Willie Hightower at Porretta Soul Festival, Italy (photo by Pertti Nurmi)
Willie Hightower
didn’t disappoint his many European fans, who had come to see him at the
Porretta Soul Festival in Italy last July. On the contrary, he thrilled us all
with his half hour set, which included many of his best-known songs from the
1960s and 1970s. There were such happy-go-lucky, finger-snapping numbers as Nobody
but You and If I Had a Hammer and the imposing Walk a Mile in My
Shoes, but the most impressive and touching moments were felt during the
bluesy You Used Me Baby and especially the deep Time Has Brought
about a Change and It’s a Miracle. This concert took place on
Friday evening, July the 21st, and two nights later Willie still appeared
on stage to sing Walk a Mile in My Shoes and You Used Me.
THE GOSPEL CONSOLATERS
Willie Frank
Hightower was born in Gadsden, Alabama, on September the 30th in
1940. With a population of over 35 000, Gadsden is located about 90 km
northeast of Birmingham. A blues musician by the name of Jerry McCain (1930-2012)hails from that region as well as Beyoncé’s father, Mathew
Knowles. Willie: “It was a nice neighbourhood, a safe
neighbourhood. I enjoyed Gadsden, and I still live in there. In the early
days I stayed out on the road quite a bit, so I didn’t spend very much time at
home.” Of the family, only Willie’s two daughters – Kathy (53)and
Frankie (51)– are involved in music. “A couple of years back
they were on the road with me. They were backup girls, plus they would do
their own show.” The music world knows also another Willie Hightower, a jazz
cornet and trumpet player out of Nashville, but he passed away in Chicago
already in 1959.
Willie: “I
started in music when I was about six years old and I sang in a church choir in
Betlehem Baptist Church. The Silver Stars was my first group. It was a
local group and all the members were raised up in the same neighbourhood. I
went on the road with the Gospel Consolaters from Pasadena, California,
when I was 18 years old. I was with them for a couple of years, and I came
back home.”
Initially called
the Loving Five, the group was founded in Texas in 1949 and under the
new name of the Gospel Consolaters (also spelled Consolators) in the
mid-1950s in Californiait recorded for Big Town and H & W Records.
The latter label was named after the founder of the Loving Five, Robert H. Hood,
and another member at the time, Rio Watson. In 1959 on Julius
Cheeks’ advice, Don Robey signed the group to his Peacock label out
of Houston, Texas, and organized three recording sessions for them between 1959
and ’61. In the line-up of Charles B. Johnson (lead tenor),
Nathaniel Bills (bass), Robert Hoodand Joseph Dumas (tenors)
and Oscar Cook (baritone, Sam Cooke’s cousin), they had seven
singles released on Peacock between 1959 and 1962/3.
The group,
however, had disbanded already in 1961, but Willie definitely attended one of
those recording sessions. “I recorded with them on the Peacock label a song
called Why Do Men Treat the Lord the Way They Do. I was one of the lead
singers. However, I never got to meet Don Robey.” Written by Hightower, the
song was released on Peacock 5-1845, and Willie is singing also on the B-side, The
Last Mile. Still on Peacock 1850 they released a song titled Lord Be My
Guide, credited again to Hightower. “I really don’t remember that song. I
wrote so many songs those days” (laughing).
Willie is
sometimes believed to be a member of another gospel group those days, the
Hightower Brothers, who recorded for Gospel, Nashboro and Peacock labels
between 1958 and ’64. It was however father and five sons out of DeLand,
Florida – based later in Newark, New Jersey - and the second tenor in that
group was called Willie James Hightower. “As a matter of fact, the
Hightower Brothers travelled with us quite a bit. We would do programs
together”
WHAT AM I LIVING FOR
“In r&b my
favourite artist is Sam Cooke and in gospel the Soul Stirrers, the group
Sam Cooke was in. I play a little guitar, a little bass and a little
keyboard. In the early 1960s I started working in a little club in Birmingham,
Alabama. First I was working in my friend’s band, and then about a year and a
half later I put my own band together. There was a DJ down there in Birmingham
by the name of Shelley Stewart.”
Born in 1934, after
a rough childhood filled with abuse Shelley kicked off his radio career at an
early age, actually when he was only fifteen. In the early 60s he was
broadcasting as “Shelley the Playboy” on the WENN AM station in Birmingham, where
he had a huge following, and he was also a well-known civil rights activist
those days. Eventually he got inducted into the ABA Hall of Fame and today at
83 is still known as an active businessman.
