Geoff Mulvihill of the Associated Press is reporting that soul singer Howard Tate has died. Tate died Friday of natural causes at his apartment in Burlington City, N.J. Born in Macon, Ga., and raised in Philadelphia, Tate was "a rising star in the music world who later suffered through decades of such extreme darkness that his longtime producer figured he was dead before having a career resurgence and receiving a Grammy nomination in 2004."
Mulvihill writes:
In the late 1960s and early '70s, Tate had three top 20 R&B hits, including "Get It While You Can," written by his longtime producer Jerry Ragovoy and made more famous by Janis Joplin. Ragovoy, who died this year after a career producing artists including Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick, saw Tate as the artist who gave voice to the sounds he wanted to make.
Disenchanted with the industry, especially the lack of royalties he felt he deserved, Tate traded in his soul music career for selling insurance in suburban Philadelphia. After the death of his daughter and the breakup of his marriage, Tate turned to a life of drugs and became homeless in Camden, prompting many to assume he was dead.
After a chance meeting with a music-industry friend, Tate made a comeback in 2003. He returned to the recording studio — Ragovoy's Atlanta studio — to make Rediscovered, which was nominated for a Grammy for best contemporary blues record the next year.
Tate's 1967 album, Get It While You Can, is considered a soul classic. He was 72.
Read more at the Associated Press.