Song:Soul Finger
Album:Stax Gold: Memphis Hits
The Bar-Kays were the second house band at Stax Records and became Otis Redding's touring band. They scored with this 1967 top 20 pop hit Soul Finger but most of the members died in the plane crash that killed Redding. The surviving members regrouped and The Bar-Kays were very successful in the 70s. That was a different group. The Bar-Kays started out as The Imperials in 1966 modeled after Booker T. & The MGs and The Mar-Keys. Members were guitarist Jimmy King, trumpeter Ben Cauley, organist Ronnie Caldwell, sax player Phalon Jones, bassist James Alexander and drummer Carl Cunningham. They called themselves The Bar-Kays after their favourite rum Bacardi. They signed with Stax in early 1967 and Stax turned them into a second house band and give relief to Booker T. & The MGs. MGs drummer Al Jackson Jr. got them settled in. And like the MGs, Stax wanted them to record their own music too. Soul Finger was their first single and it reached #3 on the R & B Singles chart and #17 on the Billboard Hot 100. It seems The Bar-Kays were rehearsing a cover of J.J. Jackson's But It's Alright with singer Norman West and came up with Soul Finger. The audience chanting on the song were kids that were hanging around the studio. Stax paid them off with Cokes. The Bar-Kays were then chosen to back up Otis Redding on his tour. And of course disaster struck when Redding's plane crashed in Wisconson on Dec. 10, 1967. Ben Cauley survived the crash and James Alexander wasn't on the flight. Producer Allen Jones helped The Bar-Kays reform and they continued to record for Stax and play on sessions including the Isaac Hayes classic Hot Buttered Soul. Cauley left The Bar-Kays in 1971 to join Hayes' band and later on The Bar-Kays had a lot of success in the late 70s. You can get Soul Finger on this excellent Stax various artists comp from Warner Platinum in England with 25 tracks for $11. James Alexander still leads a version of The Bar-Kays and his son Phalon "Jazze Pha" Alexander discovered R & B singer Ciara. Ben Cauley recovered from a 1989 stroke and still plays Memphis clubs. Here are The Bar-Kays performing Soul Finger 1967.
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