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Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was 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."* Rawls released more than 70 albums, sold more than 40 million records, appeared as an actor in motion pictures and on television, and voiced-over many cartoons. He had been called "The Funkiest Man Alive".
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Career
Rawls who learned of gospel music through his grandmother in Chicago was a hugely successful singer, primarily from the 1950's through the 1980's.
Rawls was a high school classmate of music giant Sam Cooke, and they sang together in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a 50s gospel group.
After Rawls graduated from Chicago's Dunbar Vocational Career Academy, Rawls enlisted in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. He left the "All-Americans" three years later as a Sergeant, and hooked up with The Pilgrim Travelers as he traveled to Los Angeles. In 1958, while touring the South with the Travelers and Sam Cooke, Rawls was in a serious car crash. Rawls was actually pronounced dead before arriving at the hospital, where he stayed in a coma for five and a half days. It took him months to regain his memory, and a year to fully recuperate. Rawls considered the event to be life-changing.
In 1959, Rawls, along with Dick Clark as master of ceremonies, performed at the Hollywood Bowl. 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."
Rawls' first Capitol solo release was Stormy Monday (a.k.a. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water), a jazz album. On August 21, 1966, Rawls opened for The Beatles at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.
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. It was entitled "Dead End Street".
After leaving Capitol in 1971, Rawls joined MGM, at which juncture he released his Grammy-winning single "Natural Man." In 1976, Rawls had his greatest album success with the million-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. Subsequent albums, such as 1977's When You've Heard Lou, You've Heard It All yielded such hit singles as "Lady Love". Other releases in the 1970s included the classic album Sit Down And Talk To Me. In 1982, Rawls received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
According to an Associated Press article, dated December 19, 2005, Rawls tried to annul his two-year marriage to Nina Malek Inman Rawls in order to "protect hundreds of thousands of dollars" that his wife "absconded" with. Mrs. Rawls, who acted as his manager for two years, explained that she transferred nearly US$350,000 of his into an account she solely controlled in order to prevent one of Rawls' daughters from seizing it. The couple had a son together, Aiden Allen Rawls.
In December 2005, it was announced that Rawls was being treated for lung and brain cancer. Rawls died on January 6, 2006 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of the cancers, with his wife at his side. Besides his wife and youngest son, he leaves behind two adult daughters - Louanna Rawls and Kendra Smith, and an adult son, Lou Rawls, Jr.
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The Star Spangled Banner
On the night of September 29, 1977, Rawls performed the National Anthem prior to the Earnie Shavers-Muhammad Ali title fight at Madison Square Garden. He would go on to be requested to sing the Anthem over the next 35 years, and his final performance of it was on October 23, 2005. The crowd at the performance may not have known that he was extremely ill with cancer because he reportedly delivered an electrifying performance to kick off Game Two of the 2005 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros.
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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, known since 1998 as "An Evening of Stars: A Celebration of Educational Excellence", consists of stories of successful African-American students who have benefitted from and/or graduated from one of the many historically black colleges and universities who receive support from the UNCF, along with musical performances from various recording artists in support of the UNCF's and Rawls' efforts. The event has raised over US$200 million in 27 shows for the fund through 2006.
In January 2004, Rawls was honored by the United Negro College Fund for his more than 25 years of charity work with the organization. Instead of hosting and performing as he usually did, Rawls was given the seat of honor and celebrated by his performing colleagues, including Stevie Wonder, The O'Jays, Gerald Levert, Ashanti, and many others. His final television performance occurred during a the 2005-2006 edition of the telethon, honoring Stevie Wonder in September 2005, just months before entering the hospital and after having been diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year. This program, aired in January, 2006, contains his final public television performance, covering two songs, "You Are the Sunshine of My Life," and a final ode to Frank Sinatra with, "It Was A Very Good Year."
At the time of Rawls' death, news and UNCF figures noted the signiicance of Rawls' final performance, "It Was a Very Good Year." The song is a retrospecitve of one's life and its lyrics include, "When I was seventeen, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for small town girls and soft summer nights...And now those days grow short, it is the autumn of years, and now I think about life as vintage wine from fine old kegs, from the brim to the dregs, it pours sweet and clear, it was a very good year."
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Acting career
Throughout Rawls' singing career, he had the opportunity to appear in many films, television shows, and commercials. He can be seen in such films as Leaving Las Vegas, Blues Brothers 2000, and Angel, Angel, Down We Go. He had a supporting role in the Baywatch spin-off, Baywatch Nights.
Rawls lent his rich baritone voice to many cartoons, including Hey Arnold, Garfield, and The Proud Family
For many years, he was a spokesperson for Colonial Penn.
Rawls was also a regular guest host on "Jazz Central", a program aired on the BET Jazz cable channel.
He appears as "the colon doctor" in a dream on My Wife and Kids, where he breaks into song.
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Trivia
Rawls' famous expression was "Yeahhhh, buddy!"
There was no attempt to avoid the similarity between the title of the album When You've Heard Lou, You've Heard It All with his corporate sponsor's slogan "When You Say Budweiser, You've Said It All". A track on the album features Rawls singing the commercial slogan. Anheuser-Busch, the brewers of Budweiser, also suggested his telethon work to him.
Rawls' 1977 Grammy Awards performance of "You'll Never Find" was disrupted by a coughing fit.
Rawls appears on the DVD commentary track, despite having nothing to do with the film itself. During the track, he indulges the commentators' request, participating in a scatting contest with Will Ferrell.
Rawls, at one time affiliated with the Church of Scientology, later dissociated himself from the group. At one point, his agent said, "Lou is no longer involved in Scientology, it's not an interest at this point and never will be again. He doesn't want to be associated with those people."
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See also
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Notes
At the time of death, some sources gave Lou Rawls' year of birth as 1935. Dozens of Web site biographies echo this error.
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