Specialty Profiles

Performer: Percy Mayfield
Producer: Colin Escott (Compilation); Cheryl Pawelski (Compilation)
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Percy Mayfield; Harold Leonard Grant (guitar); Jewell Grant (alto saxophone); William B. Woodman Jr. (tenor saxophone); Gerald F. Wiggins (piano); Ralph Hamilton (bass instrument); Jesse Sailes (drum). Featuring the Poet of the Blues performing some of his best-known material, this compilation includes Percy Mayfield's version of his own "Hit the Road Jack," eventually a massive hit for Ray Charles, as well as the brooding, macabre "The River's Invitation," the erotically charged "Loose Lips," the regretful, yearning "What a Fool I Was," and Mayfield's signature hit, "Please Send Me Someone to Love."

Often called the Poet of the Blues, Mayfield was as adept with urbane plaints as he was with rowdy R&B numbers. Perhaps more successful as a songwriter, he scored big in 1950 with the classically understated "Please Send Me Someone to Love." His legendary groover, "Hit the Road Jack," is one of Ray Charles's most famous songs ever and was the product of a mutually fruitful relationship during the '60s, as Charles released of number of Mayfield's own solo recordings on his Tangerine label. Mayfield performed into the '70s and '80s; however, life-long battles with the bottle led to a fatal 1984 heart-attack.

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