Tyrone Davis

by Bill Pollak

Originally published in MusicHound R&B: The Essential Album Guide, Gary Graff, Josh Freedom du Lac, and Jim McFarlin (eds.); Visible Ink Press (Detroit, MI):

1998.Born 1938, Greenville, Mississippi

Like his first idol Bobby Bland, Tyrone Davis is an underacknowledged, underrecognized giant of American popular music. During the period of his greatest popularity, beginning with his first hit for Dakar in 1968, "Can I Change My Mind" and extending into the early 1980s, Davis scored hit after chart-topping hit. Yet despite both the commercial success and the unparalleled artistry of his classy Chicago-soul recordings, Davis remains far less well known than many of his less-successful and less-talented peers.

Davis' obscurity, like Bland's, may stem from the mature sensibility of his music. The narrative role that Davis adopted in "Can I Change My Mind" and assumed many times thereafter--the contrite lover whose impetuosity has left him on the streets facing the cold Chicago wind and longing to return to the comforts of home--was not readily adoptable by rock 'n roll bands and singers, whose attention might have validated Davis' reputation. Tyrone Davis was no Hoochie Coochie Man; he was a warm, vulnerable, expressive stylist who enveloped songs in his big, deep baritone and delivered them with passion and finely honed craft. What the men may not have known, the women always understood: Davis's core audience has always been mostly female.

A big reason for the success of Davis's 1970s recordings is that they exploited the talents of the cream of the Chicago studio recording community. As his sound matured, producer Willie Henderson and arranger Tom Washington, and later Leo Graham and James Mack, surrounded Davis's voice with big, tight, brassy arrangements, sometimes sweetened with strings and background vocals, to create one of the most exciting new sounds of the decade. Writer Robert Pruter describes Davis's touring band during the mid-1970s as "...the most magnificent-sounding in any form of music, be it rock, blues, or soul. I have seen Al Green, the Rolling Stones, the Band, Bruce Sprinsteen, and numerous others at the height of their careers, and only the James Brown aggregation had a band that could equal the live Davis band in rhythmic fury and overall flash and tightness of sound." [Robert Pruter, Chicago Soul. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992, p. 286].

After leaving Dakar in 1976, Davis and his producer Graham extended the Tyrone Davis sound with major-label support from Columbia Records. At Columbia, Davis made his lushest recordings, the best of which were exquisite ballads such as "In the Mood," "Close to You," and "Heart Failure." After leaving Columbia, Davis and Graham produced a dizzying array of discs on various labels, scoring one major hit with the novelty song "Mom's Apple Pie" (1991). Although Davis's first recording for Malaco Records of Jackson, Mississippi ([Simply Tyrone Davis], 1996) was disappointing, there is reason to hope that the last of the great soul labels will be able to energize Davis's career as it has the careers of Z.Z. Hill, Bobby Bland, Johnnie Taylor, Shirley Brown, Little Milton, and many others.

Buy first:

• Davis's Dakar hits are collected on [Greatest Hits] (Rhino, 1992, prod. Various) (5 bones).
• A subset of this collection is also available as the budget-priced [Turn Back the Hands of Time] (Rhino, 1996, prod. Various) (4 bones).

Buy next:

• [In the Mood: Best of Tyrone Davis] (Columbia 1982 / Sony, 1996, prod. Leo Graham) (4 1/2 bones) is a beautifully packaged and well annotated retrospective of the best of Davis's Columbia recordings.
• [Best of the Future Years] (Ichiban, 1992) (2 1/2 bones, prod. Various) collects some of Davis's better recent recordings for Ichiban.

Avoid: None

The rest:

• [Can I Change My Mind] (Dakar, 1969, prod. Willie Henderson) (4 1/2 bones)
• [Turn Back the Hands of Time] (Dakar, 1970, prod. Willie Henderson) (4 1/2 bones)
• [I Had It All the Time] (Dakar, 1970, prod. Willie Henderson] (4 1/2 bones)
• Greatest Hits (Epic, 1972, prod. Various) (4 bones)
• [Without You in my Life] (Dakar, 1973, prod. Willie Henderson) (4 1/2 bones)
• [It's All in the Game] (Dakar, 1974, prod. Willie Henderson) (4 1/2 bones)
• [Homewreckers] (Dakar, 1975, prod. Various) (4 1/2 bones)
• [Turning Point] (Dakar, 1976, prod. Various) (4 1/2 bones)
• [Love & Touch] (Columbia, 1976, prod. Leo Graham) (4 bones)
• [Let's Be Closer Together] (Columbia, 1977, prod. Leo Graham) (4 1/2 bones)
• [I Can't Go All the Way] (Columbia, 1978, prod. Leo Graham) (4 bones)
• [Can't You Tell It's Me] (Columbia, 1979, prod. Leo Graham) (3 1/2 bones)
• [In the Mood with Tyrone Davis] (Columbia, 1978, prod. Leo Graham) (4 bones)
• [I Just Can't Keep On Going] (Columbia, 1980, prod. Leo Graham) (3 1/2 bones)
• [Tyrone Davis] (Highrise, 1982, prod. Leo Graham) (2 bones)
• [Something Good] (Ocean Front, 1983, prod. Leo Graham] (2 bones)
• [Greatest Hits] (Columbia, 1983, prod. Various) (4 bones)
• [Tyrone Davis Story] (Kent, 1985, prod. Various) (4 1/2 bones)
• [Man of Stone] (Timeless, 1987, prod. Leo Graham) (1 1/2 bones)
• [Pacifier] (Timeless, 1987, prod. Leo Graham) (1 1/2 bones)
• [Timeless Soul Collection] (Timeless, 1987, prod. Leo Graham) (1 1/2 bones)
• [Flashin' Back] (Future, 1988, prod. Leo Graham) (2 bones)
• [I'll Always Love You] (Ichiban, 1991, prod. Leo Graham) (2 1/2 bones)
• [Something's Mighty Wrong] (Ichiban, 1992, prod. Leo Graham) (3 bones)
• [You Stay On My Mind] (Ichiban, 1994, prod. Leo Graham) (2 1/2 bones)
• [Simply Tyrone Davis] (Malaco, 1997, prod. Leo Graham) (2 bones)

Worth searching for: [Our Shining Hour] (Polydor, 1983, prod. unknown) (4 bones). Available in LP only, this collaboration with the Count Basie band presents Davis in an entirely new context.

Influenced by: Bobby Bland, Elvis Presley, Little Milton, Freddie King, Wilson Pickett, Jerry Butler, Otis Clay, Johnny Sayles, Harold Burrage

Influenced:Maurice White, Luther Vandross

Read more soul articles by Bill Pollak

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Last update: 12/15/2004