Toussaint McCall obit

NELA musician Toussaint McCall dead at 89

He was not on the list.

Monroe area R&B singer Toussaint McCall has died at 89. His biggest hit was Nothing Takes the Place of You which reached #5 in the US R&B chart in 1967. Although he continued to perform and record, he did not repeat this success. Asleep at the Wheel covered his hit in 1976 and Robert Plant covered it in 2020. The best known cover of his song Nothing Takes The Place Of You was recorded by Isaac Hayes on the Black Moses album.

McCall was best know playing himself in the 1988 John Waters movie Hairspray. He recorded numerous albums and singles. He was inducted into the Northeast Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in 2016. He had been living in Los Angeles, California. 

oussaint McCall was born in Delhi, Louisiana, but was a long-time resident of nearby Monroe, Louisiana. His father, Rev. D. L. McCall, was a pastor at the Seven Star Missionary Baptist Church in Delhi, and Toussaint was one of twelve children. He was named after the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture.

After graduating high school, McCall attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After many years of working in the music industry, he received a recording contract with Shreveport, Louisiana-based Ronn Records.

His one major success was with "Nothing Takes the Place of You", which reached #5 in the US R&B chart, issued on Ronn Records in 1967. Although further singles and an album followed, he did not repeat its success.

McCall continued performing and recording for local record labels, and in 1988 made a cameo appearance in the John Waters film Hairspray, lip syncing to his hit song. The film took place in 1962 Baltimore, but his hit was originally recorded and released in 1967, making his appearance in the movie somewhat anachronistic.