Joe Simon (musician)
Encyclopedia
Joe Simon is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 chart-topping, Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 winning, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

. Amongst other chart singles, Simon secured three number one hits on the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

R&B
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

 chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

 between 1969 and 1975.

Career

Simon was born in Simmesport
Simmesport, Louisiana
Simmesport is a town in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,239 at the 2000 census.During the American Civil War, Union General Nathaniel P. Banks was superseded in command by E.R.S. Canby. General Ulysses S. Grant had sought Banks' removal for months, but U.S....

, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Similar to many other African-American artists from the era, Simon began singing in his father's Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 church. He pursued his vocal
Human voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...

 abilities full-time once the family moved to Richmond
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...

 (near Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

) in the late 1950s. There Simon joined the Golden West Gospel Singers and became influenced by Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...

 and Arthur Prysock
Arthur Prysock
Arthur Prysock was an American jazz singer best known for his live shows and his baritone influenced by Billy Eckstine....

. With this, the group decided to turn secular and recorded "Little Island Girl" as the Golden Tones in 1959.

Hush Records
Hush Records
-Background:Crouch, frontman of the band Blanket Music, organized Hush Records in 1997, when he self-released a solo record called Portland, Or. The following year, Crouch bought a CD burner and began recording and distributing music by Mike Johnson , Jeff London, and Ben Barnett to record stores...

 label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 owners Gary and Carla Thompson urged Simon to record
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

 on his own, and in 1964 Simon scored considerable success on the Vee-Jay
Vee-Jay Records
Vee-Jay Records is a record label founded in the 1950s, specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. It was owned and operated by African Americans.-History:...

 label with "My Adorable One". Simon scored again in 1965 on the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 based label with "Let's Do It Over", which landed a #13 spot on the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

R&B
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

 chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

. However, the Vee-Jay label folded soon after the latter song's release and Simon found himself traveling across the country singing.

Simon caught the eye of Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 R&B disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

 John Richbourg
John R.
John R. was an American radio disc jockey who attained fame in the 1950s and 1960s for playing rhythm and blues music on Nashville radio station WLAC...

 during this time, and Richbourg not only became Simon's manager
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...

/record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 but also brought the singer to Monument Records
Monument Records
Monument Records was an American record label, Washington, D.C. named for the Washington Monument, founded in 1958, by Fred Foster and Buddy Deane . Buddy Deane soon left the company, and in the early 60's bought KOTN in Pine Bluff, Arkansas where he retired to until his death...

' subsidiary label Sound Stage 7
Sound Stage 7
Sound Stage 7 was an American, Nashville, Tennessee based record label of the 1960s and 1970s, noted mainly for its soul music releases. The label's biggest star was Joe Simon, who placed numerous singles on the U.S...

 in 1966. That year Simon released "Teenager's Prayer", which peaked at #11 on Billboard's R&B chart. Within the next two years, Simon released a string of hits: "(You Keep Me) Hanging On", "The Chokin' Kind
The Chokin' Kind
The Chokin' Kind is a 1969 R&B single by Joe Simon, written by Harlan Howard. The single became Joe Simon's first number one on the R&B charts, where it stayed for three weeks. "The Chokin' Kind" was also Joe Simon's first top twenty entry on the pop singles chart. . It was also recorded by...

" (Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 #13), "Farther On Down The Road", and "Yours Love". "The Chokin' Kind" was written by Harlan Howard
Harlan Howard
Harlan Perry Howard was a prolific American songwriter, principally in country music. In a career spanning six decades, Howard wrote a large number of popular and enduring songs, recorded by a variety of different artists...

, spent 12 weeks in the charts, and had sold one million copies by 16 June 1969. In addition, Simon was given a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 in 1970
Grammy Awards of 1970
The 12th Grammy Awards were held on March 11, 1970. They recognized accomplishments of musicians for the year 1969.-Award winners:*Record of the Year**Bones Howe & The 5th Dimension for "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In"*Album of the Year...

