Jerry Butler, Chicago soul singer who helped define the Sound of Philadelphia, has died at 85
His biggest hits included foundational Philly Sound songs "Hey, Western Union Man" and "Only The Strong Survive," written with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.
Jerry Butler, 85, the singer with a smooth, silky voice who scored hits in the 1960s with songwriter-producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff that helped lay the foundation for what became known as “The Sound of Philadelphia,” has died. He partnered with Curtis Mayfield in the Chicago soul band the Impressions, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the band in 1991.
He died at his home in Chicago on Thursday of Parkinson’s disease, his niece Yolanda Goff told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“We deeply and sincerely mourn the loss of our dear and long time friend the great Jerry Butler a.k.a. ‘The Iceman’ for his cool, smooth vocals, and demeanor,” Gamble and Huff said in a joint statement on Friday.
“Our friendship with Jerry goes back for more than 60 years both as an iconic artist and music collaborator with hit songs such as ‘Only the Strong Survive,’ ‘Western Union Man,’ ‘Never Gonna Give You Up,’ and many more. We will really miss Jerry. He was a one of kind music legend!”
Motown great Smokey Robinson called Mr. Butler “one of the great voices of our time,” telling the Sun-Times, “I have known Jerry Butler way back, since the Miracles and I first got started, around 1958. He’s a great person, and I love him.”
Mr. Butler was the son of a sharecropper who migrated with his family from Mississippi to Chicago in the 1940s. He became friends with Mayfield when he was a teenager, singing at the Traveling Souls Spiritualist Church, where Mayfield’s grandfather, the Rev. A.B. Mayfield, preached.
In 1958, the group, then known as Jerry Butler and the Impressions, scored a hit with “For Your Precious Love,” a song that would become a gospel soul standard. Mr. Butler sang and cowrote it with Arthur and Richard Brooks.
Mr. Butler had his first No. 1 R&B hit as a solo artist in 1960 with “He Will Break Your Heart,” which was later a hit for Tony Orlando and Dawn under a different title. The next year, Mr. Butler followed that up with Henry Mancini’s “Moon River,” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. (Andy Williams was chosen to sing the song at the Oscars that year, which Mr. Butler was said to have resented.)
In that era, Philadelphia DJ Georgie Woods dubbed Mr. Butler “The Iceman” for his cool, calm demeanor.
“I came through a period when the Isley Brothers were jumping off the stage, and James Brown was sliding across the floor,” Mr. Butler wrote in his autobiography Only the Strong Survive (Memoirs of a Soul Survivor). “But I am just a standup singer. Because of that, it started out that I was ‘cool,’ then ‘ice,’ then ‘The Iceman.’”
In 1967, Mr. Butler signed with Mercury Records, asking the label for permission to work with the young Philadelphia songwriting team of Gamble and Huff, who were rising, behind-the-scenes stars in the Black music world but wouldn’t form their own Philadelphia International label until 1971.
Success was immediate, with two No. 1 R&B hits in “Hey, Western Union Man” and “Only the Strong Survive,” along with two more that reached the Top Ten, “Never Give You Up” and “Are You Happy.”
Mr. Butler, Gamble, and Huff wrote “Only The Strong Survive,” which was later covered by Elvis Presley and is the title track to Bruce Springsteen’s 2022 album of soul music covers, in less than an hour.
In 1969, the year that Mr. Butler collaborated with Gamble and Huff on Ice on Ice, he told Ebony magazine that when they worked together, “Things just seem to fall into place. We lock ourselves in a room, create stories about lovers, compose the music, then write the lyrics to match the music.”
Mr. Butler was also an impeccable ballad singer who recorded many duets with vocalists like Thelma Houston, Betty Everett, and Patti Austin (who was formerly one of his backup singers) in a recording career that remained busy through the 1980s.
He had his biggest financial success as a songwriter for co-penning “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” with Otis Redding in 1965. It was covered by the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Ike and Tina Turner, Cat Power, and many others.
“I receive more royalties from Otis’ one recording of that song than I get from everything I ever recorded,” he wrote in his memoir.
Starting in the 1980s, Mr. Butler began to transition from music to politics. He was elected to the Cook County board of commissioners in Illinois in 1985, and served until 2018.
His music continued to be heard, however, in recordings sampled by hip-hop artists like Method Man, Missy Elliott, and Snoop Dogg. He also served as chairman of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, working to assist veteran musicians who had been shortchanged by the music industry.
He was married to his wife, Annette Smith, who died in 2019, for 60 years. The couple had twin sons.