NEW YORK (AP) â Jerry Butler, a premier soul singer of the 1960s and after whose rich, intimate baritone graced such hits as âFor Your Precious Love,â âOnly the Strong Surviveâ and âMake It Easy On Yourself,â has died at age 85.
Butlerâs niece, Yolanda Goff, told The Associated Press that Butler died Thursday of Parkinsonâs disease at his home in Chicago. A longtime Chicago resident, Butler was a former Cook County board commissioner who would still perform on weekends and identify himself as Jerry âIce Manâ Butler, a show business nickname given for his understated style.
Butler, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a three-time Grammy Award nominee, was a voice for two major soul music hubs: Chicago and Philadelphia. Along with childhood friend Curtis Mayfield, he helped found the Chicago-based Impressions and sang lead on the breakthrough hit âFor Your Precious Love,â a deeply emotional, gospel-influenced ballad that made Butler a star before the age of 20. A decade later, in the late â60s, he joined the Philadelphia-based production team of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, who worked with him on âOnly the Strong Survive,â âHey Western Union Manâ and other hits. His albums âIce on Iceâ and âThe Ice Man Comethâ are regarded as early models for the danceable, string-powered productions that became the classic âSound of Philadelphia.â
Butler also was an inspired songwriter who collaborated with Otis Redding on âIâve Been Loving You Too Long,â a signature ballad for Redding; and with Gamble and Huff on âOnly the Strong Survive,â later covered by Elvis Presley among others. His other credits included âFor Your Precious Love,â âNever Give You Upâ (with Gamble and Huff) and âHe Will Break Your Heart,â which Butler helped write after he began thinking about the boyfriends of the groupies he met on the road.
âYou go into a town; youâre only going to be there for one night; you want some company; you find a girl; you blow her mind,â Butler told Rolling Stone in 1969. âNow you know that girl hasnât been sitting in town waiting for you to come in. She probably has another fellow and the other fellowâs probably in love with her; theyâre probably planning to go through the whole thing, right? But you never take that into consideration on that particular night.â
The son Mississippi sharecroppers, Butler and his family moved moved north to Chicago when he was 3, part of the eraâs âGreat Migrationâ of Black people out of the South. He loved all kinds of music as a child and was a good enough singer that a friend suggested he come to a local place of worship, the Traveling Souls Spiritualist Church, presided over by the Rev. A.B. Mayfield. Her grandson, Curtis Mayfield, soon became a longtime collaborator. (Mayfield died in 1999.)
In 1958, Mayfield and Butler along with Sam Gooden and brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks recorded âFor Your Precious Loveâ for Vee-Jay Records. The group called itself the Impressions, but Vee-Jay, anxious to promote an individual star, advertised the song as by Jerry Butler and the Impressions, leading to estrangement between Butler and the other performers and to an unexpected solo career.
âFame didnât change me as much as it changed the people around me,â Butler wrote in his memoir âOnly the Strong Survive,â published in 2000.
One of his early solo performances was a 1961 cover of âMoon River,â the theme to âBreakfast at Tiffanyâs.â Butler was the first performer to hit the charts with what became a pop standard, but âMoon Riverâ would be associated with Andy Williams after the singer was chosen to perform it at the Academy Awards, a snub Butler long resented. His other solo hits, some recorded with Mayfield, included âHe Will Break Your Heartâ, âFind Another Girlâ and âIâm A-Telling You.â
By 1967, his formal style seemed out of fashion, but Butler was impressed by the new music coming out of Philadelphia and received permission from his record label (Mercury) to work with Gamble and Huff. The chemistry, Butler recalled, was so âfierceâ they wrote hits such as âOnly the Strong Surviveâ in less than an hour.
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âThings just seem to fall into place,â Butler told Ebony magazine in 1969. âWe lock ourselves in a room, create stories about lovers, compose the music, then write the lyrics to match the music.â
By the 1980s, Butlerâs career had faded and he was becoming increasingly interested in politics. Encouraged by the 1983 election of Harold Washington, Chicagoâs first Black mayor, he ran successfully for the Cook County Board in 1985 and was re-elected repeatedly, even after supporting a controversial sales tax increase in 2009. He retired from the board in 2018.
Butler was married for 60 years to Annette Smith, who died in 2019, and with her had twin sons. Many of his generational peers had struggled financially and he worked to help them, while also supporting various family members. He chaired the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, which offers a wide range of assistance to musicians, and pushed the industry to provide medical and retirement benefits. Butler considered himself lucky, even if he did pass on the chance to own a part of Gamble and Huffâs Philadelphia International recording company.
âYou know, I have lived well. My wife probably would say I couldâve lived better,â Butler told the Chicago Reader in 2011. âDid I make 40, 50 million dollars? No. Did I keep one or two? Yes. The old guys on the street used to say, âItâs not how much you make. Itâs how much you keep.ââ
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