Solomon Burke

Solomon Burke

Solomon Burke (March 21, 1940 – October 10, 2010) was an American singer/songwriter, entrepeneur, mortician, and archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People. Known as the "King of Rock and Soul", and as the "Bishop of Soul", and described as "the most unfairly overlooked singer of soul's golden age", Burke was "a major architect of 1960s soul, infusing post-World War II R&B with [his] gospel roots", and "a key transitional figure bridging R&B and soul", and was considered by Jerry Wexler to be "the greatest male soul singer of all time". During the five decades that he performed, he drew from his roots: gospel, soul, and blues, as well as developing his own style at a time when R&B, and rock were still in their infancy. Artistically, Burke was influenced by the music of the church, as well as by Little Richard. "Perhaps more than any other artist, the ample figure of Solomon Burke symbolized the ways that spirituality and commerce, ecstasy and entertainment, sex and salvation, individualism and brotherhood, could blend in the world of 1960s soul music."

Burke had 35 songs that charted, including 26 songs that made the R&B charts, including "Got to Get You Off My Mind" that was #1 in the summer of the 1965, and an additional 9 songs that were only listed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including 1964's seminal “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”. In 2001, Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a performer. His album Don't Give Up on Me won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 45th Grammy Awards in 2003. By 2005 Burke was credited with selling 17 million albums.

Early life and influences

James Solomon McDonald was born upstairs in the home of his maternal grandmother, Eleanor A. "Mother" Moore (born 1900; died 19 December 1954), at 3036 Mt Vernon Street, West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 21 March 1940. the oldest child of Josephine Moore (born 1 April 1920 in Panama City, Panama; died 27 August 1990 in Germantown, Pennsylvania) and an unknown father. At birth he was consecrated a bishop by his grandmother in the Solomon's Temple, a United House of Prayer For All People, founded by her in her home about 1928 in the Black Bottom section of West Philadelphia, after she had a vision indicating: "A child shall lead you." He was the godson of Daddy Grace.

Burke credits his grandmother as his primary spiritual and musical influence: “My grandmother was born a prophetess and born a great seer, and she was and still is my influence. Her words have never faded — they become stronger. Everything that she predicted in my lifetime has come true and is still coming true to this day.” In 2002 Burke described his grandmother: "She was my mentor, a spiritual medium directly associated with Daddy Grace and Father Divine. She used to have a sign in her home. It read 'Jesus Never Fails.' That's when and what I began to preach." and also indicated: "She was my greatest encouragement. She would make me listen to the radio: classical, country, jazz, Paul Robeson, Count Basie. And she told me to copy them and learn to phrase and project a song. She was my teacher. I never had no music training. She gave me the promise of a new life, not just as a singer, but as a person alone in the world with nothing but Jesus. All the great singers came out of the church. Jackie Wilson. Sam Cooke. Brook Benton. Your first duty is to give it to God." Burke recalled in 2005: “Ever since I was a kid, I was at home, ‘lookin’ at the radio. “My grandmother made sure we listened to two hours of music a week — the Top 40, Perry Como, Dean Martin and Gene Autry, who I just loved as a kid. He’d come on the radio singing, ‘I’m back in the saddle again,’ and my grandmother would always say, ‘Listen to the pronunciation, listen to the diction — you hear every word clearly." According to Burke, his mother introduced him to Jimmy Reed and Ray Charles as well as that era's king of smooth, Billy Eckstein. "She played all these records on our Admiral combination radio-record-player-TV. For that reason alone, I looked forward to doing chores -- so that I could hear their music." Other musical influences included bluesmen Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, gospel queen Clara Ward, and Big Joe Turner.

At the age of 7 Solomon preached his first sermon in Solomon's Temple, and in his youth, "he was so charismatic in the pulpit that he was known as the Boy Wonder Preacher. The first sign of a royal persona was evident in the cape that he wore only on Sundays, made from his "blankie." From age 12 Burke hosted a gospel show on WHAT-AM, an R&B and gospel radio station, mixing both song and sermon in broadcasts from Solomon's Temple.

In 1949 Vincent Burke (born 1 December 1917 in Philadelphia; died March 1978 in Philadelphia), a 130 pound Hebrew-speaking black Jew, the son of an immigrant father from Kingston, Jamaica, who worked as a chicken plucker at Jake's Chicken Market, a kosher butcher shop at 40th and Girard, as well as a carpenter, became his stepfather and gave him his family name. Burke later described his stepfather: "My father was very special to me. He was a very spiritual man. He was a black rabbi, who would go to upper Pennsylvania and purchase chicken, turkeys and ducks.” Solomon Burke had six younger siblings - a sister, Laurena Burke-Corbin (born 23 June 1946), and five brothers: Vladimir H. (born 31 July 1949), Mario, Daniel, Elec (born 1949 in Philadelphia), and Jolester "Laddie" (born 1950 in Philadelphia), and Edward. One of his earliest jobs was as a hot dog seller at Eddie's Meat Market, where his friend Chubby Checker also worked.

At the age of fourteen Burke formed the Gospel Cavaliers. On Thanksgiving Day 1954 his grandmother gave him his first guitar, a Stella acoustic guitar with "King Solomon" embroidered on it, as an early Christmas gift. In response Burke wrote his first song, "Christmas Presents From Heaven", which he sang for her on 18 December 1954, the day before her death at the age of 54. After Burke sang at her funeral on 24 December 1954, some local church people asked him to perform at their Christmas program.

Career

In January 1955 Burke entered a gospel talent show at the Liberty Baptist Church at 5944 Larchwood Avenue, West Philadelphia, with a borrowed guitar, and sang "The Old Ship of Zion", impressing Viola Williams, wife of Kae "Loudmouth" Williams, a prominent Philadelphia deejay, who signed him to a management contract, added four years to his age, and introduced him to Bess Berman, the owner of the New York independent label Apollo Records, who signed him.

