Joseph Simon (September 7, 1936* – December 13, 2021) was an American soul and R&B musician.
Simon was born in Simmesport, Louisiana, United States. Similar to many other African American artists from the era, Simon began singing in his father's Baptist church. He pursued his vocal abilities full-time once the family moved to Richmond (near Oakland, California) in the late 1950s. There Simon joined the Golden West Gospel Singers and became influenced by Sam Cooke and Arthur Prysock. With this, the group decided to turn secular and recorded "Little Island Girl" as the Golden Tones in 1959.
Hush Records label owners Gary and Carla Thompson urged Simon to record on his own, and in 1964 Simon scored a minor hit on the Vee-Jay label with "My Adorable One". Simon scored again in 1965 on the Chicago-based label with "Let's Do It Over", which landed a number 13 spot on the US Billboard R&B chart. However, the Vee-Jay label folded soon after the latter song's release and Simon found himself travelling across the country singing.
Simon caught the eye of Nashville, Tennessee, R&B disc jockey John Richbourg during this time, and Richbourg not only became Simon's manager/record producer but also brought the singer to Monument Records' subsidiary label Sound Stage 7 in 1966. That year Simon released "Teenager's Prayer", which peaked at number 11 on Billboard's R&B chart. Within the next two years, Simon released a string of hits: "(You Keep Me) Hanging On", "The Chokin' Kind" (Billboard Hot 100 number 13), "Farther on Down The Road", and "Yours Love". "The Chokin' Kind" was written by Harlan Howard, spent 12 weeks in the charts, and had sold one million copies by June 16, 1969. In 1969, his composition "My Special Prayer", which had been a minor US hit for himself and for Percy Sledge, went to number one on the Dutch Top 40 in Sledge's version, spending 32 weeks on chart in two separate chart runs.
Simon was given a Grammy Award in 1970 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Under the encouragement of Richbourg, Simon moved to the Polydor distributed Spring Records label which paired Simon with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. The team scored a number 3 R&B hit in 1971 with "Drowning in the Sea of Love" and a number 1 R&B hit in the summer of 1972 with "Power of Love". Both songs reached number 11 on the Hot 100. "Drowning in the Sea of Love" sold over 1.5 million copies and the RIAA on January 6, 1972, gave a gold disc. "Power of Love", written by Gamble, Huff and Simon was Simon's third million seller, and the R.I.A.A. awarded gold disc status on August 29, 1972.
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Simon continued to release R&B hits with "Pool of Bad Luck", "Trouble in My Home", "Step By Step" (his only UK success), "I Need You, You Need Me", "Music in My Bones", "Carry Me", and 1975's "Get Down, Get Down (Get on the Floor)", which gave Simon his third number 1 R&B hit, and also a number 8 Hot 100 hit. Simon's success escalated with his writing/producing the theme tune for the film Cleopatra Jones in 1973.
In the late 1970s/early 1980s, Simon decided to remove his tenor/bass-baritone voice from the secular music world and devote it and other parts of his life to Christianity. Simon began evangelical preaching in Flossmoor, Illinois. In 1983, he produced the album Lay My Burden Down for former Davis Sisters second lead Jackie Verdell. Simon briefly returned to secular music in 1985 for his Mr. Right album, though none of its singles charted. He went on to release a gospel album titled This Story Must Be Told in the late 1990s.
In 1999, Simon was inducted as a Pioneer Award honoree by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2017 he was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, making him the first artist to be inducted into a religious and secular music hall of fame.
He died on December 13, 2021. Simon's wife Melanie informed the Journal of Gospel Music of his death: "Joe had been ill for some time and spent his final night at home with her, even talking about going back into the studio. He died of breathing problems in an ambulance on his way to hospital.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Donnellan obit) (*Some sources gave his age as 85, in contrast to sources during his lifetime that had indicated a later year of birth of 1943).
