Bobby King (born July 28, 1944) – Where There's A Will There's A Way (1973)

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Bobby King is an R&B singer who formed a duo with Terry Evans in the 1970s. The two of them collaborated with Ry Cooder for several decades, singing backing vocals on most of his albums, and Cooder returned the favor by producing and playing on their records.

Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, King’s father was a minister and he learned to sing in church. After moving to Los Angeles as a young man, King’s debut single was released on Warner Bros. subsidiary Reprise Records (REP 1169) in 1973. “She” was a deep soul cover of a song co-written by Gram Parsons, the soon-to-be-deceased, one-time member of the Byrds, and Chris Etheridge, who co-founded the Flying Burrito Brothers with Parsons and co-wrote several songs with him.

It was produced by Phil Spector protégé Russ Titelman. “She” was later re-released as the B-side to another of King’s deep soul tracks, “Looking For A Love” (REP 1186), which was co-produced by Titelman and singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ry Cooder.

But the original B-side to “She,” also produced by Titelman, was the little known gospel-soul masterpiece “Where There's A Will There's A Way.” It was written and arranged by the multi-talented singer and keyboardist D.J. Rogers.

Reprise released one more single by King (REP 1202), a cover of the Ivy Jo Hunter/Stevie Wonder-written “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever” (1974) b/w “Sweet Surrender.” Around this time, he met fellow Southern soul singer Terry Evans, who hailed from Vicksburg, Mississippi and had recently begun writing his own songs, one of which was recorded by Pops Staples. Besides performing with their own act on the Chitlin Circuit, King and Evans kept working with Ry Cooder as backing vocalists, appearing on most of his albums ever since.

In the early eighties, King released his first solo album.

The self-titled 1981 LP was produced by Steve Barri, arranged and conducted by Michael Omartian, and featured Paulinho Da Costa on percussion, Friendship member Abraham Laboriel on bass, Paul Jackson, Jr. on guitar, and two of the Waters Sisters as backing vocalists.

Highlights included the upbeat Northern Soul favorite “If You Don’t Want My Love,” the disco-soul flavored R&B cut “Make It This Time,” and the laid back disco-funk jam “Heart To Heart.”

Happy Birthday to the great Bobby King.

#soul #gospel #R&B #RyCooder #TerryEvans #BobbyKing

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