January is a notorious month for deaths, but this year already we have had
so many, and sadly we bring news of yet another. Keith 'Duke' Beaton, a founding member of Blue Magic, has died aged 72. Another member Richard
Pratt died just last year on 1 March 2022.
The sad news was broken by group co-founder Ted Mills on his facebook page earlier today and
tributes have been pouring in.
Blue Magic were from Philadelphia and were formed in 1972 consisting of
Ted Mills, Vernon Sawyer, Wendell Sawyer, Keith Beaton, and Richard
Pratt. Mills was with a group called The Toppicks and the other four
members where originally in a group known as Shades Of Soul and
essentially the execs at WMOT decided to replace the existing Toppicks
with Mills and Shades Of Soul and renamed the group Blue
Magic.
They hit the R&B charts with their first three singles "Spell" (#30), "Look Me Up" (#36) and "Stop To Start" (#14) but their most notable hit was "Sideshow" in 1974 which topped the R&B chart and also made it to #8 on
Billboard Hot 100, all were produced by Norman Harris and backed by
MFSB. It didn't register in the UK and they had to wait until 1984
before scratching the chart with an entry at #89 with "Romeo And Juliet". Two other songs made it onto the Hot 100 "Stop To Start", "Three Ring Circus" with "Grateful" just bubbling outside at #104.
They have released nine studio albums between 1974-95, a live album
with Margie Joseph and Major Harris in 1976 and their most recent
album "Share A Dream" in 2020.
By 1977, with the rise of Disco, their smooth sweet soul style was
going out of fashion and in 1980 they disbanded when the Sawyer
brothers left and soon afterwards so did Pratt. Mills and Beaton
recruited new members and released "Magic#" in 1983 but by 1989 the original members got back together and
released "From Out Of The Blue".
In 1990 Mills was involved in a near fatal car accident and when he
returned to music it was as a solo artist and he was replaced in the
group by Rod Wayne (aka Roderick Bronaugh) who remained in the group
until 2004 and died in 2016.
During the noughties there were three variants of the group. Wendell
Sawyer and Keith Beaton trademarked the name and both Vernon Sawyer
and Richard Pratt also had their own versions of the group until Pratt
died in March 2022.
Only last November we posted a Paul Simpson
Philadelphia Re-edit Session for Blue Magic
and fortunately posted up samples, as it was his first on a dedicated
website.
The group will be forever known for their biggest hit "Sideshow" in 1974.
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