Lou Rawls

Lou Rawls (born December 1, 1935) is a Chicago-born American soul music, jazz, and blues singer. Known for his smooth vocal style, Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game."[1] (http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=MGJPD)

Rawls has released more than 70 albums, been in movies, television shows and voiced-over many cartoons. A high school classmate of soul giant Sam Cooke, Rawls sang with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a 50's gospel group. Rawls enlisted in the US Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division in 1955. He would leave the "All-Americans" three years later as a Sergeant and hook up with a group he had sang with before enlisting, the Pilgrim Travelers. In 1958, while touring the South with the Travelers and Sam Cooke, Rawls was in a serious car crash which claimed the life of one person. Rawls was actually pronounced dead before getting to the hospital where he stayed in a coma for 5 1/2 days. It took him months to regain his memory and a year to fully recuperate. Rawls considered the event life-changing.

Rawls was signed to Capitol Records in 1962, the same year he sang the soulful background vocals on the Sam Cooke recording of "Bring it on Home to Me". His first Capitol release was "Stormy Monday" (aka "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water"), a jazz album. Though his 1966 album "Live!" went gold, Rawls wouldn't have a star-making hit until he made a proper soul album, appropriately named "Soulin'" later that same year. The album contained his first R&B #1 single, "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing". 1967 saw Rawls win his first Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance for "Dead End Street". After leaving Capitol in 1971, Rawls joined MGM and released the Grammy-winning single "Natural Man". In 1976, Rawls had his greatest album success with the platinum-selling "All Things in Time". The album produced his most successful single, "You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine)", which topped the R&B charts and went to number two on the pop side and also went platinum.

Honors and Charity Work

In 1980, Rawls began the "Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon" which benefits the United_Negro_College_Fund. The annual event, now know as "An Evening of Stars", has raised over $200 million dollars for the fund thus far. The program consists of musical performances and stories of successful African American students who have graduated or benefitted from one of the many historically Black colleges and Universities who receive support from the UNCF.

In January 2004, Mr. Rawls was honored by the United Negro College Fund for his more than twenty-five years of charity work with the organization. Instead of Rawls' hosting and performing, he was given the seat of honor and and celebrated by his performing colleagues, including Stevie Wonder, The O'Jays, Gerald Levert, Ashanti, and many others.

Acting Career

Throughout Rawls' singing career, he has had the opportunity to appear in many films, television shows, and commercials. He can be seen in such films as Leaving Las Vegas, starring Nicolas Cage, Lookin Italian as "Willy", the popular "Blues Brothers 2000", and one of his earliest appearances, "Angel, Angel, Down We Go" of 1969. He had a leading role in the television drama, "Bay Watch Nights", co-starring David Hasselhoff.

Mr. Rawls and has lent his rich baritone voice to many cartoons, including Hey Arnold, Garfield, and Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

External links

• Official Lou Rawls Website (http://www.lourawls.com)