Apollo Records (1955-1957)

Berman attempted to transform Burke into a pop crooner, and is reputed to have said, "Let's take this church boy and make him the next Harry Belafonte." Burke made his first recordings for Apollo Records in early 1955, debuting with his own song "Christmas Presents" b/w "When I'm All Alone" (Apollo 485), which was a minor hit in December 1955. Burke released nine singles and sixteen different sides on Apollo, and his style at that time was compared to that of Roy Hamilton, Billy Eckstine, Al Hibbler, Ivory Joe Hunter and even Harry Belafonte. Burke wrote or co-wrote many of those songs. He indicated: "I couldn’t write music or read music. I just created songs on the spot. I could just stand there and hum the music to the musicians". Burke's other Apollo recordings, which included "I'm in Love" b/w "Why Do Me That Way?" (Apollo 487), "I'm All Alone" b/w "To Thee" (Apollo 491), and "No Man Walks Alone" b/w "Walking in a Dream" (Apollo 500), didn't sell well.

Burke's best-selling release at Apollo was a "mellow spiritual" called "You Can Run (But You Can't Hide)" b/w "A Picture of You" (Apollo 505), although it didn’t chart nationally. Co-writing credit for this song was assigned to ex-heavyweight champion Joe Louis, who had used the saying to refer to challenger Billy Conn in 1946. According to Burke: "The song was not written by Joe Louis. Mr. Bernstein and other writers wrote the song for me, and they used the title without the permission of Joe Louis’ agency. We were sued by Mr. Louis. His wife was his attorney and manager, and we had to relinquish the copyright to him. The deal was that he would travel with me for one year and promote the record, and we would pay him to do that." While Louis helped promote the song in exchange for the credit, even appearing on TV's The Steve Allen Show with Burke, he forgot Burke's name.

By 1957 Burke became convinced that Kae Williams and Apollo were cheating him out of most of his record royalties, which, after a confrontation, resulted in Burke shooting Williams. Burke's Apollo contract was terminated and he was "blackballed" from the industry. Burke recalled in an interview in 2002: "I knew I wasn't being paid what I was owed. I'm 17 years old making $350 a night, three nights a week. I thought that was a lot of money. It turns out that I was actually being paid $3,500 a night, or more accurately, my manager was being paid $3,500 a night. It was comical. But when I left him he told me I would never work again, and he did get all my records pulled off the air. It was a drastic time in my life. There were a couple years there when I lost everything and everybody, and I learned to live on the streets of Philadelphia." After his departure Apollo released "I Need You Tonight" b/w "This is it" (Apollo 511), and "For You and You Alone" b/w "You Are My One Love" (Apollo 512), in 1957 and "They Always Say" b/w "Don't Cry" (Apollo 522), and "My Heart is a Chapel" b/w "This is It" (Apollo 527) in 1958. Apollo reissued an album "Solomon Burke" (ALP-498) in 1962.

After being dropped by Apollo Records, Burke was evicted from his home by his mother and began living on the streets in 1957. Burke recalled: “My mother was so angry. She threw me out of the house. My dad stood by me, would meet me down the street and give me $10. But that’s where I lived for a year or two. In abandoned cars. There was no place I could turn. I was shamed. I was a bum.” At the age of 17 Burke had fathered his first child, and had been married for two months in a marriage that was soon annulled. During this period Burke met Brother Rashish who taught him the Islamic faith and became a mentor to him. In August 1958 it was also reported that Burke converted to Islam.

After being hit by a motor vehicle in a Philadelphia street, Burke was taken into the home of the driver, Lathella Thompson, a dentist's wife, whose niece Delores, Burke was dating and later married. Soon after Burke trained as a mortician at Eckels College of Mortuary Science at 231 North Sixteenth Street, Philadelphia, graduating with a doctorate of mortuary science, and joining the AV Barkley funeral home at 634 North 38th Street, Philadelphia, which was owned and operated by his aunt, Anna. Burke later had his own mortuary business in Los Angeles.

Singular Records (1959-1960)

In 1959 Philadelphia businessman Marvin Leonard "Babe" Chivian (born 24 August 1925; died January 1972) offered Burke a red Lincoln Continental convertible if he would agree to sign with Chivian's Singular Records, and also let him be his personal manager. Burke released two singles on the Singular label: "Doodle Dee Doo" b/w "It's All Right" (Singular 1314) in December 1959, and "This Little Ring" b/w "I'm Not Afraid" (Singular 1812; and Mala 420) in May 1960, but neither single charted.

In addition to his recording career, Burke ran a funeral home, and owned two drugstores and a popcorn business in Philadelphia. Burke's entrepeneurial activities included operating the concessions at the Apollo Theater when he performed there, which was very profitable for him but so enraged the owner Frank Schiffman that he was banned from performing at the Apollo Theater for life; and selling sandwiches, soft drinks, and fried chickens at increasingly inflated prices to other performers who were refused service at restaurants on the Chitlin' circuit in the "Jim Crow" South. In 1960 Burke toured the American South with Dee Clark, the Drifters, the Crystals, Little Esther, Dionne Warwick, and the Upsetters Band. Trombonist Fred Wesley was one who was critical of his business practices.

Burke, whose concert performances were often compared with religious revival meetings, "became known as much for his showmanship as he did his voice. He would often take the stage in a flowing, 15-foot-long cape and bejeweled crown, his stage theatrics predating those of such legendary showman as James Brown. his

Apollo Records (1961)

Burke returned to Apollo for one more single (Apollo 747) in 1961, under the pseudonym of Little Vincent, in an act of homage to his stepfather. Those two Little Vincent sides are "Solomon’s blackest recordings on Apollo". "You Don’t Send Me Anymore" is "a bluesy ballad in a Ray Charles style, whereas the slow "Always Together" is closer to budding soul music." There was also another single by Little Vincent "Honk, Honk, Honk" b/w "Honk, Honk, Honk (part 2)" (Apollo 748), but that was an instrumental without any input from Burke.

