LOU RAWLS
There's a good chance many people heard Lou Rawls for the first time without any idea who he was...on a radio hit he didn't receive credit for. Sam Cooke's classic two-sider "Bring it on Home to Me" and "Having a Party" both feature backing vocals from Lou that are obvious (once you realize it's him); the A side in particular could have been released as a duet. Lou and Sam had been friends since the late 1940s, having grown up on Chicago's South Side, so caught up in the vocal groups of the time that they often practiced singing harmony in the high school bathrooms for the echo effect. Raised by his grandmother on Chicago's South Side, Lou sang in church choir and soon joined neighborhood gospel groups, starting with The Teenage Kings of Harmony, then The Holy Wonders and ... MORE ››
