Eric Alexander Mercury was a Canadian singer who was a member of the soul group The Soul Searchers during the 1960s.
19 Facts About Eric Mercury
1.
2.
Eric Mercury later made waves in 1969 with his Electric Black Man album.
3.
Eric Mercury had two hits: the first on the Canadian charts in 1972 with "I Can Smell That Funky Music", and the second in the United States in 1983, singing a duet with Roberta Flack with "Our Love Will Stop the World".
4.
Eric Mercury co-wrote the song "Down the Backstairs of My Life".
5.
Eric Mercury moved to Los Angeles from 1971 until Christmas 1978, when he relocated to New York.
6.
The band failed to attract any interest from major record labels, and Eric Mercury went to Chicago until 1997, when he again returned to Toronto.
7.
Eric Mercury wrote material for other artists such as Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, for whom he produced.
8.
Eric Mercury had a few acting roles, appearing in the stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
9.
Eric Mercury had a role in the film The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh as Rudy, the league commissioner, and as Tyrone Blackwood in American Hot Wax.
10.
Eric Mercury had been coming along to their performances, and he wanted to record them.
11.
Decades later, in an interview with Bill King of FYI Music News, Eric Mercury said the straw that pushed him out was when the band played a gig without him at the Eric Mercury Club on Victoria Street.
12.
Eric Mercury recorded his debut solo album, Electric Black Man, and it was released in 1969.
13.
In November 1973, Eric Mercury appeared at the Millennium '73 festival at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, which had Guru Maharaj Ji as the star attraction.
14.
Eric Mercury performed to a disappointingly low audience, with just 4000 or 5000 people in the entire stadium.
15.
Gortner, a former preacher, noted that one of the songs Eric Mercury performed was one he had heard in churches when he was a child.
16.
That year saw motor car manufacturer Lincoln-Eric Mercury want Eric Mercury to compose and sing commercial jungles for their 1976 line of cars.
17.
Callers who rang would go through to a tape recording of Eric Mercury giving a brief sales pitch.
18.
In 2019, Eric Mercury collaborated with Anthony Aramouni, a Montreal composer, and the song "Bright Eyed Woman" was released.
19.
Eric Mercury died from pancreatic cancer on 14 March 2022, at the age of 77.