Atlantic Records (1960-1969)

In 1960 Jerry Wexler signed Burke to a "handshake deal" to record with Atlantic just after Ray Charles left Atlantic for a "mega-deal" with ABC Records. In 2007 Burke recalled: "I met Ertegun and Jerry Wexler together. It was the day Ray Charles had left the label, and we walked in and 10 minutes later we were signed to the label. Jerry said, " I think we're gonna make a deal," and Ahmet just says "Hey, baby, sign it. Sign it, baby'". In his eight years with Atlantic Records from 1960, Burke released 32 memorable singles. These included six Top Ten R&B hits, four of which crossed over to the pop Top Forty: "Cry to Me" (#5 R&B), "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" (#7 R&B, #24 pop), "Got to Get You Off of My Mind" (#1 R&B, #22 pop), "You’re Good for Me" (#8 R&B), "Tonight’s the Night" (#2 R&B, #28 pop) and "If You Need Me" (#2 R&B, #37 pop). Burke has been credited for helping to keep Atlantic Records solvent from 1961 to 1964 with his steady run of hit records. On his '60s singles for Atlantic, Burke "brought a country influence into R&B, with emotional phrasing and intricately constructed, melodic ballads and midtempo songs.... While Burke wasn't the only one pursuing this path, not many others did so as successfully". However, unlike Aretha Franklin or Wilson Pickett, Burke was unable to expand his R&B base into a huge pop following as well, never having a top 20 pop hit in his career. Though well-received by both peers and critics, and attaining a few moderate pop and several major R&B hits while at Atlantic, Burke never broke through into the mainstream as did Sam Cooke or Otis Redding, who covered Burke's "Down in the Valley" for 1965's Otis Blue.

As Burke had struggled from an early age with "his attraction to secular music on the one hand and his allegiance to the church on the other", when he was signed to Atlantic Records he "refused to be classified as a rhythm-and-blues singer" due to a perceived "stigma of profanity" by the church, and R&B's reputation as "the devil's music". To mollify Burke, it was decided to market him as a singer of "soul music" after he had consulted his church brethren and won approval for the term. When a Philadelphia DJ said to Burke, "You're singing from your soul and you don't want to be an R&B singer, so what kind of singer are you going to be?", Burke shot back: "I want to be a soul singer." Like several former gospel singers Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, Burke was "molded into a more secular direction when he signed with Atlantic in the '60s", deciding eventually that "secular music was not the anithesis of the church but, rather, 'a new avenue, a new dimension to spread the gospel'".

Music producer Jerry Wexler, who considered Burke to be "the greatest male soul singer of all time", pronounced him a “vocalist of rare prowess and remarkable range. His voice is an instrument of exquisite sensitivity,” and also describing the young Burke's vocal style as "churchy without being coarse". Despite his admiration for Burke, Wexler also described Burke as "a piece of work: wily, highly intelligent, a salesman of epic proportions", while also branding him "a card-carrying fabulist. Solomon has told so many versions of the same happening that it's unreal." By May 1961 Burke had reconciled with Kae Williams, appearing at Williams' Northwest Athletic Club in Philadelphia.

Burke's first hit was "Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" (Atlantic 2114), a cover of a country song, that had been a minor hit for Faron Young in 1952, which was recorded early in 1961, and subsequently spent 19 weeks on the R&B charts while climbing to #7, as well as crossing over into the pop top 40, reaching #24. This song, which "successfully appealed to white consumers by using tidy tone quality, minimal improvisation, and standard, middle-American dialect", "instantly established Burke as a huge presence ... [and] "also introduced Burke's slightly country-tinged voice that melded R&B and country music and set the template that Ray Charles would follow years latter with his classic Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music".

In 1962 Burke released one of his best known songs, "Cry to Me" (Atlantic 2131), which peaked at #5 on the R&B charts, was covered in 1963 by Betty Harris (Pop #23, R&B #10), and was a hit again in 1987, when it was used in the film, and appeared on the soundtrack for, Dirty Dancing. In "Cry to Me", and in his "most popular recordings from 1962 onward, elements of the African-American folk-preaching style", which incorporated "the fusion of speech and song", "the use of repetition or elongation for emphasis", and the improvisation of "hollers and vocal melismas" are salient. Burke always had his pulpit in the recording studio. On 20 March 1962 Burke sang "Cry to Me" on American Bandstand.

Burke's cover of Wilson Pickett's "If You Need Me" (Atlantic 2185) spent 5 weeks at #2 in the R&B charts in the American summer of 1963, kept from the number one position by Jackie Wilson's "Baby Workout" and Sam Cooke's "Another Saturday Night". According to Burke, Wilson gave the song to him on a tour bus, but Pickett claims Wexler lifted it from demo tapes he had sent Atlantic.

By November 1963 Burke was crowned the "King of Rock 'n' Soul" by Fred Robinson, known professionally as "Rockin' Robin", a Philadelphia DJ, who also gave him a cape and crown that he always wore on stage. Burke accepted the appellation the "King of Rock 'N' Soul", indicating "without soul, there'd be no rock and without rock, there'd be no soul".

In November 1964 Burke released Rock 'n' Soul (Atlantic Records 5009), which contained seven top 100 Billboard hits. Also in 1964, with Bert Berns and Jerry Wexler, he wrote and recorded "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love", his most prominent bid for an enduring soul standard. Almost immediately covered by The Rolling Stones the same year, other well-known versions include one by Wilson Pickett and another, a decade and a half later, in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.

His 1964 song "The Price" was inspired by his divorce from his first wife. According to Burke: “The song was written live at the Apollo Theater. It’s a dramatic, drastic story. It wasn’t something that was prepared. I had received some uncomfortable news from Philadelphia concerning my wife, my family. I had to go on stage at that moment. I could not respond to what was going on and I just told my band just to play the vamp and I would think of something.” In 2008 Burke admitted to serial infidelity during his marriage: "I was young. Girls were coming from every angle. I couldn't love them all. But I tried."

Burke's biggest hit, "Got to Get You Off My Mind" (Atlantic 2276) ((#1 R&B, #22 pop), which was released in 1965 and became his first #1 hit on 2 April 1965, was started on 11 December 1964, just hours after he heard his friend Sam Cooke had been murdered, just after Burke ate with him in a Los Angeles restaurant, and on the same day his third wife, Dolores, informed him by mail that she wanted a divorce. Burke explained the origin of "Got to Get You Off My Mind": “It was written in California the night of Sam Cooke’s death. I learned of Sam Cooke’s death after leaving him two hours prior to that. At the same time I learned about my wife wanting a divorce. A special delivery letter was at the desk waiting for me in the hotel... so all of these things came about very quickly and very drastically.” Burke completed the song on the train back to Chicago for Cooke's funeral. Burke collaborated with his friend Don Covay to write the follow-up, "Tonight's the Night" (Atlantic 2288), which was another big hit (#2 R&B; #28 Pop) also in the summer of 1965.

