‘Soul Man’: Sam & Dave, Comin’ To Ya In 1967
The irresistible Isaac Hayes-David Porter composition and production ‘Soul Man’ became another Stax classic.
1967 may be remembered for psychedelic pop and the Summer of Love, but it was also a super-soulful time in chart history. That was thanks in no small part to Stax Records in general and Sam & Dave in particular.
On September 9 that year, Messrs Moore and Prater continued their run of hits on the esteemed southern soul label with the irresistible Isaac Hayes and David Porter composition and production “Soul Man.” Such was its crossover potential that it entered the Hot 100 that day, at No.79, a week before it even arrived on the R&B charts. It went on to be a complete smash in both formats.
Sam, Dave and the MGs
The spirited performance of the joint lead vocalists was fuelled by the superb support of the MGs, minus their leader Booker T at this point as he was away at college. “Soul Man” went on to top the R&B listings for an extraordinary seven weeks, from mid-October to the beginning of December. It spent three weeks at No.2 pop, held off the top only by Lulu’s film theme “To Sir With Love.”
“I got the idea from watching on TV the riots in Detroit,” Hayes later told National Public Radio. “It was said that if you put ‘soul’ on the door of your business establishment, they wouldn’t burn it. Then the word ‘soul,’ it was a galvanising kind of thing for African Americans, and it had an effect of unity, it was said with a lot of pride.
Soul collective
“So I thought, ‘Why not write a tune called ‘Soul Man.’ And all you had to do was write about your personal experiences, because all African Americans in this country at the time had similar experiences.”
Listen to the Greatest Soul 45s playlist.
Half a century on, the song continues to reinforce its place in the pantheon of R&B music. In September 2017, Sam Moore was part of the remarkable Stax Records concert that took place as part of the BBC Proms season at London’s Royal Albert Hall, where ‘Soul Men’ rang around the hallowed hall with all of its power intact.
Buy or stream “Soul Man” on Soulsville U.S.A.: A Celebration of Stax.
