O.V. Wright

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 Overton Vertis Wright, October 9, 1939, in Leno, TN. Died November 16, 1980, in Mobile, AL.

Let's not mince words: O.V. Wright was the greatest deep-soul singer ever. By the time he cut his first secular recording, "That's How Strong My Love Is" for Goldwax Records of Memphis, Tennessee (1964), Wright was already a well-known and successful gospel singer, having sung and recorded with gospel groups such as the Spirit of Memphis Quartet and the Sunset Travelers. Wright is by no means the only artist to abandon the sanctuary of the church in search of the rewards and temptations of the secular world. The pop recordings of Sam Cooke, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, and Johnnie Taylor all make overt or oblique reference to the trauma of this self-imposed exile. But in the work of no other artist, with the possible exception of Green, does this exile play so central a role. Wright's recordings are unmistakably the work of a spiritually troubled man. As if to underscore the gravity of his choice, Wright's secular recordings, more than those of any of his peers, cleave faithfully to the style, structure, and most importantly the feeling and fervor of the deepest and most heartfelt gospel music. The presence of this theme in all of his strongest performances--"You're Gonna Make Me Cry," "Eight Men, Four Women," "Everybody Knows (The River Song)," "Born All Over," "Heartaches, Heartaches," "Memory Blues"--give them a timeless universality that places them on a par with the hymns of Mahalia Jackson, the blues of Robert Johnson, or the country music of Hank Williams.

There were two distinct periods in Wright's 15-year secular career, delineated by the demise of his first record label, Back Beat, which had been owned and operated by the don of Houston rhythm and blues, Don Robey. Midway in his career, Wright migrated to Hi Records, where his longtime producer Willie Mitchell was the principal talent director. Few artists in any medium exhibit so huge a gap between artistic quality and commercial success as O.V. Wright. Wright's two most successful records, "You're Gonna Make Me Cry" and "Eight Men, Four Women," came early in his career at Back Beat, and neither recording received any airplay outside the circumscribed world of 1960s R&B radio. In fact, R&B radio in the late 1960s, the heyday of southern gospel-inflected soul music, is the only radio format during the years spanned by Wright's career in which it is possible to imagine Wright's chilling statements from the spiritual void finding a home. Wright is an artist whose reputation is destined to grow with the historical perspective afforded by time.

Willie Mitchell's production values and house musicians (the Hi Rhythm Section, among others) were essential elements in the brilliance of Wright's recordings. Mitchell had achieved great commercial and artistic success helping Al Green craft a new kind of Memphis soul music in the 1970s. Undoubtedly motivated by the desire to help Wright achieve more of the success and recognition that he so deserved, Mitchell attempted to adapt this softer, more melodic sound to Wright's recordings during Wright's later period at Hi Records. That this sound was not entirely suited to Wright's unique gifts provides one explanation for the relative superiority of the Back Beat recordings. Another factor is that, by all accounts, the O.V. Wright who recorded for Hi was deteriorating from a drug habit that ultimately claimed his life. A comparison of the photographs from the BackBeat albums and the later Hi albums provides stark evidence of his physical deterioration. He died in an ambulance, en route to the hospital, at the age of 41, consumed by the music that haunted him and the life that went with it.

Buy first:[The Soul of O. V. Wright] (MCA, 1992, prod. Willie Mitchell) (5 bones) is the only readily available CD collection from Wright's Back Beat period. It's not enough, not by a long shot, but for now, it's the best there is, and it includes most of the essential recordings. With track time so precious on a single CD that purports to represent the best of these stirring performances, however, it's hard to comprehend the inclusion of "Monkey Dog," a throwaway that is of interest only as Mitchell & Co.'s take on the Bo Diddley beat.

Buy next: The most thorough and high-quality collection of Wright's Hi material is [That's How Strong My Love Is] (Hi, 1991, prod. Willie Mitchell) (5 bones).