After failing to crack the top ten for a couple of years, by the beginning of 1968 Burke was no longer a major artist at Atlantic Records, who were producing hit records for other performers on their label including Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin, and were also reaping the rewards of their distribution deal with Stax on artists like Otis Redding and Eddie Floyd. In March 1968 Atlantic sent Burke with Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin to Memphis to record what would be his final Atlantic album, I Wish I Knew, at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio." This album included several songs that that failed to chart, including "Save It", and Allen Toussaint's "Get Out Of My Life Woman", as well as a cover of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", his first recording that provided social commentary, which was released as a single (Atlantic 2507) just before Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in April 1968. Burke, who had met fellow preacher King several times, agreed to Atlantic Record assigning 5% royalty on this single to the family of King. Despite this, the single peaked at #32 on the R&B chart, and only reached #68 on the Pop chart.

The Soul Clan (1966-1969)

In 1966 Burke teamed with fellow Atlantic artists Wilson Pickett, Don Covay, Otis Redding, and Joe Tex to form a coalition called The Soul Clan. Their idea was "to pool their talents and resources, and become a positive force within the black community. They envisioned things like buying ghetto real estate and refurbishing it, providing jobs, building schools, and creating black-owned restaurant franchises that would knock the McDonald's and KFCs out of the box... the possibillities were endless." Burke explained the purpose of this alliance: "We wanted to interlock ourselves as a group, to express to the younger people how strong we should be and to help one another, work with one another and support one another". While "Burke saw the collaboration as a stepping stone toward building an autonomous African-American business empire, ... Covay, more successful as a songwriter than a performer, hoped to promote his own career alongside those of his friends."

After Redding died in a plane crash in December 1967, Arthur Conley replaced him, and after Pickett dropped out "supposedly uncomfortable with Burke's grandiose financial plans", he was replaced by Ben E. King. For Burke, Soul Clan was "an expression of solidarity and mutual support by five pillars of soul music". From February 1968 The Soul Clan recorded a single "Soul Meeting" b/w "That's How It Feels" (Atlantic 2530), and a 1969 album, Soul Clan, featuring both sides of the single and several solo tracks from the individual Clan members. In Sweet Soul Music, Peter Guralnick said "the singers never did get to actually meet in the studio... but instead recorded their vocals separately to a backing track which Covay had put together with Bobby Womack at the Wildwood Studio in Hollywood."

According to Burke, the project fizzled when the power structure realized these guys, requested an advance of $1 million to invest in the Black communities in the South, and wanted to do more than make a record. Although the "Soul Meeting" single made it to #34 on Billboard's soul singles chart in July 1968, Burke alleges "the record was stopped and banned...we were going against the grain of what black entertainers are supposed to do. We were all just supposed to go out and buy red Cadillacs. We weren't supposed to go out and start talking about spending millions of dollars on building and developing... We were supposed to talk about having parties and good times and eatin' barbecue ribs. You know, pork chops." Soon after Burke left Atlantic Records.

In July 1981 The Soul Clan officially reunited for a sold out concert at the Savoy Theater in Manhattan, New York City (with Pickett stepping in for Conley, who was in Europe at the time), but it was the last time they would work together" after a chaotic concert punctuated with a "busted sound system, dead mikes, band miscues, and 'unauthorized backstage personnel' scuttled plans for a [national] tour". The Soul Clan gathered in August 1982 at the funeral of Joe Tex.

In 2008 Burke discussed his reasons for leaving Atlantic Records forty years earlier: "We left Atlantic because we weren’t being treated properly and so many things had been done that, as I said before, have still not been overturned to this day. And so, after we were told by Atlantic that we’d never get another hit, that my career was over, and that I should go back to my preaching and selling pork chops".

Bell Records (1969-1970)

In 1969 Burke moved to Bell Records where he released 5 singles in the next two years. In 1969 Burke had a small hit with his second release for Bell, a reworking of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" b/w "What Am I Living For" (Bell 783), which was co-produced by singer Tamiko Jones (born 1945 in Kyle, West Virginia), who was at the time Burke's fiance and manager. Burke recalls: “We went to Muscle Shoals and recorded Proud Mary, which they didn’t like at all. They thought it was stupid to record a song Proud Mary, which was already on the charts. I was explaining to them that it was a very big record, but it’s a very white record, a pop record. We will redo the record, open up the doors for it to get on the r&b charts and make the black stations to play the record... It was a Solomon Burke record made in Muscle Shoals. We proved that we can make a hit record without Jerry Wexler eating sandwiches with us. This record was a hit without anybody’s help. Proud Mary was only promoted by Tamiko Jones and myself.” According to Mark Denning, "While that may have seemed like a bald-faced bid for pop radio play, in Burke's hands the song became a bracing tale of life in the Deep South as African-Americans searched for liberation aboard the ship that carried them as slaves and put them to undignified labor serving wealthy whites." The single reached #15 on the R&B charts and #45 on the pop charts. According to Burke in a 2002 interview: "I was in Vegas for sixteen weeks at the Sands Hotel. I missed this record being a hit, because we weren’t there to promote the record, we had no backing. The greatest thing I ever did was tell Ike Turner, “Hey man, you should get on this record…I think you and Tina could tear this thing up.” On 24 May 1969 Burke sang his version of "Proud Mary" on American Bandstand. Burke's Proud Mary album was released later in 1969, but did not chart and Burke's contract was not renewed.

In 1970 Burke moved to Los Angeles, buying a house in Beverly Hills. From the early 1970s Burke concentrated on his episcopal duties, preaching from a crimson throne on the third Sunday of the month at the Prayer Assembly Church of God in Christ, his church at 226 North Market St., Inglewood, California. His church grew to have about 170 missions and 40,000 members). By 2000, Burke's Solomon’s Temple: The House of God for All People had over 300 ordained ministers whose job is to “feed the hungry, educate the uneducated and be God’s workers in the vineyard”, and 40,000 parishioners in close to 200 churches across the USA, Canada, and Jamaica. In 2008 Burke acknowledged his Christian methodology differed from that of his uncle, Pastor Harry R. Moore (born 1933; died 1982): "Mine was more: God, money and women, hey hey hey; truth, love, peace and get it on."

