Jerry Butler C or D

I wish Fred still posted here.

"He Will Break Your Heart" = Curtis Mayfield wrote, produced, played guitar, sang harmony. Of a piece with the mid-1960s Impressions.

"Find Another Girl" = in a similar vein. In fact there are a whole slew of lovely Mayfield-produced tracks that are keepers.

"Make It Easy on Yourself" = template for the Walker Bros. hit., Bacharach-David emotional apocalypse

He also does a very credible version of "Moon River." That and the "Taras Bulba" are probably kitsch, but that's your hangup. "Theme from Exodus" is kitsch too but listen to what Jimmy Scott does with it.

Also: Butler also started a songwriting workshop in Chicago which produced some interesting '70s soul.

Veridict: utterly classic

I'll say it again he wasnt bum. He will always have a place in soul history for his singles and his " ice" albums. but we are talking about classic soul singers, the canon. Cooke, Gaye, green wonder, robinson, redding, ruffin, hathaway, mcphatter, carr and ( o.v) wright. And i will admit that the kitchy crap comment was a bit overboard. My point is that he's on that second tier of damm good soul men, like luther vandross, lenny williams, chuck jackson, alexander o'neal... each of the four had great moments, but not enough to be put in the level of the greatest of all time IMO.

Ps( is the workshop that you are talking about , the same one that had chuck stephney, the worlds most underrated soul arranger next to donny hathaway?"

And even had he recorded nothing else, "For Your Precious Love" alone would secure him a place in the soul pantheon. Classic.

You obviously know a lot more about this stuff than you let on in your initial post, and it turns out I basically agree with you. Jerry's tenure on Vee-Jay (before Gamble-Huff got a hold of him) is not really one of soul's big winning streaks despite several high points.

I sort of prefer the arrangement of Elvis's "Only the Strong Survive" to that of Jerry's. The vocals are about coequal, though.

And her crossover stuff was damm good too. The album she did with stevie was classic, So sensual, true babymaking music. And although the rest of her stuff might be a little erratic, I cant listen to her last two album with out crying. Like she knew she was gonna go and was tying emotional loose ends, and going out with class.

In fact there are a whole slew of lovely Mayfield-produced tracks that are keepers.

indeed! i'm having a jerry butler phase rn

my ears perked up at "theme from taras bulba", since i thought there might be a janáček connection. but no, of course that's not right. it's a film score by franz waxman (of "sunset boulevard" fame, for which he won an oscar) from a '62 american adaptation (of the n. gogol story) w/ yul brynner. i was curious if the waxman score had any relation to the janáček piece but i haven't been able to find anything, although this isn't the right thread for that anyway.

the hives covered "find yourself another girl" on one of the first CDs i ever owned, back in the era of the great millennial colour drought.

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPpWrwz3Iao

"Only the Strong Survive" is an all time banger

"He Will Break Your Heart" is too. RIP.

"Make It Easy On Yourself."

I believe Dionne Warwick got angry when Burt Bacharach gave that one to Jerry instead of her.

He had quite a solo career - IIRC the albums were generally good, particularly the ones owned by Mercury/UME.

Awww. Rip . Smooth, polished soul

RIP Iceman

Wow, I didn't pick up on this being about him dying because I didn't know he was still alive. "For Your Precious Love" is brilliant.

"He Will Break Your Heart" is too. RIP.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, February 21, 2025 9:19 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Incredible song & he just owns it - casual-committed phrasing of the lines, the way he unrolls the extended second verse after "but wait..", all the interplays with Curtis. Damn. I didn't know he was still around, so RIP. What a singer.

Another great thing is that in interviews he admiited that he was often (or at least sometimes) the guy he was singing about in that song.

love the hook on this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv_tNT7jCIs
How Does It Feel

there's a Terry Callier cowritten track on that record but it doesn't really grab me

another really nice one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JonavdNrZgQ
The Girl in His Mind

shit here we go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKCah6o__Yc
Don't Rip Me Off

The two Gamble-Huff albums are great. Among the earlier solo hits, I especially love the collaborations with Curtis Mayfield. It's pretty cool how they remained tight even after Butler left the Impressions. Anyone see that reunion tour they had in the '80s? It would've been right before Butler became a Commissioner in Cook County for the next 30 years.