Sam & Dave were an American soul and R&B duo who performed together from 1961 until 1981. The tenor (higher) voice was Sam Moore (1935–2025) and the baritone/tenor (lower) voice was Dave Prater (1937–1988).
Nicknamed "Double Dynamite", "The Sultans of Sweat", and "The Dynamic Duo" for their gritty, gospel-infused performances, Sam & Dave are considered one of the greatest live acts of the 1960s. Many subsequent musicians have named them as an influence, including Bruce Springsteen, Al Green, Tom Petty, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Steve Van Zandt, Elvis Costello, The Jam, Teddy Pendergrass, Billy Joel, and Steve Winwood. The Blues Brothers, who helped create a resurgence of popularity for soul, R&B, and blues in the 1980s, were influenced by Sam & Dave – their biggest hit was a cover of "Soul Man", and their act and stage show contained many homages to the duo.
According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Sam & Dave were the most successful soul duo and brought the sounds of the black gospel church to pop music with their call-and-response records. Recorded primarily at Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1965 through 1968, these included "Soul Man", "Hold On, I'm Comin'", "You Don't Know Like I Know", "I Thank You", "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby", "Wrap It Up", and many other Southern Soul classics. Except for Aretha Franklin, no soul act during Sam & Dave's Stax years (1965–1968) had more consistent R&B chart success, including 10 consecutive top-20 singles and three consecutive top-10 LPs.An Anthology of Sam & Dave: The Stax Years: 1965 to 1968 CD liner notes page 1 Rob Bowman Their crossover charts appeal (13 straight appearances and two top-10 singles) helped to pave the way for the acceptance of soul music by white pop audiences, and their song "Soul Man" was one of the first songs by a black group to top the pop charts using the word "soul", helping define the genre. "Soul Man" was a number-one Pop Hit (Cashbox: November 11, 1967) and has been recognized as one of the most influential songs of the past 50 years by the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Rolling Stone magazine, and RIAA Songs of the Century. "Soul Man" was featured as the soundtrack and title for a 1986 film and also a 1997–1998 television series, and Soul Men was a 2008 feature film.
Sam & Dave are inductees in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, and the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame. They won a Grammy Award for "Soul Man" and they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Rolling Stone ranked Sam & Dave No. 14 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time.
Early years
Sam Moore and Dave Prater's early musical backgrounds involved listening to and singing gospel music in their homes and churches, and in Dave's case, also singing gospel in the choir in his church. Dave later sang with his older brother JT Prater in the gospel group The Sensational Hummingbirds, who recorded "Lord Teach Me" in the 1950s. Sam recorded "Nitey-Nite"/"Caveman Rock" in 1954 with the doo-wop group The Majestics, and later sang with the gospel groups The Gales and The Mellonaires. Moore and Prater listed Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke as influences on their styles,Sam & Dave – An Oral History Moore & Marsh, Avon Books 1998 pp 24–25,27–28 and Moore was also influenced by Little Willie John, whom he and Dave opened for often in the early 1960s.
Sam & Dave met working the gospel music circuit, and later in small clubs in Miami during amateur nights in 1961 according to Dave.Interview with Dave Prater and Dave Booth cover of 1984 I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down LP They sang together one night at the King of Hearts club, and started working together immediately thereafter, developing a live act featuring gospel-inspired call-and-response. Soul singer and record producer Steve Alaimo discovered them while performing during the same show with them at the King of Hearts nightclub in Miami and signed them to Marlin Records.
After two singles in early 1962 were released on the local Marlin label owned by Miami's Henry Stone, Stone helped sign them to Roulette Records in New York City. They released six 45s from 1962 to 1964 (two were re-releases of Marlin recordings) with Roulette, and one single on Stone and Alaimo's Alston Label. A few of the singles received regional airplay, but did not achieve national chart success. The songs, some of which were produced by Steve Alaimo and some of which were produced by Henry Glover, were similar in many ways to R&B recordings by Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and Little Willie John. Prater was the lead vocalist on most of these singles, with Moore singing harmony and alternate verses.
In summer 1964, Stone introduced the duo to Atlantic Records' Jerry Wexler, who signed them to Atlantic.Soulville, Bowman pp 66–69 Wexler asked Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records, which Atlantic distributed nationally, to work with Sam & Dave. Wexler wanted the Southern roots and gospel style of their live performances, so the pair were loaned to Stax to record, although they remained Atlantic Records artists. According to Wexler's autobiography Rhythms & Blues, "Their live act was filled with animation, harmony and seeming goodwill. I put Sam in the sweet tradition of Sam Cooke or Solomon Burke, while Dave had an ominous Four Tops' Levi Stubbs-sounding voice, the preacher promising hellfire."
Stax years (1965–1968)
Arrival at Stax and early Stax singles
When Sam & Dave arrived at Stax, they worked with producer & engineer Jim Stewart and songwriters including the MGs' guitarist Steve Cropper, who wrote or co-wrote four of their first eight recordings. The duo then moved to relative newcomer writers and producers Isaac Hayes and David Porter. Hayes and Porter wrote and produced the duo's biggest hits (although they did not receive production credits until the Soul Men LP and singles). According to Moore and Prater, they also greatly influenced the duo's singing style,Soulsville, Bowman pp 67–69 and shifted their recording style from the style of their Roulette records to a more live, more energetic gospel, call-and-response feel and beat driven soul style the group is known for today.
