ARTHUR CONLEY

Discography

As his genius asserted on stage and in the studio, Otis Redding took on the different aspects of his career be them stage, studio or writing. In 1965, he even decided to produce other artists, to give a chance to those who would come after him. On that year, his road crossed the one of a nineteen year-old singer from Atlanta named Arthur Conley.

After taking him on his tour, Otis put him in studio, at Stax in Memphis or in Muscle Shoals. Their first collaboration, "I'm a Lonely Stranger" is followed by "Sweet Soul Music", inspired by Sam Cooke's "Yeah Man", which Otis Redding gives the distribution to Atco, division of Atlantic.

Coming second in the R&B and Pop charts in the spring of 1976 (a thing Otis had never managed to do yet), "Sweet Soul Music" became a Soul anthem, with references to all the legends of the genre, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Lou Rawls and Sam & Dave. Meanwhile, the album Sweet Soul Music turned into one of the best selling records of the season.

I'm A Longer Lonely Stranger

Sweet Soul Music

Sam Cooke - Yeah Man

Coming back from the Stax tour with Otis and others, Arthur Conley got back in touch with the charts during the summer with an other Otis production, "Shake Rattle & Roll".

Shake, Rattle & Roll

The death of Otis a few months later is catastrophic for Arthur Conley who lost his best protector. Atlantic, not willing to give up such a talented artist, placed Tom Dowd, the sound engineer of the company, as artistic director for the album Soul Directions.

Without doing as well as Otis, Tom Dowd managed to get "Funky Street" to the Black Top 10 and the Pop Top 20 during the first semester of 1968 which allowed Arthur Conley to take part in the short Soul Clan adventure along with Joe Tex, Ben E. King, Don Covay and Solomon Burke for the recording of the 45rpm "Soul Meeting".

Funky Street

The Soul Clan - Soul Meeting

After a last Atlantic compilation entitled More Sweet Soul, giving Arthur Conley two minor hits in 1969 (among which a reinterpretation of the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-la-Da") his career faded despite a contract with Capricorn Records. He ended up settling in Holland where he lived for a long time on his reputation of Soul music legend.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

source : Encyclopédie du Rhythm & Blues et de la Soul (éditions Fayard - 2002).