 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance was awarded between 1968 and 2011. The award has had several minor name changes:*In 1968 it was awarded as Best R&B Solo Vocal Performance, Male...

.

Under the encouragement of Richbourg, Simon moved to the Polydor
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...

 distributed Spring Records label in 1970, which paired Simon with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. The team scored a #3 R&B hit in 1971 with "Drowning In The Sea of Love" and a #1 R&B hit in the summer of 1972 with "Power Of Love". Both songs reached #11 on the Hot 100. "Drowning In The Sea of Love" sold over 1.5 million copies and the R.I.A.A.
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...

 on 6 January 1972 gave a gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...

. "Power of Love", written by Gamble, Huff and Simon was Simon's third million seller, and the R.I.A.A. awarded gold disc status on 29 August 1972.

Simon continued to release R&B hits with "Pool Of Bad Luck", "Trouble In My Home", "Step By Step", "I Need You, You Need Me", "Music In My Bones", "Carry Me", and 1975's "Get Down, Get Down (Get On The Floor)", which gave Simon his third #1 R&B hit, and also a #8 Hot 100 hit. Simon's success escalated with his writing
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

/producing the theme tune for the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, Cleopatra Jones
Cleopatra Jones
-Plot:Cleopatra Jones is a strikingly beautiful black model with an array of flamboyant outfits. Modeling, however, is only a cover for her real job as a secret government agent. Jones is a Bond-like heroine with power and influence; an object of awe for her flashy wardrobe, her ’73 silver and...

in 1973.

In the late 1970s/early 1980s, Simon decided to remove his tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

/bass-baritone
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...

 voice from the secular music world and devote it and his life to Christianity. Simon began evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....

 preaching in Flossmoor
Flossmoor, Illinois
Flossmoor is a village in south suburban Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 9,464 at the 2010 census.The village is renowned for the quality and architectural variety of its housing stock, as well as its proximity to numerous country clubs. It prides itself on being a...

, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. In 1983, he produced the album Lay My Burden Down for former Davis Sisters second lead Jackie Verdell
Jackie Verdell
Jackie Verdell was an American gospel singer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Musical career:After leaving high school, she joined the The Davis Sisters in 1955, at the start of their tenure with Herman Lubinsky and Ozzie Cadena's record label Savoy Records of Newark, New Jersey...

. Simon released a gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

 album titled This Story Must Be Told in the late 1990s.

In 1999 Simon was inducted as a Pioneer Award honoree by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation
Rhythm and Blues Foundation
The Rhythm and Blues Foundation is an independent American nonprofit organization dedicated to the historical and cultural preservation of rhythm and blues music....

. Joss Stone
Joss Stone
Jocelyn Eve Stoker , better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer-songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist...

 covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 "The Chokin' Kind" on her 2003 album, The Soul Sessions
The Soul Sessions
The Soul Sessions is the debut album by English recording artist Joss Stone. It was released in the United Kingdom on 24 November 2003 by Relentless Records...

.

Simon has had a number of his songs sampled
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

 by other artists, including OutKast
OutKast
Outkast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, consisting of Atlanta native André "André 3000" Benjamin and Savannah, Georgia-born Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. They were originally known as Two Shades Deep but later changed the group's name to OutKast...

, who sampled "Before the Night is Over" in their hit "So Fresh, So Clean
So Fresh, So Clean
"So Fresh, So Clean" is the third and final single to be released from Outkast's fourth studio album, Stankonia. It was produced by longtime collaborators Organized Noize. The music video features the duo and Sleepy Brown performing on a variety of CGI backgrounds, a beauty parlor, and a church...

" and Lil' Kim
Lil' Kim
Kimberly Denise Jones , better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper and actress who was a member of the group Junior M.A.F.I.A.....

