JOE SIMON STORY PT 1 ON CHANCELLOR OF SOUL'S SOUL FACTS SHOW

Chancellor of Soul, Mike Boone presents on his 'Soul Facts Show'
one of the greatest artist to help trail blaze, a genre in R&B music,
'Southern Soul' during its heydays of the 1960's and 70's.

Mr. Joe Simon (Bishop)

Born on Sept 2, 1943 in Simmesport, La Joe Simon early childhood years began as a sharecropper, who was a lazy child that wanted avoid work as much as possible. His musical roots was planted in his father's church, Pilgrim Baptist. The Simon family, seeking better opportunity, moved to Richmond, California,
a suburb of Oakland, by the time Joe was 15.

In Richmond, Joe pursued his gospel roots by joining the Golden West Gospel Singers. Better opportunities came when the group switched to secular music and became, the Golden Tones (West).
They recorded their first song in 1959, entitled, 'Little Island Girl'
backed with 'Doreetha' with Simon featured as lead, on Gray and Clara Thompson's Hush imprint.

Encouraged to go solo by Gary Thompson, after Joe was fired from the group, he hustled Simon into his Gee Bee studio to record
a song composed by him called 'My Adorable One' in 1964. Vee Jay Records, now establishing their operations in California, heard the song and brought the master and Joe's contract on to their label. With a multitude of airplay and nationwide appearances, the
song charted No. 8 R&B, on Cashbox Magazine's Top 50 In R&B
Location, the week ending November 21, 1964. Simon later traveled to Muscle Shoals Alabama, to Rick Hall's Fame Studios to
record his second secular hit, 'Let's Do It Over' zooming straight to the No. 13 position on Billboard's Top Selling R&B Chart, om October 16, 1965.

During his cross-country travels, Joe met R&B disc jockey, John Richbourg, better known as John R. on WLAC radio, in Nashville Tennessee. Richbourg and Simon became good friends and later business partners. Richbourg brought Joe to Sound Stage 7, a subsidiary imprint of Monument Records, founded by Fred Foster, in 1963. John R. became head of the A&R department of Sound Stage 7 and produced most of Simon's recordings.

From 1966-1970, Joe Simon recorded a string of 16 classic hit singles, from Teenager's Prayer to his classic Grammy Award winner of 1970, 'The Chokin' Kind'. Simon and Richbourg, left
Sound Stage 7 in 1970 and signed with Spring Records, a distribution label of the Polydor imprint, a British imprint.

End of Part 1

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