Avoid:  [Four and Twenty Elders], O.V. Wright and the Luckett Brothers (Creed, 1991, prod. unknown) (2 bones), a half-hearted attempt late in life by Wright to return to the fold with one of his former gospel groups. Wright sounds sadly lost and uncommitted, and the music, while not bad, is nothing special.

The rest:

• [If It's Only for Tonight] (Back Beat, 1965, prod. Willie Mitchell) (5 bones)
• [Eight Men, Four Women] (MCA, 1967, prod. Willie Mitchell) (5 bones)
• [Nucleus of Soul] (Back Beat, 1968, prod. Willie Mitchell) (5 bones)
• [Memory Blues] (MCA, 1968, prod. Willie Mitchell) (4 1/2 bones)
• [Nickel & a Nail & Ace of Spades) [Back Beat, 1971, prod. Willie Mitchell) (5 bones)
• [Memphis Unlimited] (Back Beat, 1973, prod. Willie Mitchell) (4 1/2 bones)
• [Into Something (Can't Shake Loose)] (Cream/Hi, 1977, prod. Willie Mitchell) (4 bones)
• [The Bottom Line] (Hi, 1978, prod. Willie Mitchell) (4 bones)
• [Pledging My Love] (MCA, 1978, prod. Willie Mitchell) (5 bones)
• [We're Still Together] (Hi, 1979, prod. Willie Mitchell) (3 1/2 bones)
• [Gone for Good] (Charly, 1984, prod. Willie Mitchell) (5 bones)
• [Wright Stuff/Live] (Hi, 1987, prod. Willie Mitchell) (4 bones)
• [45's] (Hi, 1995, prod. Willie Mitchell) (4 1/2 bones)

Worth searching for:

• Like Hi labelmate Otis Clay, Wright was revered and appreciated more in Japan than in the U.S. [The Complete Recorded Works for Back Beat and ABC Label] (P-Vine, Japanese, 1991, prod. Willie Mitchell) (ABC distributed Back Beat product briefly during the final years of the label) is the collection that Wright's talent deserves; unfortunately it has been out of print for several years.
• [Treasured Moments] (P-Vine, Japanese, prod. Willie Mitchell) is also now out of print. It included 17 songs originally issued only on Back Beat 45s.
• [Raisin' the Roof] (Mobile Fidelity, 1992, prod. Various) (4 bones) is a reissue of the LP [On Jesus' Program] by the Sunset Travelers (Peacock, 1964, prod. Don Robey) (4 bones), along with reissued LPs by Rev. Julius Cheeks and a post-Claude Jeter version of the Swan Silvertones. The Sunset Travelers tracks include a couple of lead vocals by Wright.
• Another Wright vocal with the Sunset Travelers can be heard on [Bless My Bones: Memphis Gospel Radio, The Fifties] (Rounder, 1988, prod. Doug Seroff) (4 1/2 bones), a fine gospel collection that also includes the Spirit of Memphis Quartet with Joe Hinton, the Dixie Nightingales (who became Ollie and the Nightingales when they became a pop group), Queen C. Anderson and the Brewster Singers, the Brewsteraires, and others. Grover Blake, musical director of the Sunset Travelers, is quoted in the liner notes as follows: "When I got O.V., we would let him sing just one song, and he could just stand straight, wouldn't even move, just stand. It was such a tremendous voice that when he'd get to a certain peak in his voice, people couldn't stand it anymore...When he left the Sunset Travelers he started with Pop. His first record he cut was a hit in Pop, 'You're Gonna Make Me Cry'...He was a gospel lover. He would come back in many times and sang with the group when he was around or wanted to sing with them. But we didn't let him sing on programs, because people knew he was singing rock and roll, and, you know..."

Influenced by:   Rev. R.H. Harris (Soul Stirrers), Sam Cooke, Rev. Morgan Babb (Radio Four), Rev. Claude Jeter (Swan Silvertones) Johnnie Taylor, Willie Mae Ford Smith, Johnny Ace, Bobby Bland, Al Green, Joe Hinton

Influenced: Otis Clay, Robert Cray

Read more soul articles by Bill Pollak

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