Tyrone Davis - One of the Soul Greats!

Tyrone Davis was born on 4th May 1938 and died on 9th February 2005. He was a leading soul singer and recorded several hits with a distinctive style for more than 30 years. Tyron Davis was born in a rural community.

This place was around twenty miles far from Greenville in Mississippi. He was the son of Willie Branch and Ora Lee Jones. His childhood was spent in Michigan but he went to Chicago later in 1959.

He started his career as a singer in local clubs where he got appreciation from Harold Burrage, the Record Executive and Musician. He did not perform well in the initial stages of his career while recording. Later he was signed by Carl Davis, who was a successful Chicago producer and he was soon signed with Dakar, the new label which was a part of Atlantic.

He started with “A Woman Needs To Be Loved” which got some attention from the radio. The song “Can I Change My Mind” saw more acceptance as it had pleading lyrics and soft vocals. The records topped the charts and reached the top of Billboard R&B chart at No 5 in the Hot 100. Tyrone Davis gave his biggest hit with “Turn Back The Hands Of Time” in 1970 which rocked the charts at No 3 on the pop chart and No1 on the R&B chart. This was the biggest hit ever and Tyrone Davis got popular with this hit throughout the country.

Tyrone Davis gave 25 singles with Dakar and with producer Willie Henderson which were mostly R&B hits. In 1975, he gave “Turning Point” which was the top notch hit. Later he shifted to Columbia Records and gave 7 hits with Leo Graham who was the producer for the next five years with him. James Mack was also associated with him for the hit “Turning Point” and his follow up hits included “This I Swear” which was No 6 on the charts, “Give It Up” which was No 2 on the charts and “In The Mood” which was No 6 on the charts.

Tyrone Davis shifted to Highrise label which was the newly-established independent label which it helped him give his biggest hits. Tyrone Davis was again on charts with “Are You Serious” which was a big hit and touched No 57 on the pop chart and No 3 on the R&B charts and was produced by Leo Graham.

Tyrone Davis had to soon shift to another label as Highrise closed down. He signed with Ocean Front which was a small label in Los Angeles and could not give enough substance to the tracks by the singer. Tyrone Davis could not hit the top with his recordings as the label was not providing promotional substance behind excellent tracks. He left the label and signed with Malaco in 1966 which recorded a number of albums for him.

He kept on giving great music and albums and was quite popular with the soul purists.

He died in 2005 of cancer in Chicago hospital after his ailment which started from a stroke in October 2004. This curtailed his career. He had a widow behind him Ann Davis, whom he married 40 years ago and had several children and grandchildren.

Music was in the family and his younger sister, Jean Davis was in a group named Facts of Life.
He has left much music with the industry and will always be remembered as an icon.

He was one of the great soul singers.

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