Jerry Butler - Aware of Love (Classic R&B US 1961)

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Jerry Butler's third album, Aware of Love, is comprised of a dozen tracks, mostly pop-type ballads done in an early soul style with restrained string accompaniment, interspersed with a very impressive handful of originals. The originals, composed by Butler and Curtis Mayfield (and featuring Mayfield in a supporting role on vocals and guitar, roles he fulfills throughout this album), show real invention in the writing as well as the singing and arrangements, and outclass most of the rest here. The title track is a soaring soul ballad with a killer performance by Butler, backed by a lean electric band accompaniment and muted horns.  

Jerry Butler (born Jerry Butler Jr., December 8, 1939 in Sunflower, Mississippi) is an American soul singer and songwriter, known as "The Ice Man" because of his cool demeanour while singing often intensely emotional lyrics.[citation needed] He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

Butler is also an American politician. He serves as a Commissioner for Cook County, Illinois, having first been elected in 1985. As a member of this 17-member county board, he chairs the Health and Hospitals Committee, and serves as Vice Chair of the Construction Committee.

The mid 1950s had a profound impact on Butler's life. He grew up poor, having lived in Chicago's Cabrini Green housing complex. Music and the church provided solace from a city that was as segregated as those in the Deep South. He performed in a church choir with Curtis Mayfield. As a teenager, Butler sang in a gospel quartet called Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers, along with Mayfield. Mayfield, a guitar player, became the lone instrumentalist for the six-member Roosters group, which later became The Impressions. Inspired by Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, and the Pilgrim Travelers, getting into the music industry seemed inevitable.

Butler's younger brother, Billy Butler, also had a career in the music industry.

Butler wrote the song "For Your Precious Love" (which is ranked #327 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time) and wanted to record a disc. Looking for recording studios, The Impressions auditioned for Chess Records and Vee-Jay Records. The group eventually signed with Vee-Jay, where they released "For Your Precious Love" in 1958. It became The Impressions' first hit and gold record.

Butler was dubbed the "Iceman" by WDAS Philadelphia disc jockey, Georgie Woods, while performing in a Philadelphia theater.

He co-wrote, with Otis Redding, the song "I've Been Loving You Too Long" in 1965. Butler’s solo career had a string of hits, including the Top 10 successes "He Will Break Your Heart", "Find Another Girl", "I'm A-Telling You" (all written by fellow Impression Curtis Mayfield and featuring Mayfield as harmony vocal), the million selling "Only the Strong Survive," "Moon River," "Need To Belong" (recorded with the Impressions after he went solo), "Make It Easy On Yourself," "Let It Be Me" (with Betty Everett), "Brand New Me," "Ain't Understanding Mellow" (with Brenda Lee Eager), "Hey, Western Union Man", and "Never Give You Up." Butler released two successful albums, The Ice Man Cometh (1968) and Ice On Ice (1970). The Ice Man Cometh garnered Butler three Grammy nominations. He collaborated on many of his successful recordings with the Philadelphia-based songwriting team, Gamble and Huff. With Motown, in 1976 and 1977, Butler produced and co-produced (with Paul David Wilson) two albums: 1.) “Suite For The Single Girl” and 2.) “It All Comes Out In My Song.”

Tony Orlando and Dawn revived "He Will Break Your Heart" in 1975, with a new title, "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)," and it was even more successful than Butler's original, going to #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.

Subsequently, Butler and Wilson produced an album on Dee Dee Sharp-Gamble with Philadelphia International. In 1981 with "Breaking and Entering" / "Easy Money," from Sharp-Gamble's album "Dee Dee", Butler/Wilson’s production spent four weeks at number one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart and Dance Chart Billboard

01. Where Do I Turn 
02. Aware Of Love 
03. When Trouble Calls 
04. Without Your Love 
05. Couldn't Go To Sleep 
06. I'm A Telling You 
07. The Wicked Man 
08. I See A Fool 
09. Love Me 
10. One By One 
11. Is This True Love 
12. Find Another Girl 

Bonus Tracks
13. Need To Belong 
14. I Stand Accused 
15. Let It Be Me 
16. I've Been Trying

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