CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Sam Moore, the surviving half and higher voice of the 1960s duo Sam & Dave that was known for such definitive hits of the era as “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Comin,’” has died. He was 89.
Publicist Jeremy Westby said Moore died Friday morning in Coral Gables, Florida, due to complications while recovering from surgery. No additional details were immediately available.
Moore, whose admirers ranged from Al Green to Bruce Springsteen, was inducted with Dave Prater into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
“Over on E Street, we are heartbroken to hear of the death of Sam Moore, one of America’s greatest soul voices,” Springsteen said Saturday on Instagram. “He was filled with stories of the halcyon days of soul music, and to the end had that edge of deep authenticity in his voice I could only wonder at.”
At the Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records, Moore and Prater ranked only behind Otis Redding as the label’s biggest stars. They transformed the “call and response” of gospel music into a frenzied stage show and recorded some of soul music’s most enduring hits, which also included “You Don’t Know Like I Know,” “When Something is Wrong With My Baby” and “I Thank You.”
Most of their hits were written and produced by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter and featured the Stax house band Booker T. & the MGs, whose guitarist Steve Cropper received one of music’s most famous shoutouts when Sam & Dave called “Play it, Steve” midway through “Soul Man.”
Like many ’60s soul acts, Sam & Dave faded after the decade ended. But “Soul Man” hit the charts again in the late 1970s when “Blues Brothers” John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd recorded it with many of the same musicians. Moore had mixed feelings about the hit becoming associated with the “Saturday Night Live” stars, remembering how young people believed it originated with the Blues Brothers.
In 2008, the movie “Soul Men” depicted a pair of aging, estranged singers who bore more than a little resemblance to Sam & Dave. Moore lost a lawsuit claiming the resemblance was too close.
He also spent years suing Prater after Prater hired a substitute and toured as the New Sam & Dave. Prater died in a 1988 car crash in Georgia.
In 1993, Moore was among numerous artists who pressed legal claims that the record industry had cheated them out of retirement benefits. Moore and other artists sued multiple record companies and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
Moore told The Associated Press in 1994 that he joined the legal effort after learning, despite his million-selling records, his pension amounted to just $2,285, which he could take as a lump sum or in payments of $73 monthly.
“Two thousand dollars for my lifetime?” Moore said then. “If you’re making a profit off of me, give me some too. Don’t give me cornbread and tell me it’s biscuits.”
Moore also became involved in politics. He wrote the song “Dole Man,” modeled on “Soul Man,” for Republican Bob Dole’s presidential campaign in 1996. In 2017, he was among the few entertainers who performed for Republican President Donald Trump’s inaugural festivities. Eight years earlier, Moore had objected when Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign used “Hold On, I’m Comin’.”
