Joe Simon

Joe Simon (September 2, 1936 – December 13, 2021) was an American soul and R&B musician. He began as a gospel artist singing with the Golden West Singers in the Bay Area in California. A consistent presence on the US charts between 1964 and 1981, Simon charted 51 U.S. Pop and R&B chart hits between 1964 and 1981, including eight times in the US top forty, thirty-eight times in the top 40 of the US R&B charts, and 13 chart hits in Canada. His biggest hits included three number one entries on the US Billboard R&B chart: "The Chokin' Kind" (1969), "Power of Love" (1972), and "Get Down, Get Down (Get on the Floor)" (1975). In 2021, he is one of the 60 nominees for the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

Career

Hush Records label owners Gary and Carla Thompson urged Simon to record on his own, and in 1964 Simon scored a minor hit on the Vee-Jay label with "My Adorable One". Simon scored again in 1965 on the Chicago-based label with "Let's Do It Over", which landed a #13 spot on the US Billboard R&B chart. However, the Vee-Jay label folded soon after the latter song's release and Simon found himself traveling across the country singing.

Under the encouragement of Richbourg, Simon moved to the Polydor distributed Spring Records label in 1970, which paired Simon with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. The team scored a #3 R&B hit in 1971 with "Drowning in the Sea of Love" and a #1 R&B hit in the summer of 1972 with "Power of Love". Both songs reached #11 on the Hot 100. "Drowning in the Sea of Love" sold over 1.5 million copies and the RIAA on January 6, 1972 gave a gold disc. "Power of Love", written by Gamble, Huff and Simon was Simon's third million seller, and the R.I.A.A. awarded gold disc status on August 29, 1972.

In the late 1970s/early 1980s, Simon decided to remove his tenor/bass-baritone voice from the secular music world and devote it and other parts of his life to Christianity. Simon began evangelist preaching in Flossmoor, Illinois. In 1983, he produced the album Lay My Burden Down for former Davis Sisters second lead Jackie Verdell. Simon released a gospel album titled This Story Must Be Told in the late 1990s.

Simon had a number of his songs sampled by other artists, including OutKast, who sampled "Before the Night is Over" in their hit "So Fresh, So Clean" and Lil' Kim, who sampled Simon's "It Be's That Way Sometimes" in "Magic Stick", featuring 50 Cent. Memphis Bleek sampled Simon's "Trace Your Love" for the track "Alright" on his 2005 534 album.

He died on December 13, 2021. Sources gave his age as 85, in contrast to sources during his lifetime that had indicated a later year of birth.