Arthur Conley

Born in McIntosh County, Georgia on January 4, 1946, souls singer Arthur Conley was best known for his 1967 hit single “Sweet Soul Music.” Growing up in Atlanta, he fronted his own band, Arthur and the Corvettes, who released three singles in 1963: “I Believe,” “Flossie Mae,” and “Poor Girl.” The following year, he went solo and eventually issued the single “Where He Leads Me” / “I’m a Lonely Stranger,” which caught the attention of Otis Redding, who signed him to his label, Jotis Records. After several more singles – “Who’s Fooling Who,” “I Can’t Stop (No No No)” and “I’m Gonna Forget About You” – Arthur Conley hit paydirt with the 1967 single “Sweet Soul Music,” a song that he had co-written with Redding. The song, which was a re-write of Sam Cooke’s “Yeah Man,” became a massive hit and climbed to number 2 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the R&B / Soul Singles chart. The single was featured on the album of the same name, which was followed later that year by the album Shake, Rattle & Roll. However, Arthur Conley’s success was fleeting and by the end of the decade, he’d only achieve minor success with the singles “Whole Lotta Woman” (1967), “Shake, Rattle & Roll” (1967), “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” (1968), and “People Sure Act Funny.” Two More albums were released in the 1960s – Soul Directions (1968) and More Sweet Soul (1969) – but the writing was on the wall and Arthur Conley spent the early 1970s recording a string of mildly successful singles. Still considered a viable artist in the UK and Europe, Arthur Conley moved to England in 1975 before finally settling in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1977. He changed his professional name to Lee Roberts and achieved success for several years before dying of intestinal cancer on November 17, 2003, at the age of 57.