Grammy-winning singer Lou Rawls dies at 72

LOS ANGELES — Lou Rawls, who earned fame with his glorious voice and respect through his prodigious fundraising for the United Negro College Fund, died Friday of cancer.

Mr. Rawls' family and publicist said the singer was 72, although other records indicate he was 70.

Mr. Rawls began as a gospel singer and spent nearly 50 years working his soulful, velvet-voiced magic on classic tunes including "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" and "Lady Love."

"His voice just stood out: It was like thunder," said songwriter and producer Leon Huff who, along with partner Kenny Gamble, scored one of Philadelphia International's biggest hits with Mr. Rawls' 1976 album "All Things In Time." "He had one of the richest baritone voices I've ever heard."

Mr. Rawls, who had lived in Scottsdale, Ariz., since 2003, was diagnosed with lung cancer about a year ago.

Mr. Rawls' years as a recording artist included more than 70 albums, three Grammys, 13 Grammy nominations, one platinum album, five gold albums and a gold single.

Mr. Rawls died with his third wife, Nina, 35, at his side, according to the singer's publicist, Paul Shefrin. The couple was in the process of settling a legal battle over the singer's assets at the time of his death, Shefrin said.

A longtime community activist, Mr. Rawls played a major role in United Negro College Fund (UNCF) telethons that raised more than $200 million. He often visited and performed at black colleges.

"He's just someone who recognized, like many African Americans of a certain generation, that education was something that our kids didn't get access to and that it was critically important for their future, and for our communities' future and for the nation," said Michael Lomax, president and chief executive of the UNCF.

Aretha Franklin said Mr. Rawls was a "memorable musical stylist ... who made a serious impact in the interest of historically black colleges and black folks."

Mr. Rawls' trademark was his smooth, four-octave voice, which Frank Sinatra once called the "silkiest chops in the singing game."

Starting as a church choirboy, Mr. Rawls ultimately applied those silky tones to a variety of musical genres and more. As a pitchman for Anheuser-Busch, his was the familiar voice that said, "When you've said Budweiser, you've said it all."

Mr. Rawls was raised on the South Side of Chicago by his grandmother, who shared her love of gospel with him. He also was influenced by doo-wop and harmonized with his high-school classmate Sam Cooke. In 1959, Mr. Rawls was singing for $10 a night plus pizza at Pandora's Box in Los Angeles when he was spotted by Capitol Records producer Nick Venet, who invited him to audition. He was signed by the label soon after.

The album "Stormy Monday," recorded in 1962 with the Les McCann Trio, was the first of Mr. Rawls' 52 albums. That same year, he collaborated on Cooke's hit "Bring It On Home to Me."

In 1966, Mr. Rawls' "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing" topped the charts and earned his first two Grammy nominations. He also opened for The Beatles in Cincinnati.

During that period, Mr. Rawls began delivering hip monologues about life and love on the songs "World of Trouble" and "Tobacco Road," each more than seven minutes long. Some called them "pre-rap."

Mr. Rawls explained that he had been working in clubs where the stage was behind noisy bars.

"You'd be swinging and the waitress would yell, 'I want 12 beers and four martinis!' And then the dude would put the ice in the crusher," Mr. Rawls recalled. "There had to be a way to get the attention of the people. So instead of just starting in singing, I would just start in talking the song."

His "raps" were so popular that 1967's "Dead End Street" won him his first Grammy for best R&B vocal performance. His second Grammy was for "Natural Man" (1971). And his 1977 album "Unmistakably Lou" earned him his third Grammy for best R&B vocal performance.

"He was one of the few singers that you knew without hearing more than a few notes, that it was him," singer Burt Bacharach said.

Mr. Rawls' main musical legacy is "You'll Never Find," released in 1976 after he signed with Gamble and Huff, architects of the classic "Philadelphia Sound."

"That was the first record we put out on him," Gamble said. "It captured the best of his voice. It had all the dimensions, it had the low and it had the excitement. And plus the lyrics were something people could relate to."

Mr. Rawls also appeared in 18 movies, including "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Blues Brothers 2000," and 16 television series, including "Fantasy Island" and "The Fall Guy."

He was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2004 and brain cancer in May 2005. Mr. Rawls told Shefrin he quit smoking 35 to 40 years ago.

Mr. Rawls is survived by his three adult children, Louanna Rawls, Lou Rawls Jr. and Kendra Smith, and an infant son, Aiden. Funeral arrangements were incomplete, Shefrin said.

Material from Knight Ridder Newspapers, Gannett News Service and the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.