“Shelley and Bobby
Robinson were friends. He got in touch with Bobby and told him that he got
a young man here that he liked a lot. Shelley was never my manager. I managed
myself at that point. Shelley only introduced me to Bobby.” A record shop
owner first, Bobby Robinson (1917-2011) evolved into a well-known New York producer
and a label owner. Starting out in music business as early as in 1951, his
best-known labels were Fury, Everlast, Fire and Enjoy Records, and some of the
artists he produced on those labels included Gladys Knight & the Pips,
Buster Brown, King Curtis, Bobby Marchan, Wilbert Harrison, Lee Dorsey and
a number of r&b and doowop artists prior to the 60s soul era and even rap
in his later years... and, of course, Willie Hightower.
As a result of
Shelley contacting Bobby, Willie flew to New York. “New York was different
from the south, but I’ve always enjoyed working in clubs in New York. Crowd
was very responsive. Bobby was a nice fellow. When we recorded, he mostly let
me do what I wanted to do. He never put pressure on me.”
Willie’s first
secular single in 1965 on the Enjoy label introduced his cover of What Am I
Living For. Cut in New York in July, the song had been a gold record for Chuck
Willis in 1958 and it’s been covered by Z.Z. Hill,Percy Sledge,
Conway Twitty, Solomon Burke, Clyde McPhatter, Barbara Lynn etc. etc. Written
by Fred Jay and Art Harris, Willie turned the song into an
uptempo number. “It was my idea.” The self-written flip, Too Late, is
a plaintive bluesoul ballad, which bears a resemblance to some of Bobby
Bland’s music those days. “I was never influenced by Bobby Bland. I like
Bobby Bland, but Sam Cooke was my idol.”
IF I HAD A HAMMER
Bobby Robinson
released Willie’s next two singles on his Fury label. Pete Seeger and Lee
Hays wrote If I Had a Hammer already in 1949, and the Weavers were
the first to release it on Hootenanny Records a year later. Other noteworthy
versions include Pete’s own recording in 1956, Peter, Paul and Mary in 1962 (#
10-pop, Billboard), Trini Lopez in 1963 (# 3-pop), Martha and the Vandellas and
Freddie Scott in 1963, and Aaron Neville in 2002.
Willie’s
vocalizing is powerful on this pop-goes-soul, finger-snapping arrangement of
the song, which was released in 1966. “I chose the song. I liked the song the
way Sam Cooke did it on his album, which was Sam Cooke at the Copa
(1964). That’s where I got the idea from. If I Had a Hammer was
recorded in Memphis.” On the B-side they placed Willie’s nice toe-tapper
titled So Tired (of Running away from Love).
The second Fury
single a year later combines Bobby’s soft serenade, the pretty (Take My
Hand) Let’s Walk Together with a Sam Cooke-sounding, easy mid-tempo mover
named I Love You (Yes I Do), also credited to Robinson. Warm
and Tender Love and Lookin’ for a Home were also Fury recordings,
but went unreleased at the time.
During a
two-and-a-half-year period from the spring of 1967 till the end of 1969 Willie
had still four singles and one album released, but this time they all appeared
on Capitol. “It was through Bobby. His label went out of business, so he
contacted Capitol Records. He knew some people there.”
Willie’s first
Capitol songs were recorded in New York in March 1967 and released in May.
Produced by Richard Gottehrer and Seymour Stein(bigle) and
arranged by Robert Banks, a tender Sam Cooke medley of For
Sentimental Reasons & You Send Me was coupled with Willie’s storming
scorcher spiced with full horns and intense background vocals called Because
I Love You. One of the producers, Richard Gottehrer, had enjoyed earlier
success with the Angels’ My Boyfriend’s Back and the McCoys’ Hang
on Sloopy, and afterwards with Seymour Stein he founded Sire Records in the
late 1960s.
IT’S A MIRACLE
Willie’s first
record to appear on Billboard’s charts is his second Capitol single, released
in the summer of 1968. It’s also Willie’s own favourite out of all the
material he has released. Produced by Bobby Robinson again, a beautiful and
haunting ballad named It’s a Miracle (by Robinson-Hightower)peaked
at # 33 - rhythm & blues and # 130-pop, although this took place only about
ten months after its official release date. On the flip there was a cover of Dee
Clark’s late 1958 hit, Nobody but You, and in this case Willie added
a lot of soul to this merry mid-tempo jogger. “I chose that song. I really
like that. Dee and me, we were friends.”
