Song:Biggest Fool In Town
Album:The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968
Of course everyone knows about the pioneering pro wrestler George "Gorgeous George" Wagner. This Gorgeous George recorded a few soul singles in the 60s including The Biggest Fool In Town for Stax. He's better known as the costume designer for the stars. But when you listen to The Biggest Fool In Town, you will wish he had recorded more. His real name is Theodopholos George Odell and he has owned his own tailor shop in Atlanta for many years. He designed all of James Brown's costumes and through that designed costumes for many stars including The Isley Brothers and Muhammad Ali. He also does a lot of emcee work. I can only assume Odell was a wrestling fan and thought his personality was big enough for the Gorgeous George name. I guess he wanted to be a singer too but he wasn't going to give up his main business to concentrate on that. So he first recorded the single Now I Believe for the New Jersey based Neptune label in 1961. Then George recorded Teach Me for his own Hale label in 1962. He went to Memphis in 1965 to record for Stax. George wrote The Biggest Fool In Town and Steve Cropper produced the record. It's a great deep soul performance. But unfortunately nothing came of it and he returned to Atlanta. You can get The Biggest Fool In Town on the 9CD Stax-Volt Singles box set which I recommend to all soul fans. It contains a lot of great obscure songs like this. George recorded for William Bell's Peachtree label in 1968 and recorded a couple of singles in 1976. But for the most part, Gorgeous George concentrated on his costume design business and in recent years was emcee for The Isley Brothers. Here's a video for The Biggest Fool In Town by Gorgeous George. Thanks to Sir Shambling's Deep Soul Heaven for the Gorgeous George info.
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