Sam Moore, who had classic hits with the soul duo Sam and Dave in the 1960s, died Friday morning in Coral Gables, Florida. He was 89. The cause of death was post-surgery complications, according to the singer’s rep.
Moore took the tenor part on perennials that are familiar even to generations not yet born during the duo’s ’60s heyday, including “Hold On, I’m Comin'” (a No. 1 R&B hit in 1966), “Soul Man” (which reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 as well as topping the R&B chart in 1967) and “I Thank You” (a top 10 hit on both charts in 1968).
Sam & Dave were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and received the Recording Academy’s lifetime achievement honor in 2019.
Signed to Atlantic Records in 1965, Sam & Dave notched seven top 10 R&B singles in 1966-67. Their bestselling work was recorded at Stax Records in Memphis, and most of it was penned by the top songwriting team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter.
Their signature tune “Soul Man” scored a Grammy Award as best R&B group performance. In 1979, the song enjoyed a second life when it was covered by the Blues Brothers, the tongue-in-cheek duo featuring “Saturday Night Live” alums John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.
In a 2022 interview with the Library of Congress to commemorate “Soul Man” being added to the National Recording Registry, Moore recalled the origins of the tune and how it became a catchphrase. “It was race-related but I thought, at the time, that the song was about girls — gettin’ girls, you know,” Moore said. “But it turned out to be an anthem, sort of like ‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’ one of those. … [Later], Isaac would explain that it was the first time that ‘soul man’ had ever been used like that, and it was used by Sam and Dave! The first time ever.”
The dynamic, hard-working pair was among the most potent live acts of their day; during the celebrated Stax/Volt Revue tour of Europe in 1967, Sam & Dave came close to upstaging the trek’s billed headliner, Otis Redding.
Robert Gordon wrote in “Respect Yourself,” his 2013 Stax history: “Both were high-energy performers, and their force mushroomed when they were together.… They were double dynamite, each at full tilt, exploding together with exponential force.”
Harmonious onstage, Moore and Prater proved a contentious pair in the wings, although, after an initial split in 1970, they re-teamed for another uncomfortable decade together. Prater later replaced Moore with another vocalist, Sam Daniels, in a retooled “Sam & Dave.” The singers’ rocky relationship served as the basis for the 2009 comedy “Soul Men,” starring Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac (and featuring Isaac Hayes in a supporting role); Moore unsuccessfully sued distributor Miramax after its release.
Moore struggled for years with drug addiction, but he toured with regularity after recovering in the early ‘80s. He made high-profile appearances with such rock stars as Lou Reed, who cut a new version of “Soul Man” for the like-named feature in 1986, and Bruce Springsteen, who featured him on the 1992 album “Lucky Town.”
Moore was born in Miami on October 12, 1935. He began performing as a teenager with the doo-wop act the Gales, but the unit turned to straight gospel. Then after he joined another gospel unit, the Melionaires, he was approached to replace Sam Cooke in the Soul Stirrers, but quickly turned down the invitation after seeing a performance by R&B star Jackie Wilson.
Gospel-to-pop crossovers Cooke and Wilson became Moore’s principal models in his subsequent R&B career. In 1961, he was working as an emcee and utility performer at the Miami nightclub the King of Hearts when he met Prater, a Georgia-born gospel veteran. An impromptu amateur-night performance began a professional teaming. Their electrifying club work led to singles on Miami record man Henry Stone’s Marlin label and for New York heavyweight Morris Levy’s Roulette. None was successful, but Stone alerted Atlantic Records A&R chief Jerry Wexler to the singers’ potential. After witnessing a club-wrecking Miami performance, Wexler inked Sam & Dave to Atlantic.
The duo was initially disappointed when they were told that they would not record at the label’s celebrated New York studio, but instead in the hinterlands of Memphis, at Stax, the local soul label distributed by Atlantic. But their relationship with the company’s in-house team of musicians (which included Booker T. & the MG’s and the Memphis Horns) and writers proved magical.