Some of the
songs that were cut in those Capitol sessions were left in the can. Willie
remembers having recorded Time Waits for No One, but he doesn’t
recognize such titles as It Is No Secret (What God Can Do), Happy
Go Lucky Fellow and He Had a Dream.
The final
Capitol single with fresh material was released in the summer of 1969. Both
sides written by Bobby and Willie and produced by Bobby, It’s Wonderful to
be in Love with You is a laid-back and a bit bluesy ballad, whereas Ooh
Baby How I Love You bears a slight resemblance to Fred Hughes’ 1965
hit, Oo Wee Baby, I Love You. “I think they were recorded in Memphis,
but I’m not one hundred percent sure.” The fourth and last Capitol single in
late 1969 paired two previously released sides, If I Had a Hammer and It’s
Too Late. Interestingly, It’s Too Late is now credited to both Hightower
and Robinson, as opposed to Hightower alone as on Enjoy in 1965.
Willie’s first
album, If I Had a Hammer (on Capitol in 1969), was actually a collection
of his earlier single sides. Of the 11 tracks on display, only two appear here
for the first time. Willie takes Sam Cooke’s song Somebody Have Mercy to
church, and this driving track became later known also under the title of Standing
Here Wondering. A self-penned beautiful serenade called You Are Mine
derives from Willie’s first Capitol session, which was produced by Gottehrer
and Stein. Executive producer of the album is Tom Morgan, who produced
for Capitol from the late 1950s till the early 1970s numerous artists,
including Ed Townsend, Nancy Wilson and Al Martino. In 2016
Capitol released a downloadable, expanded edition of the If I Had a Hammer album
with seven bonus tracks.
WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES
“I was on the
Capitol label and Rick Hall and Capitol were kind of merged together.
Rick Hall would record r&b stuff, so that’s how I wound up with Rick.” Cut
at Fame in Muscle Shoals and produced by Rick Hall, an energetic and truly
soulful cover of Walk a Mile in My Shoes was released in the spring of
1970, and it became Willie’s second and last charted single in Billboard (#
26-soul, # 107-pop). “It was Rick Hall’s idea. Rick was a great producer and
I enjoyed recording for Fame Records.”
Joe South’s
original single had peaked at # 12-pop in early 1970, and of countless other
versions soul music fans cherish especially Otis Clay’s rendition in
2007. Backed again by the Fame Gang, on the B-side Willie delivers a
mournful and deep soul ballad titled You Used Me Baby, co-written by his
grandmother. “She got benefits from it” (laughing).
Six months later
a passionate reading of Time has brought about a change was released on
Fame. “I wrote that. I got the idea from Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna
Come.” Although Willie was never active in civil rights movement, he put
his heart and soul into this deep ballad. Produced by Rick and strings
arranged by Jimmie Haskell and horns by Harrison Calloway, Willie’s
impressive delivery is full of emotion, whereas on the flip George Jackson’s
and Mickey Buckins’ pretty ballad called I Can’t Love without You is
lighter and more restrained.
On the plug side
of Willie’s third and final Fame single in March 1971 they released O.B.
McClinton’s touching and story-telling mid-tempo song called Back Road
into Town. “Rick wanted me to do it, because Clarence Carter was so
successful with Patches, and he thought that it would be a good idea to
record Back Road into Town.” Indeed, Patches is the closest
comparison and, among others, O.B. himself recorded Back Road in 1988. On
the flip they put George Jackson’s and Raymond Moore’s peaceful
country-soul number named Poor Man.
After six single
sides, Southern soul fans were ready for Willie’s Fame album, but unfortunately
it never materialized. According to Willie, at Fame nothing was left in the
can. “Rick just decided that he would go out of r&b. He let me go, he let
Clarence Carter go, he let Candi Staton go... I think he wanted to go
another way.” Indeed, Rick and Fame started focusing more on country and rock
at that point.
Rodney Hall would like to point out that Clarence and Candi both were with Fame several years after
Willie was with Fame. Candi and Clarence did several albums during the United Artists era of Fame Records.
Willie with Rick Hall
DON’T BLAME ME
“How I got with
Mercury? I think a friend of mine called them and told them that I was free to
record for other people, if they were interested.” Musically abandoning Fame
wasn’t such a catastrophe after all, because the next stop for Willie was at Chips
Moman’s American Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. “I really enjoyed working
with Chips. We only did that one record, but I would have liked to record more
there, because he’s really a good producer, but we didn’t get a chance to do
anymore.”
