Sam Moore, lead singer of Sam & Dave soul duo, has died

American lead singer of soulduo Sam & Dave Sam Moore died on Friday, January 10, in a Florida hospital, according to several media outlets, for example The New York Times and The Guardian. Moore died of complications after surgery and was 89 years old when he died. He was born on October 12, 1935 in Miami.

Sam Moore became famous in the 1960s as the tenor singer of the duo Sam & Dave. The collaboration began when Moore and the baritone Dave Prater participated in a talent show organized in a Miami nightclub in the early 1960s. They hadn’t planned to perform together, but Moore took the stage with Prater because Prater was having trouble remembering the words to the song on his own.

Success started coming after they got behind the major label Atlantic, who also distributed records produced by the Memphis-based Stax label based in Seoul. At Stax, Sam & Dave recorded their greatest hits, for example Hold On, I’m Comin’ (1966) and Soul Man (1967).

With the popularity came problems as both Sam and Dave got hooked on heroin. After the popularity waned, the duo broke up in 1970, but got back together the following year. Despite their collaboration, Moore and Prater were never particularly close.

New popularity Sam & Dave’s music came with the Blues Brothers in the late 1970s, when Soul Man -song became a hit again John Belushin and And Aykroydin as interpreted by the band he led on the album released in 1978.

The last time Sam & Dave performed together was in 1981, after which they stopped talking to each other. Prater began to concert another singer Sam Danielsin with names referring to the original Sam & Dave, which Sam Moore opposed and also tried to block through the courts. Prater died in 1988 in a car accident.

The original after the duo broke up, Sam Moore continued to perform, for example, on cruises and nostalgia events. He got dry from drugs in the early 1980s, his wife Joycen through. The highlights of his later music career included, for example, the one recorded in 1970 but not released Plenty Good Lovin’ – solo album release in 2002.