CORAL GABLES, Florida — Sam Moore, the surviving half and higher voice of the 1960s duo Sam & Dave, best known for his era-defining hits like “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” has died. He was 89 years old.
Publicist Jeremy Westby said Moore died Friday morning in Coral Gables, Florida, while recovering from complications from surgery. No additional details were immediately available.
Moore, who was influenced by musicians Michael Jackson, Al Green and Bruce Springsteen, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 along with Dave Prater.
At Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, Moore and Prater were second only to Otis Redding. They turned gospel music’s “call and response” into a frantic stage show and recorded some of soul music’s most enduring hits, including “You Don’t Know Like I Know,” “When Something is Wrong With My Baby,” and more. “Thank you.”
Most of their hits were written and produced by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter and Booker T was the Stax house band. & The MGs, whose guitarist Steve Cropper got one of music’s most famous shout-outs from Sam & Dave called “Play it, Steve” “Soul Man”.
Like many 60s soul acts, Sam & Dave disappeared after the 1960s. But “Soul Man” hit the charts again in the late 1970s, when the Blues Brothers, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd recorded it with many of the same musicians. Moore had mixed feelings about linking the hit to the “Saturday Night Live” star, recalling how young people thought it originated with the Blues Brothers.
In 2008, the movie “Soul Men” featured older, lesser-known singers who bore more than a slight resemblance to Sam. & Dave. Moore lost a lawsuit on the grounds that the similarity was too close.
He also spent years suing Prater after Prater hired a replacement and toured as New Sam & Dave. Prater died in a 1988 car accident in Georgia.
Moore also made legal claims that the record industry had defrauded him of his retirement benefits. Moore and other artists sued several record labels and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 1993.
Moore told the Associated Press in 1994, after it was learned he had joined the legal effort, that despite his records selling millions, his pension was just $2,285, and he could take a lump sum or $73 a month in payments.
“Two thousand dollars for the rest of my life?” Moore said then. “If you’re making a profit with me, give it to me too. Don’t give me cornbread and say it’s cookies.”
Moore wrote the song “Dole Man”, a model of “Soul Man”, for Republican Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign. In 2017, he was among the few entertainers who performed at the inauguration of Republican President Donald Trump. Eight years earlier, Moore objected when Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign used the song “Hold On, I’m Comin’.”
Moore was born on October 12, 1935 in Miami and started singing in church.
He and Prater played soul and R&B clubs in the 1950s, but did not meet in Miami until 1961. Moore helped coach Prater with the lyrics to a song and they quickly became a popular local duo. In 1965, after signing with Atlantic Records, producer Jerry Wexler sent them to the label’s Stax subsidiary in Memphis.
Moore and Prater sparred often, and Moore told the AP in 2006 that a drug habit he had kicked in 1981 played a role in the band’s troubles and later angered entertainment executives. The couple broke up in 1970 and neither had much success.
“I did a lot of cruises, I did a lot of old shows,” he said of those fights, adding that he once opened for a group of Elvis impersonators.
“It’s funny to think about it now. And I did a lot of shows where if I did it with an old show, I actually had to audition,” he said. “But you know what? You shut your mouth and you get up there and you sing hard and you do it as hard as you can and you try to get a little money and go about your business and pay those bills. I’m laughing now, but at the time, man, it was very serious.’
Moore is survived by his wife, Joyce, daughter, Michell, and two grandchildren.