That one record
that Chips and Willie did together for Mercury in 1972 was a pleasant cover of Freddie
Hart’s melodic and smooth mid-tempo floater called Easy Lovin’.
Freddie himself had released the song in July 1971 and earned gold with it. It
even topped country charts for three weeks. On the B-side of Willie’s single
there was a self-penned, mellow mid-pacer named I Love you so.
Written,
produced and arranged by Willie, his second Mercury single is one of his
masterpieces - a beautiful and heartfelt ballad called Don’t Blame Me.
Released in May 1973, it’s simply one of his most emotional and soulful
deliveries. On the flip they released a track from Willie’s and Chips’
preceding session in Atlanta, a quick-tempo and intense number titled Hungry
for Your Love. In 2001 on a CD called 24 Karat Soul there was still
James Carr’s slowed-down version of the song, which was co-written by
Willie and Shirley Pruitt. “She’s a writer from Gadsden. She’s still
alive, but she’s not writing anymore.”
The following
year on Mercury they were supposed to release a single with such songs as Freedom
Wasn’t Meant to Be and Hello Happiness. “They were never released.
Freedom was a slow message song, and Hello is kind of uptempo.”
They also left in the can at least two more songs. “Close People is
mid-tempo and Medley of Love is slow.”
We had to wait
until December 1976 for Willie’s next single. This time on the almost dormant
Sound Stage 7 label out of Nashville they released two funky cuts: the
radiating and energetic Chicago, Send Her Home backed with the more
angular Ain’t Nothing Wrong (with Loving One Woman). They were
produced and written by Jesse Boyce and Sanchez Harley of the Bottom
& Co fame. “I knew the bass player Jesse Boyce. He’s the one, who
played bass on Walk a Mile in My Shoes, and he and Sanchez Harley teamed
up.”
Thanks to Garry
J. Cape in the U.K. and his Hit and Run label, still in 2011 we could enjoy
two more songs created by Willie, Jesse and Sanchez. Recorded at Pete’s Place
in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1977, Special Affair is a nice, light disco
dancer, while Love Pains is a more formulaic disco number.
Unfortunately, Chicago
remained Willie’s sole single on Sound Stage 7. “I don’t know what happened
over there.” Actually Willie’s next recording sessions took place only in
1982. “In between I wasn’t doing anything. I was performing, but not
recording.”
Willie Hightower with Heikki Suosalo (photo by Pertti Nurmi)
WILLIE and QUINTON
Willie: “Quinton
Claunch called me and asked me, if I’d be interested in doing an album with
him. I told him ‘yes’ and we did it. That’s how that one came about.” For
the short history of Quinton Claunch, please go to https://www.soulexpress.net/williewalker_interview.htm
and scroll down a bit.
Quinton:
“Back in the 1970s I leased to Vivid Sound in Japan several masters, all that
Goldwax stuff. They called me back later in the ‘70s and said ‘we’ll give you
$ 15 000 for an album and invite you and Willie Hightower over here to
produce it’, but I couldn’t run Willie down. I couldn’t find him. I finally
met him in 1982. It all started with a call from Japan again, after which I
ran Willie down in Gadsden, Alabama. I made two trips to his home, and after
that we started to do the album with Willie Mitchell.”
Recorded at
Royal Recording Studios in Memphis, produced by Quinton Claunch and William (Bill)
Cantrell and engineered by Willie Mitchell, the players in those
sessions included Teenie Hodges on guitar, Leroy Hodges on bass, Charles
Hodges on keyboards, Howard Grimes on drums, Andrew Love on
tenor sax, James Mitchell on baritone sax and Gene Miller on
trumpet.
Quinton: “Bill
Cantrell helped me to set this thing up with Willie Mitchell at his studio.
Willie Hightower had to make two trips up here to record those songs, altogether
two days. We picked the songs – some I liked and some of them I didn’t like,
but I didn’t want to push him too much. He and his co-writer wrote ten of
those songs, and I had one that he liked really well and he wanted to do that.
I was in charge of paying everything, the sessions, his motel and all his
expenses here. All it cost him was his time. He agreed to half of the writer
publishing.” The publishing was split between Willie’s Too Late Music and
Quinton’s Philtac Music Company. “P-Vine in Japan gave me a $ 2000 advance.”
