LATIMORE

Latimore recorded his biggest hits at the height of Disco Fever, but bucked the trend and made Southern Soul music into the '80s and beyond.

Benjamin William Latimore was born in Charleston, Tennessee, on September 7, 1939. His childhood influences included the blues, country music, and his Baptist church choir. While attending Tennessee State University in Nashville, he sang lead with a Rhythm & Blues group called Louie Brooks & The Hightoppers.

He subsequently dropped out of college to pursue his musical dreams, hanging around the various recording studios of Nashville. He befriended singer Joe Henderson, whose “Snap Your Fingers” became a top ten hit in 1962. This led to a national tour, with Latimore backing Henderson up on piano. While touring in Miami, Latimore spent a night off singing and playing in a talent show at the Night Beat, a prominent local R&B club. Owner Clyde Killen liked Latimore’s smooth yet insistent vocal style enough that he made the young man a standing offer to play at the club. Latimore stayed in Miami to take Stone up on it.

He later met drummer/bandleader Freddie Scott, which led to a collaboration between the two. They became members of the back-up band for aspiring pop singer Steve Alaimo. When Alaimo became involved with Henry Stone, a budding music mogul, this led to Latimore and Scott becoming session players. It also led to Latimore’s first recordings. His 1965 debut release, on Stone’s Blade label, was “I Can’t Go Anywhere.” He subsequently put out singles like “The Power and the Glory,” “I Pity the Fool,” and “I’m an Ordinary Man” for Stone’s Dade Records. Latimore supplemented his recordings with session work and his nightclub act.

When Steve Alaimo asked his friend Al Kooper to write a song for Latimore, the result was “Jolie.” While it did not become a national hit, its B-side, an uptempo version of the jazz and blues standard “Stormy Monday,” garnered significant airplay in cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. It also broke nationally, going to #27 on the Billboard Soul chart in 1973. When Latimore’s follow-up single, the mid-tempo “If You Were My Woman,” failed to gain much steam, he became convinced that his future lay with downtempo laments of personal drama.

His next single proved him right. “Let’s Straighten It Out” boasted poignant piano work, pleading vocals, and grown-up lyrics like, “How in the hell do you expect me to understand / When I don’t even know what’s wrong?” The song took off in the fall of 1974, spending two weeks at #1 on the Soul chart. It also crossed over to the pop market at #31.

By the mid ‘70s, Henry Stone's T.K. Records had struck gold with disco hits by Betty Wright, Little Beaver, George and Gwen McCrae, and KC & The Sunshine Band. Benny Latimore, however, would not conform to current trends and continued to make Southern soul records. While he never duplicated the commercial success of “Let’s Straighten It Out,” his records continued to sell, mainly to Southern Blacks.

By 1978, Latimore was tired enough of Henry’s Stone pressuring him to “go disco,” that he left Miami to record in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. There, he delivered the down-home, soulful LP, Dig a Little Deeper. In late 1979, Latimore finally took a direct stand against the musical trend that had become a cottage industry and meant professional death for so many blues and soul acts. Coincidentally, “Discoed to Death” came out just as America was getting tired of the five-year-old fad.

By eschewing current trends and keeping his musical integrity, Latimore thrived into the ‘80s and beyond. Beginning in 1982, he released a series of locally successful soul-music albums on the Malaco label of Jackson, Mississippi. In the early 2000s, he appeared as a session pianist on releases by Joss Stone.

As of 2013, Latimore was still making albums. In May 2014, he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. And in 2017, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Charted singles:

“Stormy Monday” (1973) R&B #27, Pop #102
"If You Were My Woman” (1974) R&B #70
“Let’s Straighten It Out” (1974) R&B #1 (2 weeks), Pop #31
“Keep the Home Fire Burnin’” (1975) R&B #5
“There a Red-Neck in the Soul Band” (1975) R&B #36
“Qualified Man” (1976) R&B #43
“I Get Lifted” (1977) R&B #30
“Let Me Live the Live I Love” (1977) R&B #49
“Somethin’ ‘Bout Cha” (1977) R&B #7, Pop #37
“Dig a Little Deeper” (1979) R&B #42
“Goodbye Heartache” (1979) R&B #82
“Long Distance Love” (1979) R&B #75
“Discoed to Death” (1980) R&B #68
“Sunshine Lady” (1986) R&B #76