Bobby Womack

Bobby Womack (born March 4, 1944, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.—died June 27, 2014, Tarzana, California) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose soulful compositions and accomplished musicianship made him one of the most highly regarded rhythm-and-blues (R&B) performers of the late 20th century.

Womack grew up in Cleveland as one of five brothers. When they were children, their father, a steelworker and amateur singer, organized them into a gospel vocal group called the Womack Brothers. In 1953 the group opened for the gospel act the Soul Stirrers and impressed one of its members, Sam Cooke. After Cooke transitioned to secular pop music, he persuaded the Womacks to do the same. Signed to Cooke’s record label under the name the Valentinos, the quintet, with Bobby as lead vocalist, scored modest R&B hits with the rough-hewn “Lookin’ for a Love” (1962) and “It’s All Over Now” (1964). The latter song, cowritten by Bobby, gained further exposure through a contemporaneous cover version by the Rolling Stones.

Following Cooke’s sudden death in 1964, Womack attempted a solo career, but it faltered amid widespread disapproval of his having married Cooke’s widow in early 1965. (They divorced in 1971.) For a time he engaged work as a session guitarist, playing on classic records by such artists as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. He also wrote songs for other performers, especially soul singer Wilson Pickett.

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Womack eventually debuted as a solo performer with the album Fly Me to the Moon (1968), featuring a gritty interpretation of the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’.” He refined his sound, which integrated deeply felt vocals and lean guitar work, on the albums Communication (1971) and Understanding (1972). Those and subsequent recordings proved popular primarily with R&B audiences, although some of Womack’s singles, such as the plaintive “That’s the Way I Feel About Cha” (1971) and a rerecorded “Lookin’ for a Love” (1974), broke through to the mainstream as well. During this period Womack also contributed a song score for the blaxploitation film Across 110th Street (1972)—its soul-funk title track later became one of his best-known cuts—and he played guitar on albums by rockers Janis Joplin and Sly and the Family Stone.

Personal issues, including drug addiction, derailed Womack’s career in the mid-1970s, but he rebounded with the hit albums The Poet (1981) and The Poet II (1984), the latter of which featured several duets with R&B songstress Patti LaBelle. Adhering for the most part to a traditional soul style, he continued to record throughout the 1980s and ’90s, with notable releases including So Many Rivers (1985), the star-studded Resurrection (1994), and a gospel album, Back to My Roots (1999). After a break in the early 21st century, Womack returned with The Bravest Man in the Universe (2012), on which his weathered voice was accompanied by modern electronic beats. The album was coproduced by British musician Damon Albarn, who had previously hired Womack as a guest vocalist on two albums (both 2010) by his pop band Gorillaz.

A longtime friend of the Rolling Stones, Womack produced a 1975 solo album by future Stones guitarist Ron Wood and sang on the band’s Dirty Work (1986). An autobiography, Midnight Mover, was published in 2006, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.