris, and pianist Willard McDaniel.
Art Rupe's Specialty logo signed Mayfield in 1950 and he scored a solid string of R&B smashes over the next couple of years. "Please Send Me Someone to Love" and its equally potent flip "Strange Things Happening" were followed in the charts by "Lost Love," "What a Fool I Was," "Prayin' for Your Return," "Cry Baby," and "Big Question," cementing Mayfield's reputation as a blues balladeer of the highest order. Davis handled sax duties on most of Mayfield's Specialty sides as well. Mayfield's lyrics were usually as insightfully downbeat as his tempos; he was a true master at expressing his innermost feelings, laced with vulnerability and pathos (his "Life Is Suicide" and "The River's Invitation" are two prime examples).
Even though his touring was drastically curtailed after the accident, Mayfield hung in there as a Specialty artist through 1954, switching to Chess in 1955-1956 and Imperial in 1959. Charles proved thankful enough for Mayfield's songwriting genius to sign him to his Tangerine logo in 1962; over the next five years, the singer waxed a series of inexorably classy outings, many with Brother Ray's band (notably "My Jug and I" in 1964 and "Give Me Time to Explain" the next year). It's a rare veteran blues artist indeed who hasn't taken a whack at one or more Mayfield copyrights. Mayfield himself persisted into the '70s, scoring minor chart items for RCA and Atlantic while performing on a limited basis until his 1984 death.
© Bill Dahl /TiVo
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Discography
18 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Poet Of The Blues
Blues - Released by Specialty Records on Jan 1, 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weakness is a Thing Called Man
R&B - Released by RCA - Legacy on Nov 1, 1970
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Percy Mayfield At His Best
Soul - Released by StreamWorld Entertainment Classics on Apr 14, 1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hit the Road Again
Phillip Walker Blues Band, Percy Mayfield
Jazz - Released by Timeless Records on Sep 22, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Memory Pain, Vol. 2
Blues - Released by Craft Recordings on Jan 1, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Percy Mayfield Live
Soul - Released by Winner Records on Aug 1, 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Someone to Love
Soul - Released by Bringins Music on Feb 4, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Voice Within: Singles 1950-55 (Remastered)
Soul - Released by RevOla on May 21, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blue Me Away (Live from San Francisco)
Blues - Released by StarPointe Records on Apr 27, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tonight Only - Percy Mayfield - Poet Laureate of the Blues
Blues - Released by Quicksilver Records on Dec 5, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Percy Mayfield Live in San Francisco (Live)
Soul - Released by Westmill on Sep 30, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Please Send Me Someone To Love
Blues - Released by Vanilla OMP on Dec 6, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live in San Francisco
R&B - Released by Good Time Records on Dec 16, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Look the Whole World over / The Bluest Blues
Blues - Released by Cash Records on Oct 30, 1956
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Half Awoke / Two Years of Torture
Blues - Released by Recorded In Hollywood on Oct 25, 1949
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -