R.I.P. Joe Simon (2 Sep 1943 - 13 Dec 2021)

We are sad to report the death of yet another soul music artist Joe Simon who died on Monday 13 Dec. aged 78 (although on wiki his birth year is stated as 1936).

His biggest hits include "The Chokin' Kind" (1969) (covered by Joss Stone on her debut album "The Soul Sessions" in 2003) , "Power of Love" (1972), and "Get Down, Get Down (Get on the Floor)" (1975), all US R&B #1 hits (and the latter two written by Gamble & Huff), but I will always remember him for "Step By Step" (which was his only UK hit which spent ten weeks on the chart reaching #12 on it's fifth week in July 1973) and several others I personally prefer to his three #1 hits.

I have to admit that he wasn't one of my 'favourite' artists as much of his material was a little too southern and country soul for my personal taste (gaining him the moniker 'The Mouth of the South') but there is no doubt that he made some fine recordings which is evidenced by the playlist of fifty of his best I've cherry picked below.

He was born in Simmesport, Louisiana but relocated to Oakland, CA in the 50s. He started off his career as a gospel singer in the 50s and in the early 80s reverted back to gospel music and eventually became a bishop. .Therefore, his soul music recordings are confined to the 60s / 70s but he left us around seventeen albums and almost seventy singles to enjoy.

Once established, he recorded predominantly for only two labels Sound Stage 7 and then Spring. His first recordings were in 1959 as a member of The Golden Tones on Californian label Hush. His first solo record appeared in 1960 again on Hush where he released five singles between 1960-62 before three singles on three different labels (Irral, Dot and Gee Bee) and another three on Vee Jay in 1964 before joining Sound Stage 7 in 1965 after the demise of Vee Jay. He released around sixteen singles and five albums for the label between 1965-70 before he signed to Spring where he released eleven albums between 1971-79.

There's an early recording of Joe performing both sides of his single Teenager's Prayer / Long Hot Summer on The Beat in 1966 HERE, unfortunately the poster has disabled embedding.

Here's a selection of his best 50 recordings