Joe Tex

Tex recorded for King Records between 1955 and 1957 with little success. He later claimed he sold musical rights to the composition "Fever" to King Records staff to get money to pay his rent. The song's credited songwriters, Otis Blackwell (who used the pseudonym John Davenport) and Joe Cooley, disputed Tex's claims.[1] Labelmate Little Willie John had a hit with "Fever", which inspired Tex to write the first of his answer songs, "Pneumonia".[1]

In 1958, he signed with Ace and continued to have relative failures, but he was starting to build a unique stage reputation, opening for artists such as Jackie Wilson, James Brown, and Little Richard. He perfected the microphone tricks and dance moves that defined the rest of his career. Many, including Little Richard, claim that Tex's future nemesis James Brown stole Tex's dance moves and microphone tricks.[1] In 1960, he left Ace and briefly recorded for Detroit's Anna Records label, scoring a Bubbling Under Billboard hit with his cover version of Etta James' "All I Could Do Was Cry". By then, Tex's use of rapping over his music was starting to become commonplace.[1]

In 1961, he recorded his composition "Baby You're Right" for Anna. Later that year, James Brown recorded a cover version, though with different lyrics and a different musical composition, gaining songwriting credit, making it a hit in 1962, and reaching number two on the R&B chart. During this time, Tex first began working with Buddy Killen, who formed the Dial Records label behind Tex. After a number of songs failed to chart, Killen decided to have Atlantic Records distribute his recordings with Dial in 1964. By the time he signed with Atlantic, Tex had recorded 30 songs, all of which had failed to make an impact on the charts.[8]

Tex recorded his first hit, "Hold What You've Got", in November 1964 at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.[1] He was unconvinced the song would be a hit and advised Killen not to release it.[1] However, Killen felt otherwise and released the song in early 1965. By the time Tex got wind of its release, the song had already sold 200,000 copies.[8] The song eventually peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Tex's first number-one hit on the R&B charts, staying on the charts for 11 weeks and selling more than a million copies by 1966.[3]

Tex placed six top-40 charted singles on the R&B charts in 1965 alone, including two more number-one hits, "I Want To (Do Everything For You)" and "A Sweet Woman Like You".[1] He followed that with two successive albums, Hold On To What You've Got and The New Boss. He placed more R&B hits than any artist, including his rival James Brown. In 1966, five more singles entered the top 40 on the R&B charts, including "The Love You Save" and "S.Y.S.L.J.F.M." or "The Letter Song", which was an answer song to Wilson Pickett's "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)".[9]

His 1967 hits included "Show Me", which became an often-covered tune for British rock artists and later some country and pop artists, and his second million-selling hit, "Skinny Legs and All".[10][11] The latter song, released off Tex's pseudo-live album, Live and Lively, stayed on the charts for 15 weeks and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in January 1968.[4] After leaving Atlantic for Mercury, Tex had several more R&B hits including "Buying a Book" in 1970 and "Give the Baby Anything the Baby Wants" in 1971. The intro saxophone riffs in his 1969 song, "You're Right, Ray Charles" later influenced Funkadelic's "Standing on the Verge of Gettin' It On".[12]

Tex recorded his next big hit, "I Gotcha", in December 1971. The song was released in January 1972 and stayed on the charts for 20 weeks, staying at number two on the Hot 100 for two weeks and sold more than 2 million copies, becoming his biggest-selling hit to date.[5] Tex was offered a gold disc of the song on March 22, 1972. The parent album reached number 17 on the pop albums chart.[5] Following this and another album, Tex announced his retirement from show business in September 1972 to pursue life as a minister for Islam.[1] Tex returned to his music career following the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975, releasing the top-40 R&B hit, "Under Your Powerful Love". His last hit, "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)", was released in 1977 and peaked at number 12 on the Hot 100 and number 2 in the UK.[1]

His last public appearances were as part of a revised 1980s version of the Soul Clan in 1981. After that, Tex withdrew from public life, settling at his ranch in Navasota, Texas, and watching football games by his favorite team, the Houston Oilers.[14]

