Are you sure you've never heard of Solomon Burke?

[Charles] I mentioned the death of soul legend Solomon Burke to a few people since Sunday and not many people seem to know him without some prodding. Unfortunately he never received the same name recognition as guys like Otis Redding or Marvin Gaye, but he was definitely a legend. It was interesting that because he outlived so many of those singers, he went on to have a real job and brought something like 19 children into the world. If you still can't place him, then here's a couple of things to help you remember. Let's start with the Dirty Dancing movie - you'll have to follow the link to see this one, but it's worth it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pouIFiaIig&feature=related

That was one of his biggest hits released back in 1962 and revived in the 80's.

Next off, remember the Blues Brothers? They covered one of his biggest hits from 1964. "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" You might remember the band here that also covered the song and made a huge hit of it on tour.

If you happened to read Nick Hornby's High Fidelity then you probably caught on that he's a bit of a fan of Solomon too. Here's the song that he said was "responsible for Rob and Laura's whole relationship" in the book because Rob would play it as a DJ and only Laura could dance to it.

I remember one day I was driving home from work and heard Jeff Stewart from WMNF 88.5 interviewing Solomon Burke on the radio - I almost wrecked the car. It was fantastic, and he sounded like such a nice guy and really cool. He'll definitely be missed and hopefully with a little help from all of his fans, he'll be remembered as the amazing man he was.

Here's a song from the last big album that resurrected his career and even won him a Grammy. It was an all-star album with many people writing songs for him to perform. My favorite is the most amazing and soulful track on the album- the title track "Don't Give Up On Me" - Enjoy