Whatever Happened To Bobby Womack
Robert Dwayne Womack was born March 4th, 1944 in Cleveland, Ohio. "Bobby" was the third of five boys in his family. Raised in the projects, Bobby's family let nothing hold them back. Father Friendly, Sr. along with mother Naomi Womack , began to hit the gospel circuit with their five boys, Cecil, Friendly Jr., Harry, Curtis and of course Bobby. Creating the Womack Brothers they began to tour. While performing one night, Sam Cooke spotted the Womack Brothers and began to pursue them for a recording contract. Persuading them to go secular they were signed and became the "Valentinos." Shortly after signing on, they recorded their first single, "Lookin For A Love" which topped the record charts at number 8 on the Billboard R&B chart. "It's All Over Now" became another single hit for the Valentinos in 1964.
When Sam Cooke passed away in December of that year, the groups career began to dwindle. The group stayed together for another year and a half before going there separate ways. Bobby struggled in the music industry, secluding himself as a session musician.
From 1964 to 1967 Bobby Womack worked at American Studios in Memphis. Playing on recordings for Tex and The Box Tops. Although not successful during this time, in 1968 the tide began to change and Bobby began to record a string of hit singles. Becoming known as a songwriter his hits included, " What is This," "More Then I Can Stand ", and "It's Gonna Rain."
Moving from Mint records in 1968 after his hit singles, to United Artists label in 1971, the album 'Communication' was released scoring the hit "That's the way I feel About Cha" becoming the first top 40 single in 1972.
Bobby Womack met with success through the early to late 70's releasing songs, "Harry Hippie", "A Woman's Got to Have it," writing and producing the soundtrack to the album to "Across 110th Street". It's title track became another hit for Bobby.
By the late 70's the limelight began to dim with the R&B audiences and he began to fall out of favor. Taking hiatus Bobby made a comeback in 1981 with the release of The Poet which included another top 10 R&B hit, "If You Think Your Lonely Now". From 1981 through 1989 Bobby Womack once again gained popularity in the R&B industry also raising money for Aids Awareness.
2009 Bobby Womack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A tribute album was record in Bobby's honor by Calvin Richardson which became a Grammy nominated album. Reaching #30 on the R&B U.S. chart Facts of Life: Of Bobby Womack was a hit.
In 2010, Womack was told to sing whatever came to mind during the recording of "Stylo". It would be the first single on the Plastic Beach album for the Gorillaz.
Gorillaz is an English visual and musical project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. Bobby was noted as saying, " I was in there for an hour going crazy about love and politics, getting it off my chest".
Continuing to be successful Bobby Womack's discography includes 26 studio albums, 2 live albums, 9 compilation albums and 47 singles since he was discovered by Sam Cooke in 1964.
