Sam Moore, the last surviving half of the legendary soul duo Sam & Dave, has died aged 89.
The news was confirmed by his publicist Jeremy Westby, who said Moore had died on Friday (January 10) following complications while recovering from surgery.
Alongside Dave Prater, who shared his gospel roots, the pair created some of soul’s most enduring hits in their tenure at Stax Records. Their 1965 single on the Memphis imprint, ‘You Don’t Know Like I Know’ triggered a series of ten straight top twenty Billboard R&B hits, including ‘Hold On! I’m Comin’, ‘When Something Is Wrong with My Baby’, ‘I Thank You’ and ‘Soul Man’.
The latter had a renaissance a decade after its release, when the Blues Brothers John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd rerecorded it.
Moore reportedly had mixed feelings about the hit becoming associated with the Saturday Night Live stars and wasn’t thrilled that a younger generation assumed the song was a Blues Brothers creation.
He later wrote ‘Dole Man’, inspired by his biggest hit for Republican Bob Dole’s presidential campaign in 1996, and in 2017, was among the few artists who performed at Republican President Donald Trump’s inaugural event. Some years earlier, Moore had objected to Barack Obama’s campaign using the song ‘Hold On, I’m Comin’.
Moore spent significant spells embroiled in legal battles throughout his life, having spent years suing Prater after he hired a substitute and toured as the New Sam & Dave. He had a famously volatile relationship with his late bandmate, who died in a 1988 car crash in Georgia.
Likewise, Moore joined several other artists in suing multiple record companies and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 1993. In 1994, the soul hitmaker told The Associated Press he had joined the legal effort after learning that despite his million-selling records, his pension amounted to just $2,285.
“Two thousand dollars for my lifetime?” Moore said at the time. “If you’re making a profit off of me, give me some too. Don’t give me cornbread and tell me it’s biscuits.”
His era-defining sound was said to have influenced musicians like Michael Jackson, Al Green and Bruce Springsteen, who recruited Moore for his 2022 soul covers album ‘Only The Strong Survive’.
Moore is survived by his wife, Joyce, daughter, Michell, and two grandchildren.