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Bobby Womack

Had Bobby Womack's music career encompassed only his vocal chops, he would have been regarded as one of R&B's most distinctive voices, with a gritty, gospel-steeped sound that drove such hits as "That's The Way I Feel About Cha," "Woman's Gotta Have It" and the title track for "Across 110th Street" (1972) to the top of the charts between 1970 and 1975. But Womack was also an accomplished songwriter whose credits included "It's All Over Now," which gave the Rolling Stones their first No. 1 single in the United States, as well as George Benson's "Breezin'" and "Lookin' for a Love," which he penned for the Valentinos, an R&B act he formed with his brothers under the aegis of Sam Cooke. However, Womack's success was frequently offset by tremendous personal losses, from a scandal that erupted in the wake of his marriage to Cooke's widow, to tragic family deaths and a crippling drug addiction. All would eventually contribute to the decline of his star status in the mid-1970s, which would undergo sporadic revivals over the next three decades. But his best work earned him a devoted fanbase among other musicians, who frequently covered his songs or, like the U.K. "virtual band" Gorillaz, tapped him to lend old-school vocal fire to their neo-funky efforts like "Stylo." Bobby Womack's enduring fame and exceptional accomplishments lent credence to the title of his 1987 LP, The Last Soul Man. His death on June 27, 2014 was preceded by a final burst of creativity that served as a summation of his singular career.