Joe Tex
Joe Tex made the first Southern soul record that also hit on the pop charts ("Hold What You've Got," 1965, number five Billboard). His raspy-voiced, jackleg preacher style also laid some of the most important parts of rap's foundation. He is, arguably, the most underrated of all the '60s soul performers associated with Atlantic Records, although his records were more likely than those of most soul stars to become crossover hits.
Tex was born Joseph Arrington in Rogers, Texas, in 1935, and displayed his vocal talent early on, first in gospel, then in R&B. By 1954, he'd won a local talent contest and come to New York, where he recorded a variety of derivative (and endlessly repackaged) singles for King, some as a ballad singer, some as a Little Richard-style rocker.
Tex's career didn't take off until he began his association with Nashville song publisher Buddy Killen after Tex wrote James Brown's 1961 song "Baby You're Right." In 1965, Killen took him to Muscle Shoals, not yet a fashionable recording center, and they came up with "Hold What You've Got," which is about as close to a straight R&B ballad as Tex ever came. It was followed by many more, most of which made the R&B charts, a few cracking the pop Top 40.
Tex made his mark by preaching over tough hard soul tracks, clowning at some points, swooping into a croon at others. He was perhaps the most rustic and back-country of the soul stars, a role he played to the hilt by using turns of phrase that might have been heard on any ghetto street corner, "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" the prototype. In 1966, his "I Believe I'm Gonna Make It," an imaginary letter home from Vietnam, became the first big hit directly associated with that war. His biggest hit was "Skinny Legs and All," from a 1967 live album, his rapping pure hokum over deeply funky riffs. "Skinny Legs" might have served as a template for all the raucous, ribald hip-hop hits of pop's future.
After "Skinny Legs," Tex had nothing but minor hits for five years until "I Gotcha" took off, a grittier twist on the funk that was becoming disco. He was too down-home for the slickness of the disco era, or so it would have seemed, yet in 1977, he adapted a dance craze, the Bump, and came up with the hilarious "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)," his last Top Ten R&B hit, which also crossed over to number 12 on the pop chart.
In the early '70s, Tex converted to Islam and in 1972 changed his offstage name to Joseph Hazziez. He spent much of the time after "Ain't Gonna Bump" on his Texas farm, although he did join with Wilson Pickett, Ben E. King, and Don Covay for a re-formed version of the Soul Clan in 1980. He died of a heart attack in 1982, only 49 years old. Killen, King, Covay, Pickett, and the great songwriter Percy Mayfield served as pallbearers.
© Dave Marsh /TiVo
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The Hits
Rock - Released by Hickory - Sony ATV - RSM - RED on 6 Sep 2011
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He Who Is Without Funk Cast the First Stone
Funk - Released by Stone Music Family, LLC on 1 Jan 1979
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The Funk Collection: Vol. 1
Soul - Released by Hickory Records (2009 Deal) on 11 Nov 2013
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The Very Best of, Volume 2.
Soul - Released by Sony ATV on 1 Jan 1969
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The Very Best of, Volume 1
Soul - Released by Sony ATV on 1 Jan 1965
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Live and Lively/Soul Country
R&B - Released by Shout on 21 May 2002
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Skinny Legs And All
Soul - Released by Blaricum CD Company (B.C.D.) B.V. on 1 Jan 2009
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The Funk Collection: Vol. 2
Soul - Released by Hickory Records (2009 Deal) on 19 Nov 2013
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Soul Masters: Hold What You've Got
R&B - Released by Carinco AG on 16 Dec 2005
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The Funk Collection: Vol. 3
Soul - Released by Hickory Records (2009 Deal) on 19 Nov 2013
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Ain't Gonna Bump No More
Miscellaneous - Released by Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group on 11 Oct 2011
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Soul Masters: A Sweet Woman Like You
R&B - Released by Carinco AG on 15 Dec 2005
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Hold On! It's Joe Tex
Soul - Released by Perennial on 1 Jan 2000
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Snapshot: Joe Tex
R&B - Released by Hickory - Sony ATV - RSM - RED on 27 Oct 2014
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The Funk Collection: Vol. 4
Soul - Released by Hickory Records (2009 Deal) on 19 Nov 2013
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Anthology: The Deluxe Collection (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Master Tape Records on 9 Oct 2020
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