Arthur Conley (January 4, 1946 – November 17, 2003) - Hurt (1969)
A beautiful, heartbreaking song by Otis Redding's protégé, written by Jackie Avery and produced by future Allman Brothers Band producer Johnny Sandlin.
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The legendary Arthur Conley co-wrote the classic song “Sweet Soul Music” with his mentor Otis Redding.
Born in Georgia, Conley grew up in Atlanta. Interviewed in 2000, he recalled how he started singing:
“I was in an all-female gospel group called the Evening Smiles when I was a teen. It was kind of special being the only guy in an all-female band. After that I started Arthur and the Corvets. I'll never forget the night we played Howard High Stunt Night. I'd already written my first song, called "So Sad," and I was so excited to hear all the kids in the auditorium, everybody screaming "So Sad."
In the early sixties he released several singles on Atlanta-based NRC Records as the lead singer of Arthur & the Corvets. He first came to Otis Redding’s attention after he switched record labels in 1964 and released “I’m A Lonely Stranger” with Harold Holt and his Band on Baltimore’s Ru-Jac Records.
Redding had recently founded Jotis Records and was looking for new artists. On a trip to Atlanta in 1965, he heard Conley’s latest single and was impressed. “I’ve discovered the most dynamic talent I’ve ever heard,” he told Phil Walden, his manager at the time who had suggested he start his own label.
Conley re-recorded “I’m A Lonely Stranger” at Stax in Memphis, backed up by the M.G.’s, and the result was a heart wrenching deep soul classic. Redding put it out in 1965 as Jotis Records’ second release, but it didn’t sell. His next Jotis single “Who’s Fooling Who” (1966) similarly failed to make a dent on the charts.
In 1967, Conley and Redding re-wrote a Sam Cooke song that had been released following the great singer’s death in 1964. “Yeah Man” celebrated popular dances like The Twist, The Watusi, and others that Sam had made up like The Huddle and The Swim. It was Conley’s idea to turn it into a soul music tribute. With shout-outs to greats like Lou Rawls, Wilson Pickett, James Brown and Redding himself, the song was a huge hit, reaching #2 on both the R&B and pop charts. It would prove to be Conley’s biggest success.
Following Redding’s own tragic death in a plane crash on December 10, 1967, Conley wrote the beautiful tribute song “Otis Sleep On” (1968). It was issued as the B-side to his cover of the Beatles’ recent hit “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.”
Conley released six more singles during 1968. Two of them had decent chart success – “People Sure Act Funny” which made it to #20 R&B, and “Funky Street” b/w “Put Our Love Together,” a #5 R&B hit single that also went to #14 pop. The following year he released the album Soul Meeting with Ben E. King, Joe Tex, and the Soul Clan, and toured Europe.
He also put out three more singles in 1969. The B-side to “They Call the Wind Maria” was his beautiful, heartbreaking song “Hurt.”
It was credited to writer Jack Avery, aka Jackie Avery, who had already written the excellent bluesy jam “I Can’t Stop My Heart” for Betty Wright’s 1968 debut LP My First Time Around. Avery would later pen songs for Millie Jackson, the Dells, and Johnnie Taylor, notably co-writing the title track “Disco 9000” with Taylor for the 1977 Blaxploitation disco film and soundtrack of the same name.
“Hurt” was recorded at Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon, Georgia, with Johnny Sandlin as producer. Sandlin had recently moved to Georgia after the breakup of Hour Glass, the R&B band he had played with in Los Angeles from 1967-68 alongside Gregg and Duane Allman. He went on to produce and mix several of the Allman Brothers Band’s classic albums in the early 70s.
#soul #OtisRedding #JackieAvery #JohnnySandlin #ArthurConley