Keith Powell

A blue-eyed spirit singer from Birmingham, Keith Powell released nearly a dozen Uk singles in the mid-’60s without building the graphs. Judged against additional British spirit (instead of rock and roll) vocalists of that time period, he wasn’t poor, having a deep tone of voice and expressive delivery, but unlike Chris Farlowe and John Baldry — two peers who, at least through the recorded evidence, weren’t as talented — he couldn’t discover hit materials. His 1st three singles (in 1963 and 1964) had been documented for Columbia along with his support group, the Valets, a combo offering brass and body organ, relatively in the design of a muted Georgie Popularity. After shifting to Pye in past due 1964, the Valets would no more play on his information; maker John Schroeder steered him toward melodramatic spirit ballads with strings, stated in a style that recalled Jerry Butler’s mid-’60s materials. With Pye, Powell released eight singles in 1965-1966, three which had been male-female duets with Billie Davis (who got made the English Top Ten having a cover from the Exciters’ “SIMPLY TELL HIM”). The outcomes weren’t poor, if a little lugubrious, but weren’t rewarded by industrial success.