Burke owned funeral parlors in California, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, and two of his children have turned the mortuary business into a franchise. Additionally, Burke owned and operated a limousine service

MGM Records (1970-1974)

Through the efforts of his manager, Buddy Glee, by November 1970 Burke signed with Mike Curb's MGM label, and formed MBM Productions, his own production company. In 2008 Burke indicated: "MGM was a GREAT blessing for me. Because they took me in not just as a producer, but also as a full-on partner for their Rhythm & Blues department. Which meant I had unlimited space to record my (1971) album The Electronic Magnetism, as well as being able to work with their artists like The Osmonds and The Sylvers. Plus our first MOVIE cheques came from MGM, as they opened up the doors for us to do film soundtracks like ‘Cool Breeze’ in 1972. You know, with them we were able to perform for The President of The United States, go on tour - and just do a lotta things we’d never done BEFORE." In 1971 Burke toured with a 31-piece soul band on his "Peace Revival" tour to promote his King Heavy album.

In 1972 Burke wrote the music for blaxploitation films "Hammer" and "Cool Breeze".

In January 1973 Burke was among those who performed at the inauguration ball of US President Richard M. Nixon at the Kennedy Center. In 1973 Burke was sued for $50,000 by Mrs. Irene Cole, who claimed she had been hit on the head by an album thrown into the audience by Burke on 1 April.

Burke sang the theme song to Love Thy Neighbor, a short-lived comedy series about a Black couple who move in next to a bigoted white household in a white suburb in Los Angeles, that ran for a few months in June 1973 as ABC's answer to All In The Family.

The Sons and Daughters of Solomon

By April 1971 Burke formed seven of his children, including Vern, Sharon, Solomon, Jr., JFK, Gemini, and Melanie, into a "kiddie-soul" group, the Sons and Daughters of Solomon, whose entire output consisted of MGM single, "Everybody's Got Fingers" (written by Solomon Burke, and Melanie and JFK Burke) b/w "Don't Leave Me Now" (MGM K14233), a single "Save the Children" (1972), and a 1973 album "Kid Power" (PRD0010, MGS 2994), the soundtrack to Kid Power, a cartoon adaptation of Morrie Turner's Wee Pals comic strip that was part of ABC Television's Saturday morning lineup during the 1972-73 season, on MGM's Lion subsidiary. According to Burke: "When you look back at history, and you look back at the publicity and the way we had it going, the Sons & Daughters of Solomon were going to be right there with the Jackson Five. We started the publicity, we started moving in the same direction with them, and then the devil came in and just turned that right around." As far as Kid Power, "It wasn't supposed to be a cartoon, it was originally supposed to be live. We had some problems - my children were kidnapped during that time, and it just changed my whole way of thinking, from being in show business and everything else. I regret to this day, sometimes, that my children didn't get to be as famous and as popular...but God always knows best. He knows what He's doing, and sometimes we project what we can't see, but only God knows what's going to happen, and He knows the best. For all of us."

Amherst (1978)

In 1978 Burke released an album Please Don't Say Goodbye To Me, which was produced by Jerry "Swamp Dogg" Williams, though Amherst Records. On 23 September 1973 Burke charted with his 31st and last 45 when "Please Don't Say Goodbye to Me" b/w "See That Girl" (Amherst 736) charted at #91 on the R&B chart.

Infinity Records (1979)

Burke released Let Your Love Flow on Infinity Records in 1979.

Savoy Records (1981-1984)

By 1981 Burke was signed to Savoy Records, and released four albums in three years, including his first gospel album, I'm Going to Trust in the Lord in 1981. Burke claimed: "We never received any royalties from any of those records that were ever done by Savoy. I'm not the only artist. There are many artists, who here in America have been raped and robbed by these record and publishing companies."

Rounder Records (1984-1986)

In 1984 Rounder Records released Soul Alive!, a recording of Burke's 1981 live performances at the Phoenix 1 Club in Washington D.C. According to a 2002 interview: "According to Burke, he played the unissued tape for noted author/historian Peter Guralnick in a Boston restaurant. Peter's reaction: "My God, man!" Burke picks up the story: "He called these guys (from Rounder Records) and they came over (to the restaurant). We played the tape in the Chinese restaurant! Made the deal in the Chinese restaurant! I walked out of the Chinese restaurant with a fat check, a record deal, and a box of shrimp egg foo yung!"

1987-1989

In 1987 Burke appeared in his first film, The Big Easy, as Daddy Mention.

1990s

In March 1993 Burke was honored with a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.

He was mentioned throughout the 1995 Nick Hornby novel High Fidelity.

By 1997 Burke was signed by Jim Fifield, the President and CEO of EMI, to Point Blank Records, a subsidiary of Virgin Records, where he released an album The Definition of Soul, that was produced by one of his sons, King Solomon Haile Selassie Burke.

GTR Records (from 1999)

By 1999 Burke had started his own record labels: GTR Records (an abbreviation of Gospel Truth Recordings) for gospel music projects, which was owned by his children, and was also also “the mother label for The One, which is our secular label". Before Christmas 1999, GTR released Christmas All Over The World, his first seasonal album, with half being Christmas standards such as "Jingle Bells", "White Christmas", "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer", "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve", "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)", and "Joy to the World", on which his daughter Elizabeth accompanied him. The rest of the album contained original songs created by him or members of his family, including "Season's Greetings", "You're All I Want And Need For Christmas", "It's Christmas All Over The World", "Christmas Eve's Blues", "Something Good This Christmas", and "The Bethlehem Story", a rewrite of Burke's own version of The Little Town of Bethlehem story, or The Night Before Christmas.” The final track on the album is "The Christmas Prayer", a 'thank you' sermon from Burke, which had been written by Burke in 1980, and released by Savoy Records in 1982 as the flip side to his cover of "Silent Night". Burke indicated: ”The Christmas Prayer was stolen by Savoy, and they were actually bootlegging it. From a lot of artists like myself, their records and music has been stolen and taken from these different record companies. Then we charged back for it. They have no rights to The Christmas Prayer. I'm not the person, who's gonna argue over a prayer, because the Lord gave me that prayer for the people, myself and my family. That Christmas Prayer was actually put out by myself and a gentleman out of New Jersey on a label of our own called The Big One. It was done in '80. They took the song and reissued it feeling that they have the right."

Also in 1999 GTR released Not By Water, But Fire This Time, a gospel recording distributed by EMI Christian Music Group. The album was produced by his three youngest daughters: Victoria, Elizabeth and Candy Burke, and among the writers was his wife, Sunday Burke, and Osirius, one of his grandsons.

