Soul legend Solomon Burke has died, age 70.
Burke died at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport when he was arriving to play in the city on Tuesday.
Burke wrote the track ‘Everybody Needs Somebody To Love’, which was famously covered by The Rolling Stones, as well as appearing in the 1980 comedy tribute to soul, ‘The Blues Brothers’.
Burke began his career as a preacher in his hometown of Philadelphia, PA before hosting a gospel radio show.
In the 1960s he inked a deal with Atlantic Records and moved away from recording gospel music. There he had a number of hits including ‘Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)’, ‘Everybody Needs Somebody To Love’, 'If You Need Me' and ‘Cry To Me’, the latter of which appeared in the film ‘Dirty Dancing’.
Throughout his career, Burke never managed to gain the commercial success of other singers at the time, however in 2001 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, then in 2002 a new interest was sparked in Burke when he released the Grammy-winning album ‘Don’t Give Up On Me’ which featured songs written for him by artists including Bob Dylan, Nick Lowe, Brian Wilson, Tom Waits and Van Morrison.
His latest album ‘Hold On Tight’ was recorded with Dutch rock band De Dijk. It was released earlier this year.
He is survived by 21 children and 90 grandchildren.
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