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
Similar artists
-
Poet Of The Blues
Blues - Released by Specialty Records on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weakness is a Thing Called Man
R&B - Released by RCA - Legacy on 1 Nov 1970
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Percy Mayfield At His Best
Soul - Released by StreamWorld Entertainment Classics on 14 Apr 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 22 Sep 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Memory Pain, Vol. 2
Blues - Released by Craft Recordings on 1 Jan 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Percy Mayfield Live
Soul - Released by Winner Records on 1 Aug 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
-
The Singles Collection 1947-62
Soul - Released by ACROBAT on 12 Jul 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Specialty Profiles: Percy Mayfield
R&B - Released by Concord Records on 1 Jan 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classics: 1951-1954
Blues - Released by Classics Blues & Rhythm Series on 4 Aug 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Nightless Lover
Soul - Released by Yeah Mama Records on 7 Sep 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Voice Within: Singles 1950-55 (Remastered)
Soul - Released by RevOla on 21 May 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Anthology: The Deluxe Collection (Remastered)
R&B - Released by Master Tape Records on 25 Sep 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Ultimate Collection
Soul - Released by Burning Fire on 16 Nov 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Please Send Me Someone to Love
Pop - Released by Black Sheep Music on 16 Aug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blue Me Away (Live from San Francisco)
Blues - Released by StarPointe Records on 27 Apr 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blues on the Road
Soul - Released by Soul Classics on 29 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
1947-1951
Blues - Released by Classics Blues & Rhythm Series on 4 Aug 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo