Tommy Tate born 29 September 1944

Tommy Tate (September 29, 1945 – January 20, 2017), was an American soul singer and songwriter, who had three hits on the R&B chart in the 1970s. 

Born Thomas Lee Tate in Homestead, Florida, 1945, he moved to his permanent place of residence in Jackson, Mississippi, six years later, after recovering from polio.  Singing first in a church choir, his first professional secular gig took place in Canton, Mississippi, at the age of fourteen.  In the mid-60s he was about to be hired as a drummer for B.J. Thomas, but then he met the production and writing team of Bob McRee, Cliff and Ed Thomas and supported by Tim Whitsett and his Imperial Show Band they released Tommy’s first single on ABC, What’s the Matter b/w Ordinarily in early 1965.  

More singles and some outstanding ones like Big Blue Diamonds and Stand by Me followed on Okeh, Big Ten, (Temporaire), Swing, Verve, Atco and Musicor.  Tim Whitsett and his Imperial Show Band was involved in almost all of them, and in the latter half of the 60s Tate toured widely with the band, which also included singer Dorothy Moore, and after Moore left he became the band's featured vocalist.  They also cut a lot of demos, mostly written by Tommy, for Ilene Berns’ Bang Records in ’68 and ’69, but so far they all remain shelved.  

After the band split up, Tate recorded for Stax Records in 1970 as a member of The Nightingales. In 1972 he started recording for KoKo Records, distributed by Stax, and had his first and biggest chart hit with "School of Life", produced by Johnny Baylor, which reached number 22 on the Billboard R&B chart. Between 1973 and ’76 Tommy performed in the Jackson, Mississippi area with his band, Southern Passion. 

                                  

He remained with KoKo for several years, and had two further minor chart hits in 1976, "Hardtimes S.O.S." (#62 R&B) and "If You Ain't Man Enough" (#93 R&B). He also recorded an album for KoKo, but it was never released until 1996 on the Japanese P-Vine label. 

Between 1973 and ’76 Tommy performed in the Jackson, Mississippi area with the  band, Southern Passion.  In 1979, he joined Malaco Records and released the album Hold On. A second album recorded at the Malaco studios, Tommy Tate, was issued on the Juana label in 1981.

He composed songs that were recorded by Luther Ingram, Bobby Bland, Johnnie Taylor, Isaac Hayes, Little Milton and others. He continued to perform in clubs and to record for small Southern soul labels, and released a third album, Love Me Now, on the Ichiban subsidiary label, Urgent!, in 1990. His last studio album was “All or Nothing” for the P-Vine label in 1992. Despite all his recordings Tate couldn’t replicate the success of ‘School For Life’ and his career experienced a downward trajectory to obscurity. 

His career ended in 2002 when he suffered a debilitating stroke which tied him to a wheelchair.  In 2006 he was honoured at the Jackson Music Awards, and his last years were spent in a nursing center and care-home in Jackson, Mississippi, where he died on 2017, at the age of 71. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Soul Express)