From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Feb 12, 2002  1:27 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Gene McDaniels
 
GENE McDANIELS

Born Eugene B. McDaniels, 12 February 1935, Kansas City, Missouri

McDaniels is, in my opinion, a somewhat underrated black singer, with a
distinctive, conservatory-schooled voice. Though his preferred genres were
jazz, gospel and blues, he will be remembered as a pop singer, on the basis
of his hits for the Liberty label, 1961-1963.
Signing with LIberty in 1959, Gene saw his first three singles sink without a
trace. Things changed when production duties were taken over by Snuff
Garrett, who brought him "A Hundred Pounds Of Clay" (about the creation
of Woman). Though McDaniels hated the song, he recorded it anyway and
it rose to # 3 in the charts in April of 1961. In the UK, the record was banned
by the BBC, but a cover version by Craig Douglas with slightly adapted
lyrics was deemed acceptable and made the Top 10. Gene's next Top 10
hit, "Tower Of Strength", (# 5 USA) would also suffer from British competition.
This time it was Frankie Vaughan who took the song to # 1 on the UK charts.
"Chip Chip" (1962) also made the Billboard Top 10. Many of Gene's songs
were written by the ace songwriters of the period, like Burt Bacharach and
Hal David, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman.
After 1963 the hits stopped coming and his last Liberty single was released
in September 1965. Though he would still make occasional albums (some
in the gospel field), singing was now taking a backseat to his other musical
pursuits, songwriting, publishing and producing.

CD: The Best Of Gene McDaniels : A Hundred Pounds Of Clay (EMI Legends
Of Rock 'n' Roll series). 25 Liberty tracks from 1961-65.