Eugene Church

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eugene Church (born January 23, 1938 in St. Louis , Missouri, † April 3, 1993 in Los Angeles , California) was an American R&B singer.

Life

Eugene Church went to George Washington Carver High School in Los Angeles, where he was co-taught with Tony Allen and Arthur Lee Maye . The clique expanded to include Richard Berry , Bobby Freeman , Gaynel Hodge , Jesse Belvin and Marvin Phillips , so that a wide network could develop among the young musicians within the Los Angeles R&B scene.

Eugene Church first appeared in 1956 alongside Jesse Belvin and Obediah "Young" Jessie as a member of the cliques through two singles on Modern Records . This year the band was able to achieve good success with The Girl in My Dreams . Church then repeatedly supported Jesse Belvin with his solo recordings.

A joint band project of the friends were the Saxons , who brought out the cast Church, Belvin, Tommy "Buster" Williams , Gaynel Hodge and the young Johnny Guitar Watson Is It True and Rock 'n' Roll Show on Contender Records .

Under his own name as "Eugene Church and the Fellows" he recorded for Class Records 1958 Pretty Girls Everywhere . The fellows were well-known supporters: Buster Williams sang the first tenor, Gaynel Hodge sang tenor, his brother Alex Hodge sang baritone. Jesse Belvin gave the bass player. Church got the idea for the title (roughly: Pretty Girls Everywhere ) when he was driving through Los Angeles with his roommate Williams on the first hot summer day in 1958. Jesse Belvin was instrumental in developing the rhythmic structure of the song. The song became a national chart hit as the fall continued into the new year, allowing Church to tour with artists such as Jackie Wilson , James Brown , Hank Ballard and Dinah Washington . The Fellows supported him as often as possible.

The follow-up title Miami on Class 254 was also a national hit and at the same time the last chart listing for Eugene Church, two more singles followed on the small class label of Bobby Day . In 1961 Church switched to King Records , where his name was sometimes used for recordings by other musicians: in an interview with Steve Propes, he remembers that he accompanied Bobby Day in the background on I'm Yout Taboo Man .

After the last publication on World Pacific , Eugene Church ran a chain of barbershop and became wealthy from it. Eugene Church died of cancer in Los Angeles in 1993.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Pretty Girls Everywhere
  US 36 December 15, 1958 (15 weeks)
Miami
  US 67 03/08/1959 (5 weeks)

For more recordings with Eugene Church, see The Cliques and The Saxons .

  • 1957 - Open Up Your Heart / How Long , Specialty 604
  • 1959 - Pretty Girls Everywhere / For the Rest of My Life , Class 235
  • 1959 - Miami / I Ain't Goin 'for That , Class 254
  • 1959 - Jack of All Trades / Without Soul , Class 261
  • 1960 - The Struttin 'Kid / That's What's Happenin' , Class 266
  • 1960 Good News / Polly , Rendezvous 132
  • 1961 Mind Your Own Business / You Got The Right Idea , King 5545
  • 1962 - That's All I Want / Geneva , King 5589
  • 1962 - Light of the Moon / I'm Your Taboo Man , King 5610
  • 1962 - The Right Girl, the Right Time / Pretty Baby Won't You Come on Home , King 5659
  • 1963 - Time Has Brought About a Chance / Sixteen Tons , King 5715
  • 1967 - Dollar Bill / U Makka Hanna Dollar Bill , World Pacific 77866

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tony Allen: Tony Allen. In: The Doo-Wop-Society. Retrieved March 13, 2010 (English).
  2. ^ A b c d Steve Propes, Galen Gart: LA R&B Vocal Groups 1945–1965 . 1st edition. Nickel Publications, Milford 2001, ISBN 0-936433-18-3 , Eugene Church, pp. 32-34 (American English).
  3. ^ A b Eugene Church. In: Soulful Kinda Music. Retrieved March 14, 2010 (English).
  4. ↑ Charts US
personal data
SURNAME Church, Eugene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rhythm and blues singer
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Louis , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 1993
Place of death Los Angeles , California