Womack & Womack was a songwriting and vocal duo formed in 1983 by Cecil Womack (born September 25, 1947, in Cleveland, Ohio) and his wife Linda Womack (born Linda Cooke on April 25, 1953, in Chicago, Illinois). Both Cecil (Bobby Womack’s brother) and Linda (Sam Cooke’s daughter) were successful songwriters before they met: Linda wrote songs recorded by Wilson Pickett, Bobby Womack, and James Taylor, while Cecil wrote numerous songs in the 1960s with his then-wife Mary Wells. When Womack & Womack began their personal and professional career, they began writing songs for artists on the Philadelphia International Records label. They also wrote songs recorded by George Benson, Randy Crawford, Eric Clapton, Chaka Khan, and others. As recording artists, they released Love Wars, the first Womack & Womack album, in 1983. Two of the album’s singles – “T.K.O” and “Baby I’m Scared of You” – were hits in the U.S. while “Love Wars” was a hit in the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Their second album, Radio M.U.S.I.C. Man, was released in 1985 and included the hit single “Strange & Funny”. Womack & Womack’s 1988 album Conscience was a massive international success and featured the singles “Life’s Just a Ballgame” and “Celebrate the World”, which was Top 30 in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, and many other countries. The Womacks traveled to Nigeria and discovered that they had ancestral ties to the Zekkariyas tribe and took African names: Cecil became Zek Zekkariyas, and Linda took the name Zerliya Zekkariyas. Their children also adopted African names. In 1993, they released Transformation to the House of Zekkariyas, their final album as Womack & Womack. The duo then recorded one album as The House of Zekkariyas, one as ZEK, another as ZEK/Womack & Womack Project, and their final album as the Greater House of Zekkariyas. Cecil Womack – aka Zek – died on January 25, 2013, at the age of 65.
