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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Joe Tex Soul Legends
Soul - Editado por StreamWorld Entertainment Classics el 5 ago. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Joe Tex - The Blues Legends
Blues - Editado por Golden Arrow el 6 nov. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joe Tex - Just You & Me
Country - Editado por Westmill el 25 mar. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Another Man's Woman
R&B - Editado por Real Rhythm And Blues Records el 29 jul. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Want To Have A Talk With You
R&B - Editado por Real Rhythm And Blues Records el 5 may. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cut It Out
Blues - Editado por Blooming Jazz Records el 6 ene. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Feliz Navidad y próspero Año Nuevo de Joe Tex
R&B - Editado por Amamos la navidad el 23 oct. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Open the Door, Vol. 1
Soul - Editado por Supreme Media el 1 ene. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joe Tex - A Collection of Great Songs
Blues - Editado por First Mile Recordings el 11 dic. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Open the Door, Vol. 2
Soul - Editado por Supreme Media el 1 ene. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
What Should I Do?
R&B - Editado por Real Rhythm And Blues Records el 11 abr. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pneumonia
Blues - Editado por Blooming Jazz Records el 6 ene. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Boys Will Be Boys
Soul - Editado por Vantage Music el 10 oct. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Boys Will Be Boys
Soul - Editado por Heaven And Earth Music el 10 oct. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Get Way Back
R&B - Editado por Milestones Records el 21 dic. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo