Roscoe Robinson obit

Birmingham music icon who sang with the Blind Boys of Alabama and wrote hit for Sam Cooke dies

 

He was not on the list.

A Birmingham artist whose musical career transcended styles and genres for seven decades has died.

Roscoe Robinson as a solo artist, writer and group member was associated with numerous gospel and soul acts including Sam Cooke, and sighted member of the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Blind Boys of Mississippi.

Robinson, who died Thursday at age 97, continued to record into his 90s. Born in Dermott, Arkansas in 1928, Robinson lived in Birmingham for decades and remained a fixture on the city’s music scene.

“Roscoe was a serious singer and a serious individual when it also came to the business of music,” said Bob Friedman, founder of the Birmingham Black Radio Museum. “He was a religious man, someone who believed in his God and gospel music, and was jovial and incredibly fun to be with.”

Friedman said a visit to Robinson’s house gave hits to his long career as photos on the walls chronicled the places he visited around the country.

Robinson in the early 1960s wrote “Somewhere There’s A God” which was recorded by the Womack Brothers, a group that included soul legend Bobby Womack. The song was later changed slightly to become the secular, “Somewhere There’s a Girl” which was recorded by Sam Cooke.

Friedman said Robinson decades later took legal action and was finally paid long overdue royalties as the author of the song.

Robinson also found success on the R&B side with “That’s Enough” in 1966 and “Do it Right Now” in 1967. Robinson, just before turning 90, recorded both gospel and secular tracks in 2018.

“He always wanted to be singing,” Friedman said.

Friedman interviewed Robinson as part of the Birmingham Black Radio Museum’s oral history project. Robinson recalled his travels and rise in the industry. His longest tenure – in Birmingham since the 1960s – had less to do with music and more to do with a woman, Robinson said.

“The reason I come to Birmingham, I had sung a show here with Tall Paul and I met this girl – Chamber’s daughter, Augusta Chambers – and I liked her. So, I’m singing, you know. So, she and I started seeing each other and then I said, ‘I’m gonna move to Birmingham,’” he recalled. “So, I messed around and moved to Birmingham. And Tall Paul and Shelley (Stewart) was telling me that this was the right place to come because there was so much area around within 100 miles 50 miles around that I could work and make money.”

Robinson’s death was noted by both fans and longtime collaborators.

On its Facebook page FAME Recording Studios in Florence, Ala. celebrated Robinson as “a powerful voice and a foundational piece of our story.”

“Roscoe Robinson passed away, and with him goes one of the great gospel-rooted voices that helped shape the early sound of FAME Studios.”

The studio credited Robinson with being part of the bridge that linked gospel and southern soul. This led to the success of making the Muscle Shoals region of northwest Alabama a music mecca of the 1960s and 1970s.

“We’re grateful for the music, the legacy, and the spirit he brought through those studio doors,” the post continued. “Rest easy, Roscoe. The music lives on.”