Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Lou Rawls was born Louis Allen Rawls on December 1, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. Raised on the South side he began singing in church at age seven, and then started singing with local groups where he met Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield.

After graduating from Dunbar Vocational High School he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony followed by a stint with the Holy Wonders. He replaced Cooke in the Highway QC’s when Cooke went to the Soul Stirrers. He was recruited by the Chosen Gospel Singers, moved to Los Angeles and was subsequently joined the Pilgrim Travelers.

After serving in the Army he returned to the Travelers touring the South with Sam Cooke, was in a serious crash and off the music scene for a year. He returned to perform at the Hollywood Bowl, signed with Capitol Records, released his first jazz album Stormy Monday in 1962 and four years later opened for The Beatles in Cincinnati. His Live album went gold but it wasn’t until Love Is A Hurtin’ Thing winning his first Grammy Award for Dead End Street.

He would go on to co-host the Dean Martin Show, performed at the Monterey Pop Festival, left Capitol for MGM, then Bell and finally settling in at Philadelphia International Records, releasing his gold album All Things In Time that featured “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”, followed by a string of albums.

Over the course of his career he would act in motion pictures and on television, voiced-over cartoons and animated television series, receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1982, perform the national anthem at the Ernie Shavers-Muhammad Ali fight and several the World Series, and would start the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon in 1980 raising over $200 million in 27 years for the United Negro College Fund.

Lou Rawls, jazz, soul and blues singer known for his smooth vocal style, once lauded by Frank Sinatra as having “the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game”, passed away from cancer on January 6, 2006.


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