Womack's career began singing gospel with his brothers at their father's church. They were soon discovered by Sam Cooke, moved into secular music and signed to his SAR Records label. Under Cooke's tutelage they released many singles as The Valentinos, and were successful on the R&B charts. Bobby soon became the group's lead singer, and his song "It's All Over Now" became a #1 pop hit in the UK for the Rolling Stones. Around this time he also worked as Cooke's session guitarist. After Cooke's death the Valentinos' careers dwindled, and they disbanded in 1966. During this period Womack stuck mostly to session work, though he also had success as a songwriter, contributing many songs to Wilson Pickett's repetoire (including "I'm A Midnight Mover" and "I'm In Love").His first solo album came in 1968 on Minit Records, and with it he established his passionate style of soul music. Alongside strong originals (including the aforementioned songs he wrote for Pickett), it had some fantastic cover material, including the brilliant title track, which was a #16 R&B hit. The best-known song has got to be his stunning interpretation of The Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreamin'", which he complete re-invented, and got to #20 on the R&B chart with. His own composition "What Is This" also got to #33.
Though he was doing well on the R&B chart, Womack had yet to break into the the Top 40 of the pop chart, and was still doing better as a songwriter than a singer. Though it is often overlooked in the shadows of his later successes in the 70s, his debut album remains one of his strongest and most interesting.
|> My Prescription (1969)
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I think the ultimate traveling to the moon tune is probably 'Fly Me To The Moon', which is today's track. The Sinatra version would be way to obvious. Today's track comes from 70's R&B singer Bobby Womack, another great soul singer who is not as well known as he should be.
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