49 Facts About Solomon Burke

In 2001, Solomon Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a performer.

Burke was born James Solomon McDonald, according to some sources on March 21,1936, in the upper floor of his grandmother Eleanor Moore's home, a row house in West Philadelphia.

Solomon Burke was the child of Josephine Moore and an absentee father.

Solomon Burke's mother Josephine was a nurse, schoolteacher, concert performer and pastor.

Solomon Burke credited his grandmother as his main spiritual and musical influence.

Solomon Burke learned how to sing all forms of music from his grandmother's coaching him to listen to music on the radio.

From an early age Solomon Burke worked to supplement his family's income.

Solomon Burke received his first guitar from his grandmother, later writing his first song, "Christmas Presents".

Solomon Burke entered the contest, held at Cornerstone Baptist Church, as a solo artist and won the contest against eleven other competitors.

Solomon Burke signed with Apollo Records in late 1955, following the departure of gospel singer and the label's primary star Mahalia Jackson to Columbia.

Solomon Burke recorded nine singles for the label during his two-year tenure, releasing his first single, "Christmas Presents", on Christmas Eve of 1955.

Solomon Burke recorded with musicians including King Curtis and Lester Young.

Solomon Burke gained some notoriety for the Apollo single, "You Can Run ", which he wrote with Charles Merenstein.

Louis helped promote the song by having Solomon Burke appear on the Steve Allen Show in early 1957.

Solomon Burke was abruptly dropped from Apollo following a violent argument with manager Kae Williams over performance royalties; Solomon Burke claimed Williams had him "blackballed" from the industry following this move.

Solomon Burke later moved into a home owned by Ohella Thompson, after Thompson accidentally hit him with her car outside a club.

Solomon Burke later had his own mortuary business in Los Angeles.

Chivian arranged for Burke to be signed to Singular Records, a Philadelphia-based label that was owned by WPEN disc jockey Edwin L "Larry" Brown and vocal coach Arthur "Artie" Singer, who had a distribution deal with Chess Records.

At the time of Solomon Burke's signing, two of Atlantic Records' major stars, Bobby Darin and Ray Charles, had left the label for better deals with Capitol and ABC respectively.

Wexler and Solomon Burke created a string of hits that carried the label financially and represented the first fully realized examples of the classic soul sound.

In 1965, Atlantic released his fifth album, The Best of Solomon Burke, which peaked at No 22 on the US charts.

Almost immediately after signing to Atlantic, Wexler and Solomon Burke clashed over his branding and the songs that he would record.

Solomon Burke has told so many versions of the same happening that it's unreal.

Solomon Burke tried to regain his early Atlantic success by recording at Memphis, working on the album I Wish I Knew at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio.

Solomon Burke later met his next manager Tamiko Jones at the Memphis studio.

All but four of the tracks Solomon Burke recorded during an 18-month stay with Bell Records were packaged on the Proud Mary LP.

In 1978 Solomon Burke released an album Please Don't Say Goodbye To Me, which was produced by Jerry "Swamp Dogg" Williams, though Amherst Records.

Solomon Burke released the album Sidewalks, Fences and Walls on Infinity Records in 1979.

Between 1979 and 1984, Solomon Burke recorded four gospel albums for Savoy Records, starting with the album, Lord I Need a Miracle Right Now.

Solomon Burke was nominated for his first Grammy in the Best Male Gospel Soul category for his rendition of "Precious Lord, Take My Hand", but complained later that he did not receive royalties from his Savoy work.

In 2002, Solomon Burke signed with Fat Possum Records and released the album, Don't Give Up on Me.

In 2006, Solomon Burke returned to his country roots with the album, Nashville.

In 2010, Solomon Burke came out with the Willie Mitchell-produced Nothing's Impossible for E1 Entertainment.

From an early age Solomon Burke was "always an enterprising personality".

Solomon Burke demanded and operated the concessions at the Apollo Theater when he performed there in 1966.

Solomon Burke owned funeral parlors in California, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, and two of his children have turned the mortuary business into a franchise.

Solomon Burke was a mentor to up-coming Soul and Blues musicians, including a young Reggie Sears.

Solomon Burke had seven step-children, 90 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren at the time of his death.

In 2012 Court documents BP Case 126258 it proved that Burke had never divorced Arch Bishop Bernadine Turner Burke in 1970 before marrying Frances Szeto, Court records shows no divorce from Bernadine McDonald Burke or Delores Burke.

Several of Solomon Burke's family have had successful careers in various facets of show business.

Solomon Burke's son is Novel, who released his first studio album The Audiobiography in October 2008, and wrote movie soundtracks for Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Step Up, and 21.

Solomon Burke appears in the 2003 North Sea Jazz Festival DVD with her grandfather who raised her as his daughter.

For many years Solomon Burke struggled with his health, with his "weight estimated somewhere between 300 and 400 pounds" in 2006.

On October 10,2010, Solomon Burke died at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport while on a plane from Washington Dulles International Airport that had just landed.

The cause of death was not immediately clear; according to his family, Solomon Burke died of natural causes.

Solomon Burke decided to leave the hospital "against medical advice" and proceed to Dulles for his flight to Amsterdam.

Solomon Burke's funeral was at 10:00 am on October 22,2010, at the City of Refuge in Gardena, California and was open to the public.

Deborah Pentecostal Church on Haverford Avenue in Philadelphia, and attended by Solomon Burke's extended East Coast family.

Solomon Burke is buried at Lot 4037, Space 1, in the Murmuring Trees section of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills, at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, California.