Song:Stop
Album:Get It While You Can: The Complete Legendary Verve Sessions
The underrated soul singer Howard Tate had several R & B hits in the late 60s. He disappeared from the music business but has been rediscovered in recent years. He was born Aug. 14, 1939 in Macon, GA and grew up in Philadelphia. In the early 60s, he was a member of Garnet Mimms' doo wop group The Gainors. They recorded for Mercury. After they split up, Mimms introduced Tate to veteran producer Jerry Ragavoy. Ragavoy had written the Mimms hit Cry Baby. Tate signed with Verve Records and Ragavoy produced his albums and wrote most of Tate's music. Ragavoy wrote Stop with veteran songwriter Mort Shuman. Tate had some top 20 R & B hits but was never able to break through to a higher level. He's a tremendous singer. This Hip-O comp has all his Verve recordings. Tate left Verve in 1970 and left the music business in the late 70s to become a securities broker. In the 80s, drug problems landed Tate in a homeless shelter. After his recovery, he became a drug counsellor. A New Jersey DJ found Tate and encouraged him to return to music in 2001. Tate reunited with Ragavoy for the 2003 CD Rediscovered. His latest CD Blue Day was released by Evidence Records in 2008. So if you're a soul music fan and you've never heard Howard Tate, here's your chance to check him out. Here's Howard Tate performing Stop at the 2008 Richmond Folk Festival.
Nice to see this post of Howard Tate. He was a guest on my radio show a few years ago and his story is quite amazing with it's up's and down's. He is a very talented soul singer.
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