Tyrone Davis (Born 04/05/1938, Died 09/02/2005)

Davis was born in Greenville, Mississippi, on May 4, 1938. When his parents divorced a year later, Tyrone's father moved to Saginaw, Michigan with his infant son. Twenty years passed, during which time Davis married and moved to the west side of Chicago. In 1961, he found work as a valet to bluesman Freddy King, with whom he toured for more than a year.
By 1962, Davis was back in the Windy City and working at a steel mill. He still wanted to be an entertainer and spent his weekends performing at various West Side nightclubs. In 1965, Davis was discovered by Chicago recording artist Harold Burrage, who took him to Willie Barney and Jack Daniels (not that Jack Daniels!) of Four Brothers Productions. Tyrone's first two singles for the company were both written and produced by Burrage, who would die in November of 1966. Davis released three singles on Four Brothers before the label folded in 1967.

That same year, A&R man Carl Davis (no relation) of Brunswick Records began his own label, Dakar. Among the first artists he recorded were Major Lance, Otis Leaville, and Tyrone Davis. The latter's first release for Dakar, 'Can I Change My Mind', came out at the end of 1968 and quickly became a smash. By early 1969, it had peaked at #4 pop and #1 R&B. After that, Tyrone Davis could do no wrong! His relaxed, confessional style sold 300,000-400,000 copies of each single and kept him in the R&B top twenty (first on Dakar, then on Columbia) through 1983. Unfortunately, Davis remained obscure to most of white America. Of his 41 charted soul hits, only two - 'Can I Change My Mind' and 'Turn Back The Hands Of Time' - crossed over to the pop top ten. There were many other examples of wonderful songs and vocal performances during what could be described as Davis' peak period and especially noteworthy are the fine and funky 1975 release 'Turning Point' and the hard driving 'What Goes Up' from 1974. All of the best Dakar material can now be found on the nicely priced 2CD Edsel "Dakar Singles A's and B's".

After Davis left the Dakar label, he moved to Columbia and continued to find success (for example 'Give It Up Turn It Loose') in the R&B market, but it is the view of many that it was with Dakar in the 60s and early 70s that Davis was at his peak and a genuine contender in the soul vocalists stakes.
Davis did a fair amount of label hopping after Columbia (including some fine work on the Ichiban label), but like many he eventually found a safe and welcoming home at Malaco, where he recorded a number of sophisticated soul-blues albums, including "Simply Tyrone Davis", his first for the label. Some find these later releases a little formulaic and lacking in passion, but even these CDs can't disguise the professionalism and quality of the voice, both of which remained in fine shape right up until his death.