Sam & Dave's Stax records also benefited from the musicians and engineering at Stax. The Stax house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and the Stax horn section, The Mar-Keys, were world-class musicians who co-wrote (often without credit) and contributed to recordings—the same musicians who recorded with Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas and other soul artists. Sam & Dave's Stax recordings through 1967 were engineered by Stax founder Jim Stewart, who created the Memphis Sound by recording live in a single take. Stewart is credited for instrumental mixes that allowed for instrumental separation and the distinct contribution of each instrument to the overall feel of the song.
While the first two Stax singles failed to chart, the third, the Hayes/Porter composition (with similarities, including the title, to a gospel standard) "You Don't Know Like I Know" hit No. 7 R&B in 1966. This was the first of 10 consecutive top-20 R&B chart hits over three years, and 14 R&B chart appearances during their career.
==="Hold On, I'm Comin single and Hold On, I'm Comin''' LP=== "Hold On, I'm Comin' (R&B No. 1 / Pop No. 21), released in March 1966, was a R&B hit for Sam & Dave, and also their first single to break into the pop chart. The song was named the No. 1 song of the year for 1966 by the Billboard R&B charts, and spent 20 weeks on the R&B charts in 1966, peaking at No. 1 in June. In 1988, Rolling Stone named it one of the best 100 songs of the past 25 years. "Hold On, I'm Comin received a belated RIAA gold record for one million sales in 1995, 29 years after its release.Soulville Bowman pp 91–92 "Hold On, I'm Comin has since been recorded by dozens of other artists.
"Hold On, I'm Comin was also the first recording on which Moore took lead on the first verse and Prater was given the response role and second verse at Hayes and Porter's suggestion. The duo used this format (singing dual leads) on most of their songs. The song was created when Hayes called to Porter, who was in the bathroom. Porter supposedly said "Hold on, man. I'm comin'," and Hayes and Porter wrote the song within 10 minutes. "Hold On, I'm Comin', when released, received objections from radio stations over the suggestive title. This resulted in a name change by Stewart and quick re-recording and re-release, and nearly all the original U.S. copies of the single bear the title "Hold On, I'm A-Comin'".
The LP Hold On, I'm Comin' (4/66) reached No. 1 for 19 weeks on the R&B album charts in 1966. After Sam & Dave's chart success, Roulette quickly released the album Sam & Dave in 1966 as well, a collection of the A & B sides of their six Roulette 45s, which did not chart.
When Something is Wrong, Double Dynamite LP and singles Sam & Dave's next huge R&B hit was "When Something is Wrong With My Baby", their only ballad single, which was released in January 1967. Stax author Rob Bowman called this "One of the most sublime records in soul music's history," and The Mar-Keys trumpet player Wayne Jackson called it the greatest song he has ever heard. This was the only Sam & Dave hit where Dave sang the first verse solo; their other hits started with Sam & Dave together or Sam singing the first verse. "When Something is Wrong With My Baby" has since become an often recorded and performed duet for male and female singers performing together.
The duo also charted in late 1966 with the top 10 R&B hits "Said I Wasn't Gonna Tell Nobody", and "You Got Me Hummin". These three singles, along with other tracks, were compiled on Double Dynamite (12/66), Sam & Dave's second LP on Stax. The LP peaked at No. 7 R&B and No. 118 Pop.
"Soul Man" single and Soul Men LP Sam & Dave's biggest hit and best-remembered song, "Soul Man" (R&B No. 1/Pop No. 2), was released in August 1967. It was the number No. 1 song in the US according to Cashbox magazine Pop charts in November 1967. Sam & Dave won the Grammy Award in 1967 for "Best Performance – Rhythm & Blues Group" for "Soul Man", their first gold record. "Soul Man" was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The song helped name the emerging music genre as "Soul Music". According to co-writer Isaac Hayes, the title was inspired by news reports of soul pride that emerged after the 1967 race riots, where stories that painting the word "soul" on your door was a message for looters to bypass your house. Hayes-Porter extrapolated that to "I'm a soul brother, I'm a soul man.". It has been recognized as one of the best or most influential songs of 50 years by the Grammy Hall of Fame, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Rolling Stone, and R.I.A.A. Songs of the Century. "Soul Man" was used as the soundtrack and title for a 1986 film, a 2008 film Soul Men, a 1997–1998 television series. In 2019, "Soul Man" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The Soul Men LP (October 1967) was Sam & Dave's third Stax LP (R&B No. 5/Pop No. 68).Billboard.com list of chart placements Musicologist Rob Bowman called Soul Men "One of the greatest soul music albums of all time." "Don't Knock It" from the LP was released as a single in France, but other songs were not released as U.S. singles due to the long run by "Soul Man" on the Pop charts (15 weeks), by which time "I Thank You/Wrap It Up" was ready for release. "May I Baby", the B-side of "Soul Man", is also regarded as a classic song on the LP by Whitburn's "Top Pop Singles" guide, and was a popular live song performed frequently by Sam & Dave.
"I Thank You" single and I Thank You LP