Joseph Arrington Jr. (better known as Joe Tex; August 8, 1935 – August 13, 1982) was an American singer and musician who gained success in the 1960s and 1970s with his brand of Southern soul, which mixed the styles of funk, country, gospel, and rhythm and blues.
Tex was born in Rogers, Texas to Joseph Arrington and Cherie Sue (Jackson) Arrington. He and his sister Mary Sue were originally raised by their grandmother Mary Richardson until their parents’ divorce when they moved to Baytown with their mother. Tex played baritone saxophone at George Washington Carver High School and sang in his church choir at McGowen COGIC Temple in Baytown. Tex frequently entered Houston-area talent shows and in one instance won $300 and a trip to New York in 1953. This trip allowed him to perform as an amateur at the Apollo Theatre, winning first place over other future greats such as Johnny Nash
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and Hubert Laws. Talent scout and future manager Henry Glover saw Tex there. Tex did not sign right away with Glover, however as his mother wanted him to finish high school first. Joe Tex waited for a year, and through Glover, signed with King Records at the age of 19.
Joe Tex recorded under the King Records label from 1955 to 1957 with little success. However, it was there that Tex’s rivalry with Fellow King Records artist James Brown began. In 1958, Tex signed with Ace recording studios and began to perfect his trademark microphone tricks and dance moves. It was these dance moves and tricks that many claim James Brown stole from Tex. He was credited with one important innovation in soul music, the spoken “soul preaching” style which he called “rap” and which would be imitated by Isaac Hayes, Barry White, and Millie Jackson among others.
Tex opened for artists such as Jackie Wilson and Little Richard while with Ace until 1960. He then recorded with Dial Records from 1960 to 1964. In 1964 he found a recording home and garnered his first hit, “Hold On To What You’ve Got” (1965) at
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FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Ironically Tex did not feel the song would do well and actually tried to stop its release, but the studio went against his wishes and it sold more than a million copies by 1966.
FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Ironically Tex did not feel the song would do well and actually tried to stop its release, but the studio went against his wishes and it sold more than a million copies by 1966.Tex made his mark by preaching over tough hard soul tracks, clowning at some points, swooping into a croon at others. He was perhaps the most rustic and back-country of the soul stars, a role he played to the hilt by using turns of phrase that might have been heard on any ghetto street corner, "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" the prototype. In 1966, his "I Believe I'm Gonna Make It," an imaginary letter home from Vietnam, became the first big hit directly associated with that war.
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| King Curtis, Aretha Franklin & Joe Tex |
After "Skinny Legs," Tex continued recording hits until 1972, when he decided to pursue life as a minister in the Nation of Islam after converting in 1966 when he changed his offstage name to Yusef Hazziez. He came back to music after the death of the Nation’s leader, Elijah Muhammad in 1975.He was too down-home for the slickness of the disco era, or so it would have seemed, yet in 1977, he adapted a dance craze, the Bump, and came up with the hilarious "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)," his last Top Ten R&B hit, which also crossed over to number 12 on the pop chart.His last public appearance was in 1981. After that, Tex retreated from the public eye and retired to his ranch in Navasota, Texas with his wife Beliliah Hazziez. Though he lived most of his life clear and free of drugs and alcohol, according to Tex's longtime
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producer Buddy Killen, Tex indulged in drug addiction and alcohol abuse during the last four years of his life. Tex's final performances as part of the Soul Clan pictured him as gaunt and looking unwell, which Killen claimed that Tex had "lost his will to live".
In early August 1982, Tex was found at the bottom of his swimming pool at his home in Navasota. After being sent to the hospital, he was revived and sent home. Just a few days later, on August 13, 1982, five days after his 47th birthday, he died at the Grimes Memorial Hospital in Navasota, following a fatal heart attack
Joe Tex was nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame six times, most recently in 2017.
(Edited from blacpast.org, AllMusic & Wikipredia)