Theola Kilgore

This Oakland, CA native began singing in church and progressed into an popular professional gospel singer in Oakland and surrounding areas. She befriended J. W. Alexander, Sam Cooke’s supervisor who presented her to vocalist/manufacturer/article writer Ed Townsend; with Townsend, Kilgore trim her initial secular documenting, a remedy to Cooke’s “String Gang,” entitled “Audio of My Guy Focusing on a String Gang,” on Candix Information which attracted interest and some markets. She signed up her biggest strike with her following record “The Appreciate of My Guy,” an version of “The Appreciate of God,” originally performed by the Spirit Stirrers with Johnny “Disco Female” Taylor on business lead vocals. The plaintive, immediate ballad released on Serock Information, a subsidiary of Scepter Information, zoomed to #21 Pop and #3 R&B; its achievement place Kilgore in the chitling circuit as well as the R&B movie theater travels where she distributed billings with the very best brands in R&B. Still with Townsend, Theola implemented with “THAT IS My Prayer,” on Serock that was equally as good, marketed well, but didn’t surpass or equivalent the achievement of its forerunner. Theola & Ed created KT Information (Kilgore/Townsend) where she released her next singles, non-e made much sound; later produces on Mercury Information went unnoticed aswell. She documented some songs at Stax, that continues to be unreleased.. Of her post strike singles, just “I’ll Keep Attempting,” and north soul preferred “It’s Gonna Become Alright,” garnered any significant performs. Townsend hit like a vocalist in 1958 with “FEMALE Like,” at #13 within the Pop graph. He later published and created for functions that included the Impressions and Marvin Gaye. Townsend co-produced the Let’s OBTAIN IT On recording, and based on Ed, also performed a major part in the look and creation of Gaye’s WHAT’S HAPPENING LP but received zero credit. Most likely due to a lawsuit Motown experienced pending using the Isley Brothers and Townsend. The Isley Brothers cut “It’s Your Thing,” at Townsends’ documenting studio in NJ while under agreement to Motown; Motown received the suit as well as the rights towards the music. Townsend experienced a serious setback through the courtroom proceedings when his studio room mysteriously proceeded to go up in flames. Theola Kilgore whereabouts are unfamiliar to many but good cash says she’s back church performing her first like — gospel.