After a couple of failed singles, Sam & Dave caught fire with the galvanizing “You Don’t Know Like I Know” (No. 7 R&B) in 1966. This was succeeded by the smash “Hold On! I’m A Comin’” (as the title was originally rendered on a 45 single label), authored by Hayes and Porter, which shot to No. 1 on the R&B side, and reached No. 21 on the pop charts. The winning combination with the songwriting team continued with the up-tempo rousers “Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody” (No. 8), “You Got Me Hummin’” (No. 7), and the gripping ballad “When Something is Wrong With My Baby” (No. 2). The ’67 R&B chart-topper “Soul Man” proved to be the exclamation point for the singers’ work at Stax; the like-named album shot to No. 2 on the pop LP charts.
By that time, Sam & Dave had established themselves as the most powerful R&B concert attraction in the country. Even Stax labelmate Redding had to bring something extra to the stage when he followed them. (Footage shot in Norway during the Stax/Volt tour that year finds the singing duo and the solo star battling to a draw.) Unfortunately, after the No. 4 1968 hit “I Thank You,” Sam & Dave failed to return to the R&B top 10. Following the end of Stax’s distribution deal with Atlantic, the duo was brought to the Atlantic roster, and subsequent sessions in Muscle Shoals, New York, and Miami failed to rekindle the excitement of their Memphis-bred hits. They managed three more top 20 R&B hits before a slide into the lower reaches of the R&B charts.
Moore and Prater sundered their professional relationship in 1970. Moore later told soul historian Dave Booth, “The next thing I knew, I got caught up into the drug scene and stayed with that for close to 15 years.” He recorded a solo album for Atlantic with saxophonist King Curtis, and the label released a pair of unsuccessful singles — covers of Howard Tate’s “Stop” and the Miracles’ “Shop Around” — from the project. However, the LP was ultimately shelved after Curtis’ murder in 1971; it was only belatedly issued in 2002.
Though he re-teamed with Prater in 1971, the act’s attempt to reclaim their former stardom was hampered by Moore’s deepening addiction to heroin and cocaine. Their album “Back at ‘Cha,” produced for United Artists in 1975 by guitarist Steve Cropper of Booker T. & the MG’s, went nowhere commercially, and a pair of 1981 sets of soul covers for Odyssey Records similarly flopped.
Moore and Prater played their last show together in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve 1981. Thereafter, Prater and Daniels toured together as “Sam & Dave” for nearly seven years. On April 9, 1988 — the year following his arrest for possession of crack cocaine — Prater was fatally injured in a road accident on the way to his mother’s home in Sycamore, GA.
Moore began his own recovery from addiction in 1982, after meeting his wife, Joyce McRae, during a European tour; she soon became his manager. He appeared on Don Henley’s bestselling album “Building the Perfect Beast” in 1984, and duetted with Reed on “Soul Man” two years later. In 1988, he began a long-running association with Dan Aykroyd, appearing in the Elwood Blues Revue alongside the erstwhile Blues Brother. A decade later, he took a role in the demi-sequel and Aykroyd topliner “Blues Brothers 2000.” (Moore also took a supporting part, alongside Motown sax star Junior Walker, in the 1988 feature “Tapeheads.”)
His highest-profile latter-day studio work came alongside Bruce Springsteen, who employed him on four tracks for the album “Human Touch,” released alongside the companion set “Lucky Town” in 1992. He sang with Springsteen again on a 2022 album of R&B covers called “Only the Strong Survive.”
In 1996, Moore, who was supporting Sen. Bob Dole’s run for the presidency, incurred the wrath of Hayes and Porter’s music publisher by re-recording “Soul Man” as “I’m a Dole Man,” with retooled lyrics. A cease-and-desist order followed, and the campaign was forced to stop using the number. (In 2008, Moore reacted in kind by insisting that Barack Obama’s campaign stop using his recordings.)
His last solo album, “Overnight Sensation,” was issued by Rhino Records in 2006. A duo collection in the manner of Ray Charles’ “Genius Loves Company,” it featured collaborations with Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Jon Bon Jovi, Steve Winwood and others.
He is survived by his wife, Joyce Moore.
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