Don Varner born 25 June 1943

Don Wilson Varner (25 June 1943 – 7 October 2002) was an American soul singer. If you're a connoisseur of Northern Soul you'll recognise Don's name. Don's husky baritone sang a soulful storm on the Muscle Shoals floor-filler "Tear Stained Face".

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Varner grew up in the same neighborhood as Eddie Kendricks co-founder of The Temptations. Varner starting singing in high school and relocated to Chicago after graduation to pursue his music career; he found work in clubs but recording opportunities didn't come his way, and after six years, he returned South because of all the hoopla taking place in Muscle Shoals, AL, home of Rick Hall's Fame Records, who was scorching the charts with recordings by artists like Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Candi Staton, and others.

                              

He befriended Jerry Wexler, Franklin's producer, and got the opportunity to write (with William Crump) "I Keep Holdin' On" for Sam & Dave. Varner worked extensively with Quinn Ivy at Ivy's Sheffield, AL, studios, recording productions by the late Eddie Hinton: "Masquerade," "Down in Texas," and "Tear Stained Face," released on Ivy's South Camp Records (distributed by Atco/Atlantic) in the late '60s.

Most of his recording projects never got out the studio, but he kept busy during live shows in the South with some of soul's major artists. He moved to California in the mid-'80s and embarked on an extensive tour as the lead singer of the Johnny Otis Show. He toured numerous European music festivals in 1985.

Varner settled in Moreno Valley, CA, in the late '80s with his wife Francine and began recording and publishing gospel music for Retour Records and Ceevee and Gospel Truth publishing companies; the couple also ran a concert promotion business. He died in Moreno Valley, California in 2002 of a heart attack at the age of 59.

An album of his music entitled Finally Go Over! was released posthumously.

(Edited from Wikipedia)