New York's Idlewild Airport had just been renamed JFK Airport, and in February of 1964, four young men got off a Pan Am flight from England and started a revolution in American pop music. It was the beginning of the British Invasion. After the Beatles arrived in America, other bands were soon to follow, either in person or through hundreds of their records. Many of the early British hits were simply new versions of American blues and R&B songs.
Another of the most popular of the British bands were the Rolling Stones, one of whose first hits in America was a version of a song written by American singer and songwriter Bobby Womack, “It's All Over Now.”
Bobby Womack was born in Cleveland, Ohio on March 4, 1944. He was still a teenager when he began touring with Sam Cooke as Sam's guitarist. Sam Cooke produced many of Bobby's early recordings with his brothers in a group called the Valentinos, both soul and gospel. The Womack Brothers’ first hit was the original version of “Looking for a Love” in 1962. Bobby Womack was 18 years old.
Bobby Womack soon went solo but didn't have his first Top Ten R&B hit until 1971 with “That's the Way I Feel About ‘Cha.”
Throughout the 70s and 80s, Bobby Womack scored a dozen Top Ten R&B hits, the biggest of which was a remake of his 1962 hit, “Looking for a Love.” Womack died in June of 2014.
Listen above.
Recommended Listening
“It's All Over Now” (The Valentinos)
“I Can Understand It” (The Valentinos)
“Woman's Gotta Have It”
“Daylight”
“If You Think You're Lonely Now”
Deep Cut
“I’m in Love”