2000s

On 14 October 2000 Burke and his family performed in St. Peter's Square at the Jubilee of the Family at the Vatican in front of a live audience estimated at 500,000 people. Burke was invited back to the Vatican by Pope John Paul II and also by Pope Benedict XVI in December 2005 for the Christmas celebration. Burke indicated in 2002: "From that moment, the seven blessings that the Pope gave me, miracles have been happening in my life. I was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 19 March 2001 in New York City by Mary J. Blige, having first being nominated in 1986.

In 2002 Burke appeared as Bishop Bonds in the thriller film "Time of Fear". On Friday, July 17, 2002 the city of Philadelphia celebrated the first official Solomon Burke Day.

Fat Possum Records (2002)

Burke's career was to some degree revived in 2002, with the release of Don't Give Up on Me on Fat Possum Records and produced by Joe Henry, where he sang songs written specifically for the album by various leading recording artists, including Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello and Tom Waits. Don't Give Up on Me won Burke his only Grammy, the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 45th Grammy Awards in March 2003.

Burke won 4 Living Blues Awards in 2003: Critics' Award for Most Outstanding Musician (Vocals), Readers' Award for Best Live Performer, Readers' Award for Most Outstanding Blues Singer, and Album of the Year for Don't Give Up on Me. He won Readers' Awards for Most Outstanding Blues Singer again in 2006 and 2008.

Burke appeared in the concert held on April 30, 2003 to commemorate the opening of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, Tennessee. A DVD of the concert is available from PBS, and features two of his performances. In December 2003 Burke sang "I Pray on Christmas" on the Go Tell It on the Mountain Christmas album (Real World) of the Blind Boys of Alabama, which won for them a Grammy for Best Traditional Gospel Album.

Burke is featured in the 2004 music documentary Lightning in a Bottle, singing "Turn on Your Love Light" and "Down in the Valley". Also in 2004, Solomon appeared on Junkie XL's album, Radio JXL: A Broadcast From the Computer Hell Cabin, performing "Catch Up To My Step". In 2004, Burke also recorded a duet with Italian soul singer Zucchero. The two artists performed Zucchero's hit "Diavolo in me" (Devil in Me), on the duets album Zu & Co. Burke was also a guest at a London show in May 2004 in which Zucchero presented the album. This performance is included on Zucchero's DVD Zu & Co. - Live at the Royal Albert Hall.

Shout! Factory (2005-2008)

On 4 April 2005 Burke was inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk in Hollywood with Ike Turner, Robert Cray, Etta James, and Muddy Waters, who was inducted posthumously. In November 2005, he appeared as a special guest with Jools Holland on his autumn tour of the United Kingdom, including two sell-out shows at London's Royal Albert Hall.

In September 2006, Burke returned to his country roots with the release of a 14-track country album titled Nashville, produced by Buddy Miller. It included guest vocals from Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch and Patty Loveless. The sessions produced the first recording of Griffin's "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)", which she brought to Burke because of his association with King and that era. The album peaked at #55 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, but spent seven weeks at #1 the Americana Music Association's alternative radio chart.

Burke was joined by a host of top country stars and backed by Buddy Miller and his band at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee on September 25, 2006 for a one-off concert to celebrate the release of Nashville. The concert was filmed by HDNet and was released on DVD in Europe on September 17, 2007.

On September 28, 2006, Burke was among the several rock, soul, and country legends who sang along with Jerry Lee Lewis at the live concert "Last Man Standing" at the Sony Music Studio in New York. The two duets were "Who Will the Next Fool Be" and "Today I Started Lovin' You Again".

In February 2007, Burke performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and later on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The Tonight Show performance was accompanied by The Tonight Show Band members and bandleader Kevin Eubanks on lead guitar. On Late Night he performed with Buddy Miller "That's How I Got To Memphis", from Burke's album Nashville.

As one of the early artists at Atlantic Records, in 2007 Burke honored Ahmet Ertegün, the co-founder of Atlantic Records and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Burke co-hosted the March 2007 celebration of Ertegun's life's work at Lincoln Center in New York, participated in the American Master's documentary Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built, and in December 2007, Burke performed at the private after-party after the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert at The O₂ in Greenwich, London, along with Ben E. King, Percy Sledge and Sam Moore.

In January 2008, Solomon returned to the recording studio to record with the producer/drummer Steve Jordan. The album titled Like a Fire has songs written specifically for Burke by Ben Harper, Eric Clapton, Jesse Harris, Keb' Mo', Meegan Voss and Steve Jordan and was released on June 10, 2008. This album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album of 2008.

Burke joined Widespread Panic on stage for None of Us Are Free at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles on June 20, 2008. He performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival on June 15, 2008, and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival on June 22, 2008, and for the first time in his career at England's Glastonbury Festival on June 29, 2008. This was part of his European 2008 Summer Tour, and included concerts in Portugal, England, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Austria, France, Switzerland, Norway, Slovakia and Sweden.

In January 2009, Burke joined legendary record producer Willie Mitchell at Mitchell's Royal Studio in Memphis to work together on a new recording—an album titled Nothing's Impossible which was released on April 6, 2010. It was the first time Burke and Mitchell had worked together in their careers. Nothing's Impossible debuted at #10 on the Living Blues Radio Chart in April 2010.

In 2009 Burke also put on his record label hat when his label, The One Entertainment Systems, which is headed by his daughter Victoria, who also was the label's A&R person, signed Clarence Fountain and Sam Butler and their most recent project, Stepping Up And Stepping Out. It was Clarence Fountain's first project after having left the Blind Boys of Alabama. Another daughter, Candy, ran the label to which Burke was signed.

On July 24, 2009, Burke played at the Open-air stage in Charlton Park for the WOMAD Music Festival, held in Wiltshire, England.

Burke celebrated his 70th birthday in March 2010 and toured Japan for the first time in May 2010, before his "Year of the Dream Love Tour" across Europe in July and August 2010, including dates in Spain, Italy, England, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Serbia, Bulgaria and Switzerland.

Burke's last performance was at the 40th annual Bumbershoot: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival, on Saturday, September 4, 2010.

In October 2010, his final album Hold on Tight was released, recorded in the ICP-studios in Brussels. It contains 13 songs written by Dutch pop/soul band De Dijk translated into English for performance by Burke.

