Solomon Burke, one of the greatest soul singers of all time died yesterday at the age of 70. He had just landed in the Netherlands, where he was scheduled to perform.
Born in Philadelphia, Burke, who also worked as a preacher, began recording in the 1950s. One of the first 45s I ever had as a kid was Burke's soul version of "Down in the Valley," an old cowboy song he turned inside out and made it into a soul testament.
In recent years he'd been making something of a comeback. He did a country album called Nashville in 2006. That featured a heartbreaking version of Tom T. hall's "That's How I Got to Memphis."
But my favorite song of his in recent years was from his 2002 album Don't Give Up on Me -- a cover of Tom Waits' "Diamond in Your Mind."
Rev. Burke left many diamonds for our minds. Below are some performances -- they look fairly recent -- of some of his soul classics.
UPDATE:
What the heck, here's Solomon with The Rolling Stones:
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