The feud between Tex and fellow label mate James Brown allegedly originated sometime in the mid 1950s, when both artists were signed to associated imprints of King Records, when Brown reportedly called out on Tex for a "battle" during a dance at a local juke joint. In 1960, Tex left King and recorded a few songs for Detroit-based Anna Records; one of the songs he recorded was the ballad "Baby, You're Right". A year later, Brown recorded the song and released it in 1961, changing the lyrics and the musical composition, earning Brown co-songwriting credits along with Tex. By then, Brown had recruited singer Bea Ford, who had been married to Tex but had divorced him in 1959. In 1960, Brown and Ford recorded the song, "You've Got the Power". Shortly afterward, Tex got a personal letter from Brown telling him that he was through with Ford and if Tex wanted her back, he could have her. Tex responded by recording the diss record "You Keep Her" in 1962.

In 1963, their feud escalated when Tex and Brown performed a concert in Macon, Georgia. Tex, who opened the show, imitated Brown by appearing in a torn, tattered cape and rolling around on the floor screaming, "Please—somebody help get me out of this cape!" Brown, already angry with Tex over the song "You Keep Her", left the club and returned with guns. Tex had left the club before the shooting had commenced.[15] Tex later claimed that Brown stole his dance moves and his microphone stand tricks. In a few interviews he gave in the 1960s, Tex dismissed the notion of Brown being called "Soul Brother No. 1", insisting that Little Willie John was the original "Soul Brother No. 1".[16] Tex even claimed Brown stopped some radio disc jockeys from playing his hit "Skinny Legs and All", which Tex claimed prevented Tex from taking down one of Brown's number-one songs at the time.[16] During a 1968 tour, Tex had the words "The New Soul Brother No. 1" on his tour bus, but eventually took the name off the bus and had it repainted.[1] Tex challenged Brown to contest who "the real soul brother" was. Brown reportedly refused the challenge, telling the Afro-American newspaper, "I will not fight a black man. You need too much help."[16]

While Tex moved on from his initial feud with Brown, Brown reportedly joked, "Who?" in his Bobby Byrd and Hank Ballard duet "Funky Side of Town" from his Get on the Good Foot album when Ballard mentioned Tex's name as one of the stars of soul music.

• 1964 Hold On! It's Joe Tex (Checker Records LP-2993)
• 1965 Hold What You've Got (Dial Records 8106, distributed by Atlantic Records) – US Pop No. 124, US R&B No. 2
• 1965 The New Boss (Dial/Atlantic 8115) – US No. 142, US R&B No. 3
• 1966 The Love You Save (Dial/Atlantic 8124) – US No. 108
• 1966 I've Got to Do a Little Better (Dial/Atlantic 8133)
• 1967 The Best of Joe Tex (Dial/Atlantic 8144)[20]
• 1968 Live and Lively (Dial/Atlantic 8156) – US No. 84
• 1968 Soul Country (Dial/Atlantic 8187) – US No. 154
• 1969 Happy Soul (Dial/Atlantic 8211)
• 1969 Buying a Book (Dial/Atlantic 8231) – US No. 190
• 1970 With Strings and Things (Dial/Atlantic 8254)
• 1971 From the Roots Came the Rapper (Dial/Atlantic 8292)
• 1972 I Gotcha (Dial 6002) – US # 17
• 1972 Spill the Beans (Dial 6004)
• 1976 Have You Ever (Mercury Netherlands NL-6338.693)
• 1977 Bumps & Bruises (Epic 34666) – US No. 108
• 1978 Rub Down (Epic 35079)
• 1978 He Who Is Without Funk Cast the First Stone (Dial 6100)

"I Gotcha" is used in both the film and soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992). Tarantino also used "The Love You Save (May Be Your Own)" in Death Proof (2007).

In The Commitments (1991), one of the characters is said to have claimed to have been in America recently and spoken to Joe Tex, but the one telling the story points out that Joe Tex died in 1982, whereas the events in the film are set around the late 1980s.