R.I.P. Sam Moore, "Soul Man" singer

Sam Moore has died. As half of legendary R&B duo Sam & Dave, Moore would eventually become a member of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame, the Memphis Music Hall Of Fame, the Rhythm And Blues Music Hall Of Fame, and a recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. With hits like “Hold On, I’m Coming,” “I Thank You,” and most especially their 1967 cover of “Soul Man,” Moore and partner/occasional enemy Dave Prater helped make soul music the sound of the American mainstream, becoming one of the genre’s first major crossover success stories. After Sam & Dave broke up for good in 1981, Moore continued to pursue a solo career, collaborating with folks like Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Sting, and, somewhat bizarrely, Bob Dole. Per Variety, Moore died on Friday, January 10 from complications from surgery. He was 89.

Already an accomplished gospel singer in the late ’50s, Moore eventually made the acquaintance of Prater as the two worked the gospel circuit. Realizing the interplay between Moore’s higher tenor voice and Prater’s deeper registers—and the fact that they both had a gift for infusing live performances with the energy of a call-and-response church revival—the pair quickly teamed up, ultimately getting signed to Atlantic Records in 1964. Atlantic then “loaned out” the duo to Memphis-based Stax Records. It was at Stax that Moore and Prater met Isaac Hayes and David Porter, who would write and produce all of “Sam & Dave”‘s biggest hits—and where the pair would get their most prominent mainstream success, ultimately releasing a string of ten straight Top 20 hits on the Billboard R&B charts. Ignited with “Hold On, I’m Coming” in 1966, this run not only established Sam & Dave as hitmakers, but also the two men’s reputation as an irresistible live act, something only cemented with the monumental success of “Soul Man” in ’67.

But the duo’s post-Stax work could never match those heights, and by the 1970s, Moore was pushing to go solo. His first such effort ended in failure when plans to release his first solo album were ruined by the 1971 murder of producer King Curtis, and Sam & Dave reformed not long after. (Albeit, reportedly not happily; stories of conflict between the pair, who reportedly refused to talk to each other when not onstage, are legendary.) Nevertheless, the two remained a celebrated live act (including in Europe), but never reached the same album success they’d had in the 1960s. (The rise of The Blues Brothers, which were inspired in part by Dan Aykroyd watching Sam & Dave perform when he was younger, did raise their profile prominently in the latter part of the decade, though. Moore would appear in Blues Brothers 2000, contributing a rendition of “John The Revelator.”) The group ultimately split after a performance in San Francisco in 1981, a break that wasn’t especially amicable; Moore later pursued legal action against Prater when he recruited a “new” Sam, Sam Daniels, to keep the “Sam & Dave” name alive. According to Moore, he and Prater never spoke again after their final performance together. Prater died in a car accident in 1988.

Moore continued to perform live and release the occasional solo effort, rising to an elder statesman status in the world of music, as more and more kids who’d grown up listening to Sam & Dave records became major figures. He also opened up about his own struggles, revealing long fights with drug addiction, and publishing an oral history of Sam & Dave in 1997. And he became more involved in his conservative politics, a trend that included re-writing “Soul Man” to be “I’m A Dole Man” for the 1996 Presidential election—until the rights holders, unamused by the parody, shut it down—yelling at the Barack Obama campaign to stop using his music at rallies in the 2000s, and performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017.

Moore’s career was well-celebrated in his lifetime, including an induction into the Rock Hall Of Fame in 1992, Sam & Dave’s first year of eligibility. His death was confirmed this weekend by his representatives.