Personal life

Burke was married four times, including a two-month marriage to Doris P. Williams that was annulled by August 1958, which resulted in the birth of his first child, Valerie D. Gresham (born 16 September 1957). His other wives were Jair Besalu, with whom he had 4 children; Delores L. Thompson, with whom he had 13 children; and Sunday, whom he married about 1975, who was married to him when he died, with whom he had 4 children, including Queen Sunday Victoria Burke (born 24 February 1974), Queen Elizabeth Burke (born 12 March 1975), and his youngest child, Candy Burke (born about 1977).

By 1961, Burke had "three kids on the outside, and about four at home", including Melanie Burke (born about 1960), Solomon Burke, Jr. (born 15 October 1961). Burke admits serial infidelity during his marriage: "I was young. Girls were coming from every angle. I couldn't love them all. But I tried." In total Burke fathered 21 children (14 daughters and 7 sons), had 90 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

Several of Burke's family have had successful careers in various facets of the music industry. In the mid-1960s two of Burke's younger brothers, Alex (born 1949 in Philadelphia) and Laddie (born 1950 in Philadelphia), joined with fellow Germantown High School students, brothers Earl and Timmy Smith to form The Showstoppers, who had a couple of local hit singles in Philadelphia on Showtime Records in 1968, including a #11 hit on the UK Singles Chart with "Ain't Nothing But a Houseparty" b/w "How Easy Your Heart Forgets Me", which was later a discothèque hit (#33) in 1971, just before the group disbanded after a series of flops.

Burke's daughter, Melanie Burke, a Neo Soul singer who is a freelance background recording artist with companies such as Casablanca, A&M and Rawkus Records and a studio artist for groups such as Billy Preston, Peacock (Anna Gayle group), and Leslie Uggams, and toured with Chaka Khan, and wrote and produced Family, & Friends, a 14 song original soundtrack for Ms, which was released in 2005, and opened for Jocelyn Brown, Jaheim, Norman Connors, and Angela Bofill, as well as for her father at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia in 2006. Her son is Novel, who released his first studio album "The Audiobiography" in October 2008, and wrote movie soundtracks for Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Step Up, and 21. Her youngest son, Solomon, also has started recording. Burke's youngest chjild, Candy Burke, was a backing singer at many of Burke's performances including the July 2008 Juan-les-Pins concert where she performed a rendition of "I Will Survive" to rapturous applause from the crowd. She also appears in the 2003 North Sea Jazz Festival DVD with her father.

Death

On October 10, 2010, Burke died at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport while on a plane from Los Angeles that had just landed. He had been due to perform with De Dijk in Amsterdam on October 12. The cause of death was not immediately clear; according to his family, Burke died of natural causes.

On Thursday 21 October a wake and meditation service was held at the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Griffin Mortuary at Westlake Village. Burke's funeral was at 10.00am on Friday 22 October 2010 at the City of Refuge in Gardena, California and was open to the public, and was simulcast on the internet and at a memorial service held at the Sharon Baptist Church in Philadelphia, that was led by Minister Lester Fields and Solomon's younger sister, Apostle Laurena Burke Corbin, the pastor of Our First Temple of Faith Mt. Deborah Pentecostal Church on Haverford Avenue in Philadelphia, and attended by Burke's extended East Coast family.

Burke is buried at Lot 4037, Space 1, in the Murmuring Trees section of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills, at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, California.

Evaluation

According to Tim Newby: "Despite the endless parade of fans and praise, Burke always seemed to be two steps ahead or one step behind his contemporaries. While he was always at the forefront of the Soul movement, paving the way for a slew of singers who followed in his large wake, he never had that one timeless hit like so many others of the time that would forever endear him to our memories. So many of his peers of the time had that one huge mega-hit that would stamp them as eternal legends, and while Burke came close, he never found that one everlasting song. He became more known for his inspiration on other musicians than for his music. He is often criminally overlooked by the casual fan".

Discography

Singles (chart hits only)

Year	Title	Label & Cat. No.	U.S. Pop	U.S. R&B
1961	"Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" / "Be Bop Grandma"	Atlantic 2114	24	7
1962	"Cry to Me"	Atlantic 2131	44	5
1962	"I'm Hanging Up My Heart for You" / "Down in the Valley"	Atlantic 2147	85 71	15 20
1962	"I Really Don't Want to Know"	Atlantic 2157	93	-
1963	"If You Need Me"	Atlantic 2185	37	2
1963	"Can't Nobody Love You"	Atlantic 2196	66	-
1963	"You're Good for Me"	Atlantic 2205	49	8
1964	"He'll Have to Go"	Atlantic 2218	51	n/a
1964	"Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)"	Atlantic 2226	33	n/a
1964	"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love"	Atlantic 2241	58	n/a
1964	"Yes I Do"	Atlantic 2254	92	n/a
1964	"The Price"	Atlantic 2259	57	n/a
1965	"Got to Get You Off My Mind"	Atlantic 2276	22	1
1965	"Tonight's the Night" "Maggie's Farm"	Atlantic 2288	28	2
1965	"Someone Is Watching"	Atlantic 2299	89	24
1965	"Only Love (Can Save Me Now)"	Atlantic 2308	94	-
1966	"Baby Come on Home"	Atlantic 2314	96	31
1966	"I Feel a Sin Coming On"	Atlantic 2327	97	-
1966	"Keep Looking"	Atlantic 2349	109	38
1967	"Keep a Light in the Window Till I Come Home"	Atlantic 2378	64	15
1967	"Take Me (Just as I Am)"	Atlantic 2416	49	11
1967	"Detroit City"	Atlantic 2459	104	47
1968	"I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free"	Atlantic 2507	68	32
1969	"Up Tight Good Woman"	Bell 759	116	47
1969	"Proud Mary"	Bell 783	45	15
1971	"The Electronic Magnetism (That's Heavy, Baby)"	MGM 14221	96	26
1972	"Love's Street and Fool's Road"	MGM 14353	89	13
1972	"We're Almost Home"	MGM 14402	-	42
1972	"Get Up and Do Something for Yourself"	MGM 14425	-	49
1973	"Shambala"	MGM 14571	-	97
1974	"Midnight and You"	ABC 4388	-	14
1975	"You and Your Baby Blues"	Chess 2159	96	19
1975	"Let Me Wrap My Arms Around You"	Chess 2172	-	72
1978	"Please Don't You Say Goodbye to Me"	Amherst 736	-	91

