Joe Simon is 77 years old today.
Simon is a soul and R&B musician who scored three #1 hits on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart between 1969 and 1975.
Born in Simmesport, Louisiana, Simon was similar to many other African-American artists from the era. He began singing in his father's Baptist church. He pursued his vocal abilities full-time once the family moved to Richmond (near Oakland, California) in the late 1950s.
There Simon joined the Golden West Gospel Singers and became influenced by Sam Cooke and Arthur Prysock. With this, the group decided to turn secular and recorded, "Little Island Girl," as the Golden Tones in 1959.
Hush Records label owners Gary and Carla Thompson urged Simon to record on his own, and in 1964 Simon scored considerable success on the Vee-Jay label with "My Adorable One." Simon scored again in 1965 on the Chicago-based label with "Let's Do It Over," which landed a #13 spot on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart.
However, the Vee-Jay label folded soon after the latter song's release and Simon found himself traveling across the country singing. He caught the eye of Nashville R&B disc jockey John Richbourg (“John R” on WLAC) during this time, and Richbourg not only became Simon's manager/record producer but also brought the singer to Monument Records' subsidiary label, Sound Stage 7, in 1966.
That year Simon released "Teenager's Prayer," which peaked at #11 on Billboard's R&B chart. Within the next two years, Simon released a string of hits: "(You Keep Me) Hanging On," "The Chokin' Kind" (Billboard Hot 100 #13), "Farther On Down The Road" and "Yours Love."
Under the encouragement of Richbourg, Simon moved to the Polydor distributed Spring Records label in 1970, which paired Simon with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. The team scored a #3 R&B hit in 1971 with "Drowning In The Sea of Love" and a #1 R&B hit in the summer of 1972 with "Power Of Love." Both songs reached #11 on the Hot 100.
"Drowning In The Sea of Love" sold over 1.5 million copies. "Power of Love," written by Gamble, Huff and Simon was Simon's third million seller in 1972.
In the late 1970s/early 1980s, Simon decided to remove his tenor/bass-baritone voice from the secular music world and devote it and his life to Christianity. He began evangelist preaching in Flossmoor, Illinois.
In 1983, he produced the album, Lay My Burden Down, for former Davis Sisters second lead, Jackie Verdell. Simon released a gospel album, This Story Must Be Told, in the late 1990s.
In 1999, Simon was inducted as a Pioneer Award honoree by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.