Friday, June 15, 2012

The Soul Corner: Eddie Hinton - "Hard Luck Guy"; "Everybody Needs Love"

Eddie Hinton was born in Tuscaloosa Alabama on this day June 15, in 1944. I only discovered Hinton a couple years ago based on the proselytizing of both Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers ) and Peter Case.
But man what a soul singer. This one is my favorite:

"Everybody Needs Love" is a great one as well.

The Drive-By Truckers recently recorded a fine cover version of "Everybody Needs Love" played here live in June 2011:


Eddie Hinton was lead guitar player in the Muscle Shoals studio band, and played on recordings by Wilson Pickett,  Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, Otis Redding, and Elvis Presley, to name a few. Patterson Hood's father David was the bass player in that legendary band.
Hinton's own recordings never got their due, perhaps the world not being ready for a white soul singer that real and raw. He was as talented a songwriter as he was a vocalist and guitar player, the best known of Hinton's songs being "Breakfast in Bed", the Dusty Springfield classic, covered by many including Jamaican singer Lorna Bennett, who transformed it into a reggae classic.


Hinton died of a heart attack in 1995 at the age of just 51.  We celebrate his birth and great music today.

1 comment:

Frank Fahey said...

Great! A new one for me.