Major Lance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Major Lance | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Major Lance |
| Born | April 4, 1939 Winterville, Mississippi |
| Died | September 3, 1994 (aged 55) Decatur, Georgia |
| Genres | Soul, pop |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1960 – 1994 |
| Labels | Columbia |
Major Lance (April 4, 1939, — September 3, 1994[1]) was an American R&B/Northern soul singer. Allmusic journalist, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, states "blessed with a warm, sweet voice, Lance was one of the leading figures of Chicago soul during the 1960s and the top-selling artist for OKeh Records during the decade. During the height of his success, the majority of his songs were written by Curtis Mayfield and produced by Carl Davis, and the pair developed a smooth, Latin-flavored sound that was punctuated by brass and layered with vocal harmonies, usually from The Impressions."[2]
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[edit] Career
Major Lance was born in Winterville, Mississippi, probably in 1939. (Major Lance was his real name; "Major" was not a nickname or a stage name.) As a child, Lance relocated to Chicago, attending the same school as Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler.[2]
In the mid-1950s, Lance formed a group, the Floats, and became a featured dancer on local TV.[2] The Floats broke up before ever recording any material, and Lance went solo.
His 1959 Mercury debut release, "I Got a Girl", was written and produced by Mayfield, but his career did not take off until he signed with OKeh Records in 1962.[2] For almost all of his early work on OKeh, Curtis Mayfield acted as writer and Carl Davis as producer.
After an inital flop single, "Delilah", the Curtis Mayfield-penned "The Monkey Time" (1963), reached number two on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart and number eight on the corresponding pop listings. The Mayfield/Davis/Lance partnership continued with further hits.[2] These included "Hey Little Girl", a Top 15 R&B and pop hit later that year, and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um", (1964) which reached number five on the pop chart.[2] The latter song also reached number forty in the UK Singles Chart in February 1964.[3]
Over the next eighteen months, Lance continued to record more singles, nearly all of which reached the R&B Top 40, but only a handful of which — "The Matador", "Rhythm" and "Come See" — were pop hits.[2] "The Matador", incidentally, was written by Carl Davis, Billy Butler and Lance, and would be the only top 40 pop hit of Lance's career not written by Curtis Mayfield.
Mayfield stopped writing for Curtis by the end of 1964, though various Mayfield-written tracks were released as Major Lance singles into 1965. Mayfield's "Come See" would be Lance's final top 40 pop hit in 1965.
Through 1965, Lance recorded songs by a variety of writers, including Van McCoy, Billy Butler and Gerald Sims. Lance's 1965 recordings were produced by the team of Carl Davis and Gerald Sims, but aside from "Too Hot To Hold" (#32 R&B, #93 pop), they met with minimal success.
Following personnel changes at OKeh in 1966, Lance was sent to work with producer Billy Sherrill in Nashville, Tennessee, and recorded material written by a wide range of songwriters, including Dan Penn. Out of this work with Sherrill, only the Penn co-write "It's the Beat" was a Top 40 R&B hit.[2]
Lance then worked with a number of other producers during 1966 and 1967, with only "Without a Doubt" (produced by Gerald Sims) scraping the R&B charts in 1968. He left OKeh shortly after that single, moving to Dakar Records the following year, where he had the R&B hit "Follow the Leader."[2] Within a year, Lance moved to Mayfield's Curtom Records label, which resulted in the singles "Stay Away From Me (I Love You too Much)" and "Must Be Love Coming Down."[2]
Lance had less success after breaking his relationships with Mayfield and OKeh, releasing records on several record labels into the early 1970s, including Osiris Records, which he set up with Al Jackson. To capitlaize on his success in the UK's Northern Soul scene, Lance moved to the United Kingdom for two years beginning in 1972.
After a one-shot return to the R&B charts in 1974 with an updated, re-recorded version of "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um", Lance's recording career began to go into decline. Beginning in 1978, he served a four year prison term for cocaine possession.[2]
After his prison term ended, Lance returned to recording and live performance, but he made few performances (and no studio recordings) after a heart attack in 1987.[2] He died in 1994, at the age of 55, as a result of heart disease, in Decatur, Georgia.[2] He was interred at Washington Memory Gardens Cemetery in Homewood, Illinois.
[edit] Singles discography
| Year | Title | Label & Cat. No. |
U.S. R&B[4] | U.S. Pop[4] | UK[3] |
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| 1959 | "I Got A Girl" | Mercury 71582 |
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| 1962 | "Delilah" | Okeh 7168 |
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| 1963 | "The Monkey Time" | Okeh 7175 |
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| 1963 | "Hey Little Girl" | Okeh 7181 |
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| 1964 | "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" | Okeh 7187 |
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| 1964 | "The Matador" | Okeh 7191 |
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| 1964 | "Girls" | Okeh 7197 |
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| 1964 | "It Ain't No Use" | Okeh 7197 |
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| 1964 | "Think Nothing About It" | Okeh 7200 |
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| 1964 | "Rhythm" | Okeh 7203 |
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| 1965 | "Sometimes I Wonder" | Okeh 7209 |
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| 1965 | "Come See" | Okeh 7216 |
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| 1965 | "Ain't It a Shame" | Okeh 7223 |
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| 1965 | "Too Hot to Hold" | Okeh 7226 |
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| 1965 | "Everybody Loves A Good Time" | Okeh 7233 |
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| 1966 | "Investigate" | Okeh 7250 |
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| 1966 | "It's the Beat" | Okeh 7255 |
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| 1967 | "Ain't No Soul (In These Old Shoes)" | Okeh 7266 |
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| 1967 | "You Don't Want Me No More" | Okeh 7284 |
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| 1968 | "Without a Doubt" | Okeh 7298 |
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| 1969 | "Follow The Leader" | Dakar 608 |
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| 1969 | "Sweeter As The Days Go By" | Dakar 612 |
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| 1970 | "Stay Away From Me (I Love You Too Much)" | Curtom 1953 |
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| 1970 | "Must Be Love Coming Down" | Curtom 1956 |
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| 1971 | "Girl Come On Home" | Volt 4069 |
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| 1971 | "I Wanna Make Up (Before We Break Up)" | Volt 4079 |
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| 1972 | "Ain't No Sweat" | Volt 4085 |
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| 1974 | "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" New version |
Playboy 6017 |
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| 1975 | "Sweeter As The Days Go By" New version |
Playboy 6020 |
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| 1975 | "You're Everything I Need" | Osiris 001 |
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| 1975 | "I've Got A Right To Cry" | Osiris 002 |
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| 1977 | "Come What May" | Columbia 10488 |
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| 1978 | "I Never Thought I'd Be Losing You" | Soul 35123 |
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| 1982 | "I Wanna Go Home" | Kat Family 3024 |
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| 1982 | "Are You Leaving Me" | Kat Family 4182 |
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* Billboard magazine did not publish an R&B chart during 1964; these chart positions are from Cashbox magazine.
[edit] See also
- List of soul musicians
- List of disco artists
- List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand
- Guests on Soul Train
[edit] References
- ^ Oldies.com - there is dispute over Lance's birth year. Some sources suggest 1941
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifwxqe5ldde~T1. Retrieved 26 February 2009.
- ^ a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 312. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ^ a b Allmusic.com - Charts & Awards