, who sampled Simon's "It Be's That Way Sometimes" in "Magic Stick
Magic Stick
"Magic Stick" is a hip hop song performed by rapper Lil' Kim, written by the featuring rapper 50 Cent . It was produced by Carlos "Fantom of the Beat" Evans for her third studio album La Bella Mafia .-Background:The song was originally written for 50 Cent's album Get Rich or Die Tryin as a duet...

", featuring 50 Cent
50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III , better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin and The Massacre . Get Rich or Die Tryin has been certified eight times platinum by...

. Memphis Bleek
Memphis Bleek
Malik Thuston Patrick Cox , better known by his rap persona of Memphis Bleek or "Bleek", is a New York rapper mainly known for his tenure with Roc-a-Fella Records and CEO of his own label Get Low Records...

 sampled Simon's "Trace Your Love" for his track "Alright" on the 2005 534
534 (album)
-Samples:"534"* "London, Paris, New York" written by Graham Preskett"Interlude"* "Summer Song" Performed by Lisa Koch"Dear Summer"* "Morning Sunrise" performed by Weldon Irvine"Like That"* "Everybody Plays The Fool" by The Main Ingredient...

album.

Singles

Year Song title U.S.
Pop
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 
R&B
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

Canada UK
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

1964 "My Adorable One" 102 - - -
1965 "Let's Do It Over" - 13 - -
1966 "Teenager's Prayer" 66 11 73 -
1967 "My Special Prayer" 87 17 - -
1967 "Put Your Trust In Me" 129 47 - -
1967 "Nine Pound Steel" 70 19 - -
1968 "No Sad Songs" 49 22 - -
1968 "(You Keep Me) Hangin' On" 25 11 48 -
1968 "Message From Maria" 75 31 83 -
1968 "I Worry About You" 98 - - -
1968 "Looking Back" 70 42 - -
1969 "The Chokin' Kind" 13 1 17 -
1969 "Baby, Don't Be Looking In My Mind" 72 16 48 -
1969 "It's Hard To Get Along" 87 26 86 -
1969 "San Francisco Is A Lonely Town" 79 29 - -
1969 "Moon Walk Part 1" 54 11 27 -
1970 "Farther On Down The Road" 56 7 66 -
1970 "Yours Love" 78 10 - -
1970 "That's The Way I Want Our Love" 93 27 - -
1970 "Your Time To Cry" 40 3 39 -
1971 "Help Me Make It Through The Night" 69 13 - -
1971 "To Lay Down Beside You" 113 - - -
1971 "You're The One For Me" 71 12 - -
1971 "Georgia Blue" - 19 - -
1971 "All My Hard Times" 93 26 - -
1972 "Drowning In The Sea Of Love" 11 3 50 -
1972 "Pool Of Bad Luck" 42 13 - -
1972 "Power Of Love" 11 1 - -
1972 "Misty Blue" 91 - - -
1972 "Trouble In My Home" 50 5 - -
1972 "I Found My Dad" 78 15 - -
1973 "Step By Step" 37 6 73 14
1973 "Theme From Cleopatra Jones" 18 3 - -
1973 "River" 62 6 - -
1974 "Carry Me" - 12 - -
1974 "The Best Time Of My Life" - 15 - -
1975 "Get Down, Get Down (Get On The Floor)" 8 1 15 -
1975 "Music In My Bones" 92 7 - -
1975 "I Need You, You Need Me" - 5 98 -
1976 "Come Get To This" 102 22 - -
1977 "Easy to Love" - 12 - -
1977 "You Didn't Have to Play No Games" - 62 - -
1977 "One Step At A Time" - 28 - -
1978 "For Your Love, Love, Love" - 27 - -
1978 "I.O.U." - 71 - -
1978 "Love Vibration" - 15 - -
1979 "Going Through These Changes" - 78 - -
1979 "I Wanna Taste Your Love" - 87 - -
1980 "Baby, When Love Is In Your Heart (It's In Your Eyes)" - 60 - -
1980 "Glad You Came My Way" - 43 - -
1981 "Are We Breaking Up" - 52 - -

See also


External links

  • [ Allmusic.com discography]
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