The Legendary Henry Stone Presents - Bobby Byrd - Back From The Dead(2005)Henry Stone Music - Rare Soul

Bobby Byrd was born Bobby Day (a.k.a. Robert Howard Byrd)some say in Toccoa,Georgia,some say South carolina ,so this is unclear.Born to a religiously devout family, where they were respected members of the church congregation and active in their neighborhood there.Byrd started being active in his local church choir with the group, the Zioneers, later making a name for himself as member of the Gospel Starlighters,which included his sister Sarah. At a time when church elders disapproved of secular singing, the band members would leave their home and perform in South Carolina as the R&B group the Avons, eventually they left gospel behind and went on as R&B Performers the Avons. The original group consisted of Byrd, who played piano, organ and sang lead vocals, and Nafloyd Scott, Fred Pulliam and Doyle Oglesby.Bobby Byrd formed the Gospel Starlighters in 1952-1953 who became the Avons who became the Flames. He also played in the Gospel group the 3 Swanee's with James Brown and Johnny Terry. Bobby met James in Toccoa, where he was serving time in a juvenile facility for burglary. James pitched for the prison baseball team, and his team played against Byrd's team.During the early '50s, Bobby and his family sponsored James Brown's parole from prison. Bobby performed with the groups, the Hollywood Flames (with David Ford, Willie Ray Rockwell, Curlee Dinkins, and Bobby), The Jets, The Pelicans, The Tangiers, before starting his own group, Bobby Day and the Satellites (1957-1958) (with Earl Nelson(Jackie Lee), David Ford, Curlee Dinkins). The Avons then changed their name to The Famous Flames, who became James Brown And The Famous Flames during the late Fifties.Bobby's first hit came for the Smash imprint, a duet with Anna King entitled 'Baby Baby Baby', which made number 52 in Billboard's soul chart in 1964.The following year 'We Are In Love' reached number 14 in the same chart.Bobby later enjoyed a further Top 20 hit, 'I Need Help (I Can't Do It Alone)', for King Records.His voice can later be heard on James Brown's 'Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine.'Bobby's Seventies output was fairly low key, however his career enjoyed a renaissance with the onset of sampling, mainly pioneered by the hip hop artists.The most famous example was Eric B And Rakim's 1987 single 'I Know You Got Soul', which sampled Bobby's 1971 track of the same title.Bobby left the James Brown line up in 1973 and recorded and performed regularly (particularly in Europe).Bobby embarked on several concert tours with his wife, Vicki Anderson, and the family.As a solo artist Bobby is probably best remembered for the, previously mentioned, James Brown produced, 'I Know You Got Soul' (1971) and 'If You Got A Love You Better Hold On To It' (1972), popular on the U.K. 'rare groove' scene in the mid-'80's.He is the stepfather of the U.K. based soul singer Carleen Anderson. Bobby sang at James Brown's 2006 funeral along with his wife, Vicki Anderson, who was also in James' touring band.Bobby died on Wednesday the 12th of September 2007, of cancer at his Loganville home in Georgia. He was 73.Bobby performed his final show with the Soulpower Allstars in July 2005 at the Supernatural Festival in Holland.Its well known that james brown was hard to deal with and Bobby was one of the very few guys he actually had respect for & listened too.

 

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