Jerry Butler 1939-2025

[pljms]

The news of Jerry Butler's death last week at the age of 85 seems to have flown under the radar and I've only just found out via the Secondhand Songs website. The significance of his classic original hit version of Make It Easy On Yourself in 1962 can't be overestimated because it featured an arrangement by Burt which is generally accepted to have set the template for what is sometimes referred to as the 'Bacharach Sound'.

His was also the original version sung in English of Message To Martha, once again with a Bacharach arrangement but this time released only as an album track. Listening to it again now I can't help thinking that they missed a trick by not releasing it as the follow-up to Make It Easy On Yourself.

[blueonblue]

Paul,
Thanks for posting those two wonderful tracks, yes the "Bacharach Sound" was slowly evolving and would reach full fruition very shortly with the emergence of Dionne Warwick.
The rest as they say.... is history.

Jerry Butler R.I.P.

'blue'

[Hank]

I followed a link on Facebook to a list of the best Philly Soul albums....I listened to Jerry Butler's The Iceman Cometh and was really blown away. Here's one of the many highlights:



The list:
https://www.discogs.com/digs/music/esse ... BWZHCstB2w

[Sara D]

He's long been a favourite of mine and I remember dancing to his 'Moody Woman' in my clubbing days. Among the many videos of him lip-syncing to his hits on TV in the 60s and 70s I recently stumbled upon one of him singing live with just his brother Billy on guitar.