Studio albums

• Solomon Burke - 1962 (Apollo)
• Solomon Burke's Greatest Hits - 1962 (Atlantic)
• If You Need Me - 1963 (Atlantic)
• Rock 'n' Soul - 1964 (Atlantic)
• The Rest of Solomon Burke - 1965 (Atlantic)
• King Solomon - 1967 (Atlantic)
• I Wish I Knew - 1968 (Atlantic)
• Proud Mary - 1969 (Bell)
• The Electronic Magnetism - 1971 (MGM)
• King Heavy - 1971 (MGM 4830)
• Cool Breeze [soundtrack] - 1972 (MGM)
• We're Almost Home - 1972 (MGM)
• History of Solomon Burke - 1972 (Pride/MGM)
• I Have a Dream - 1974 (ABC/Dunhill)
• Music to Make Love By - 1975 (Chess)
• Back to My Roots - 1976 (Chess)
• Sidewalks, Fences and Walls - 1979 (Infinity)
• Lord, I Need Need a Miracle Right Now - 1981 (Savoy)
• Into My Life You Came - 1982 (Savoy)
• Take Me, Shake Me - 1983 (Savoy)
• This Is His Song - 1984 (Savoy)
• Soul Alive! - 1984 (Rounder)
• A Change Is Gonna Come - 1986 (Rounder)
• Love Trap - 1987 (MCI/Isis-Voice)
• Homeland - 1991 (Bizarre/Straight)
• Soul of the Blues - 1993 (Black Top)
• Live at the House of the Blues - 1994 (Black Top)
• The Definition of Soul - 1997 (Point Blank)
• Not by Water But Fire This Time - 1999 (GTR)
• Christmas All Over the World - 1999 (GTR)
• The Commitment - 2001 (GTR)
• Don't Give Up on Me - 2002 (Fat Possum/ANTI-)
• Make Do With What You Got - 2005 (Shout! Factory)
• Nashville - 2006 (Shout! Factory)
• Like a Fire - 2008 (Shout! Factory)
• Nothing's Impossible - 2010 (E1)
• Hold on Tight (with De Dijk) - 2010 (Universal Music)

Compilations

• Home in Your Heart: The Best of Solomon Burke - 1992 (Rhino/Atlantic)
• The Very Best of Solomon Burke - 1998 (Rhino)
• Proud Mary: The Bell Sessions - 2000 (Sundazed)
• The Collection - 2004 (Spectrum)
• That's Heavy Baby: The Best of the MGM Years 1971-1973 - 2005 (Raven)
• The Chess Collection - 2006 (Chess/Universal)
• This Is It: Apollo Soul Origins - 2008 (Shout 46)
• No Man Walks Alone 1955-1957 - 2008 (Saga)
• Looking for a Sign: The Complete ABC & Pride Recordings 1972-74 - 2009 (Shambala)

Contributions

• Lifted: Songs of the Spirit - 2002 - "None of Us Are Free"
• Joyful Noise - Derek Trucks Band - 2002 - "Home In Your Heart" and "Like Anyone Else"
• ZU & Co. - Zucchero - 2004 - "Diavolo in Me / Devil in Me"
• Jack O the Green - Jools Holland - 2005 - "Message to My Son" with Eric Clapton
• Brussel - De Dijk - 2008 - "Het Moet En Het Zal/Enough Is Enough"

Further reading

• Bane, Michael. Who's Who in Rock. New York: Everest House Publishers, 1981. (WhoRock)
• The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock. New York: Billboard Books, 1998. (BilIEnR)
• Biography Index: A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Vol. 29: September, 2003-August, 2004. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 2004. (BioIn 29)
• Carpenter, Bil. Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2005. (UncDay)
• Clarke, Donald, ed. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music. New York: Viking Press, 1989. (PenEncP)
• Contemporary Black Biography. Profiles from the International Black Community. Vol. 31. Detroit: Gale Group, 2002. (ConBlB 31) Biography contains portrait.
• Contemporary Musicians. Profiles of the People in Music. Vol. 36. Detroit: Gale Group, 2002. (ConMus 36) Biography contains portrait.
• Gregory, Hugh. Soul Music A-Z. London: Blandford, 1991. Sterling Publishing Co., New York. (SoulM)
• Guralnick, Peter. Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom. Harper & Row, 1986.
• Hardy, Phil and Dave Laing, eds. Encyclopedia of Rock. New York: Schirmer Books, 1988. (EncRk) Biography contains portrait.
• Hitchcock, H. Wiley and Stanley Sadie, eds. The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. London: Macmillan Press, 1986. (NewGrDA)
• Kuhn, Laura, ed. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. 9th ed. New York: Schirmer Books, 2001. (BakBD 9)
• Larkin, Colin, ed. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 3rd ed. London: MUZE, 1998. Grove's Dictionaries, New York, 1998. (EncPopM 3)
• Legends in Their Own Time. New York: Prentice Hall General Reference, 1994. (LegTOT)
• Nite, Norman N. Rock On. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock n' Roll. Vol. 1: The Solid Gold Years. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1974. (RkOn 1)
• Pareles, Jon and Patricia Romanowski, eds. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. New York: Rolling Stone Press/Summit Books, 1983. (RolSEnR)
• Rees, Dafydd and Luke Crampton, eds. Encyclopedia of Rock Stars. New York: DK Publishing, 1996. (EncRkSt)
• Stambler, Irwin, ed. The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul. Rev. ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. (EncPR&S 2)
• Who's Who among African Americans. 20th ed. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007.(WhoAfA 20)

External links

• Solomon Burke - official website
• Solomon Burke discography at Discogs
• Solomon Burke discography at Soul Express
• The Soul of the Net's Solomon Burke Discography
• "Christmas Presents from Heaven" mp3 at CD Baby
• Make Do With What You Got - TracksMusic review
• Make Do With What You Got - The Music Box review
• Solomon Burke photos at the Gospel Festival Chicago IL, 2005
• Solomon Burke biography at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Solomon Burke page at AllMusic
• Rock Hall Inductee
• Audio Interview with Ron Bennington
• Recent Live Review
• An interview in May 2010 at Soul Express
• Solomon Burke in-depth interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' July 2010
• Newby, Tim, "Solomon Burke Gets His Due", in Honest Tune (The Southern Journal of Jam) magazine, Oxford, Mississippi, June 18, 2008
• Solomon's life and career, in his own words - at Soul Express