They recorded
twelve songs in Memphis, and most of them were light mid-tempo toe-tappers or
more hammering steppers, such as Walk on Water, Intensive Care, Too Many
Irons in the Fire, Try My Love and a re-recording of Hungry for Your
Love from Willie’s Mercury days. You can throw in the same bag a nice
cover of All Because Of Your Love, best known by Otis Clay.
JACKIE RAGLAND
Willie’s
co-writer that Quinton mentioned above is Jackie Ragland, who was also
in Porretta this summer. He wrote with Willie most of the slow songs for the
project, including the smooth Tell Me What You Want, the beautiful Sunshine
and the mellow Friend to Friend. Among their songs there were still
a beat-ballad called Caught up in the Middle, a mellow down-tempo number
titled Rock Me Slowly and High on Your Love, whichis more
likea post-disco dancer. Willie: “Walk on Water is one of my favourites,
but I really like them all - especially Tell Me What You Want and Too
Many Irons in the Fire. Jack and I wrote those together.”
Jackie:
“We were both born here in Gadsden. I’ve known Willie for all of my life.
When we first started writing together, I was the principal of the school his
daughters went to. I told them that I was writing a bit, so we got together
with Willie and started writing together. Willie had stopped singing at that
point. I already had some songs and we just pieced them together.”
Those recordings,
however, were released only 25 years later and only in Japan. Quinton: “I
couldn’t get attention on the album. I couldn’t get takes on it, couldn’t come
up with an agreement. I released it over in Japan with three other artists,
but P-Vine couldn’t do a thing with it. I thought it’s going to be terrific.
I’m surprised that - although it has aged - it sounds so good. I enjoyed
working with Willie. He’s real nice.”
Those three
other artists on Quinton Claunch’s Hidden Soul Treasures (on P-Vine in
2007) are Jerry L (Put Love First / Ease It To Me / Too Poor to Die /
The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me), Ollie Nightingale (Sexy Lady,
Love Me After Midnight) and Joe L. Thomas (You Could Stand
Another Greasin’).
TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT
Willie’s last
record – prior to the upcoming CD – derives from 1985, when he re-cut two of
his favourite songs from the Memphis sessions, Too Many Irons in the Fire and
Tell Me What You Want. Willie: “We re-recorded them with James
Anthony Carmichael, who was Lionel Richie’s producer. James is my
cousin.” Released on the L.A. based Adventure One Records in 1985 and - in
spite of James’ involvement - the credited producers on the label are Mitchell,
Hightower and Cochran – “he’s from New York.” Some of the other artists
on that short-lived label include Eula Cooper, (the actor) Roger E.
Mosley and Plateau.
Music-wise the
last thirty years has been a lean period for Willie. “I wasn’t doing any
recordings, just mostly personal appearances... and not so very often.” He
made his triumphant return on October the 2nd in 2015 in New Orleans
at the Ponderosa Stomp festival. “That was my comeback (laughing) and now
Porretta is the second one. I’m really looking forward to coming back here. Other
than that, I’m looking forward to finishing my new album.”
OUT OF THE BLUE
Quinton, who turned 96 the 3rd of December and is doing great:
"I had signed a new artist, Alonzo Pennington, to a recording contract and
we were looking for the best studio to do an album on him. A good friend
in Muscle Shoals recommended that I check out Wishbone Studio. There
had been a lot of Hits, cut with them. This reminded me, there are a host
of World Class musicians in that area. We checked out the Wishbone Op,
and were very impressed with the sound quality and the expertise of the
recording engineer, Billy Lawson. Therefore, I booked it for the Alonzo P.
project. Lawson told me, he was opening his own studio, & asked if I knew
any Old School R&B Artists? I asked if he had heard of the legendary...
Willie Hightower. He quickly replied, he had, and asked if I could find out
if he was interested? I did locate him, and after a detailed conversation,
we signed a recording contract on December 20, 2015. Lawson & I forged
a co-production agreement for the Hightower Project, & we recorded the
first 4 songs, at his new, Big Star Studio, and the results were, very good!
Lawson has since purchased Wishbone, & we've recorded the additional 6
songs to complete a 10 song CD and titled it "Out Of The Blue".
"Ace Records in London will be handling the World-Wide distribution on our
Soultrax Label. They are confident, it will be a Winner!"
"I'll take this opportunity to say, Willie is a very congenial person, & even at
his age, he still has the full package! He told me, he had other offers for
recording, but wanted to work with me instead! This is an honor... indeed!!!"
