Latimore

Benjamin William Lattimore (7 September 1939 – 22 August 2026; Charleston, Tennessee), known professionally as Latimore, was an American blues and R&B singer, songwriter and pianist.
 

Early Life

Latimore drew his early musical influences from country music, his Baptist church choir, and the blues. He gained his first professional experience as a pianist backing various Florida-based groups, including Steve Alaimo, before making his first recordings around 1965 for Henry Stone's Dade label in Miami, Florida.
 

Career

Latimore moved to Stone's Glades label in the early 1970s, scoring his first chart success in 1973 with a jazzy reworking of T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday," which reached number 27 on the R&B chart, followed by his first national hit, "If You Were My Woman," a gender-flipped cover of the song popularised by Gladys Knight & the Pips, which reached number 70.

His breakthrough came in 1974 with the self-written "Let's Straighten It Out," built around his electric piano and a near-spoken vocal delivery pleading for two lovers to communicate; the song topped the R&B chart and reached number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his only crossover pop hit. He followed it with twelve further R&B chart entries, including the top five hits "Keep the Home Fire Burnin'" and "Somethin' 'Bout 'Cha."

As mainstream R&B shifted in the 1980s, Latimore moved toward a southern soul sound, signing with Mississippi-based Malaco Records in 1982 and releasing seven albums of modern blues material with the label. He briefly departed in 1994 to record for the J-Town label before returning to Malaco in 2000 with You're Welcome to Ride, later recording for Mel Waiters's Brittney Records.

He went on to found his own label, LatStone Records, with longtime collaborator Henry Stone, releasing Back 'Atcha in 2007, his first new album in six years. Alongside his solo output,

Latimore remained active for decades as a session pianist, contributing to Joss Stone's albums The Soul Sessions and Mind Body & Soul alongside fellow Miami music veterans Betty Wright, Timmy Thomas and Willie Hale.

In May 2014, he made a notable television appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and in 2017 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Over the course of his career, Latimore released more than two dozen albums, the last being a 2013 tribute to Ray Charles. His 1976 track "Let Me Go," from the album It Ain't Where You've Been, enjoyed a resurgence in the twenty-first century, amassing more than 25 million streams.

Latimore is remembered as one of the defining voices of Southern soul and blues, whose signature hit "Let's Straighten It Out" remains a staple of R&B radio and whose decades-long career as both a solo artist and in-demand session musician left a lasting mark on the genre.