(Interviews
conducted on July 22, October 25, November 11 and December 3 in 2017)
DISCOGRAPHY
SINGLES
(label # / titles
/ Billboard placings: rhythm & blues or soul/pop / year)
THE GOSPEL
CONSOLATERS
Peacock 1845) Why
Do Men Treat The Lord The Way They Do / The Last Mile (1962)
Peacock 1850) Lord
Be My Guide / Who Is He (My Friend Jesus)
WILLIE HIGHTOWER
Enjoy 2019) What
Am I Living For / Too Late (1965)
Fury 5002) If I
Had A Hammer / So Tired (Of Running Away From Love) (1966)
Fury 5004) (Take
My Hand) Let’s Walk Together / I Love You (Yes I Do) (1967)
Capitol 5916) For
Sentimental Reasons & You Send Me / Because I Love You
Capitol 2226) It’s
A Miracle (# 33/130) / Nobody But You (1968)
Capitol 2547) It’s
Wonderful To Be In Love With You / Ooh Baby How I Love You (1969)
Capitol 2651) If I
Had A Hammer / It’s Too Late
Fame 1465) Walk A
Mile In My Shoes (# 26/107) / You Used Me Baby (1970)
Fame 1474) Time
Has Brought About A Change / I Can’t Love Without You
Fame 1477) Back
Road Into Town / Poor Man (1971)
Mercury 73338)
Easy Lovin’ / I Love You So (1972)
Mercury 73390)
Don’t Blame Me / Hungry For Your Love (1973)
Sound Stage 7)
Chicago, Send Her Home / Ain’t Nothing Wrong (With Loving One Woman) (1976)
Adventure One
8502) Too Many Irons In The Fire / Tell Me What You Want (1985)
Hit And Run 1510 -
U.K.) Special Affair / Love Pains (2011)
ALBUMS
IF I HAD A HAMMER
(Capitol, ST-367) 1969
It’s A Miracle / I
Love You (Yes I Do) / It’s Wonderful To Be In Love With You / Take My Hand
(Let’s Walk Together) / It’s Too Late / Nobody But You / Ooh Baby How I Love
You / Somebody Have Mercy / Medley: (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons &
You Send Me / You Are Mine / If I Had A Hammer
Walk On Water /
Rock Me Slowly / All Because Of Your Love / High On Your Love / Tell Me What
You Want / Sunshine / Intensive Care / Friend To Friend / Too Many Irons In The
Fire / Try My Love / Caught Up In The Middle / Hungry For Your Love
+ 7 tracks by
Jerry L, Ollie Nightingale and Joe L. Thomas
SELECTED COMPILATIONS
GOLDEN CLASSICS
(Collectables, COL-5170) 1990
-
note: first on Fire
Records, P-Vine PLP-6002 in Japan in 1983
It’s A Miracle /
Nobody But You / Ooh Baby How I Love You / (Take My Hand) Let’s Walk Together)
/ I Love You (Yes I Do) / If I Had A Hammer / Standing Here Wondering / It’s
Too Late / So Tired (Of Running Away From Love) / What Am I Living For
HIGH QUALITY SOUL
(Capitol, TOCP-6601) 1991
-
CD with 12 tracks
THE BEST OF WILLIE
HIGHTOWER (Soul From The Vault, SFTV-1001) 1992
Walk A Mile In My
Shoes / Back Road Into Town / If I Had A Hammer / Nobody But You / You Used Me
/ Time Has Brought About A Change / It’s Too Late / (Take My Hand) Let’s Walk
Together / Poor Man / I Can’t Love Without You / I Love You (Yes I Do) / It’s
Wonderful To Be In Love With You / Ooh Baby How I Love You / Somebody Have
Mercy / Because I Love You / You Are Mine / It’s A Miracle / For Sentimental
Reasons & You Send Me
-
also an EP, 12 “ vinyl:
Walk A Mile In My Shoes / Back Road Into Town / I Can’t Love Without You //
Time Has Brought About A Change / You Used Me Baby / Poor Man (Honest Jon’s
HJP22; 2004)
THE GENUINE SOUL
OF WILLIE HIGHTOWER (Fire-60022; Japan) 2014
-
27 tracks
Acknowledgements
to Willie Hightower, Quinton Claunch, Jackie Ragland, Graziano Uliani and
Pertti Nurmi; and a big thank you to Debbie Dixon.