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Musiker

Ed Townsend

geboren am 16.4.1929 in Fayetteville, TN, USA

gestorben am 13.8.2003 in San Bernardino, CA, USA

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Ed Townsend

aus Wikipedia, der freien Enzyklopädie

Edward Benjamin 'Ed' Townsend (April 16, 1929 August 13, 2003) was an American attorney, songwriter, and producer. He was best known for performing his composition, "For Your Love," a rhythm and blues doo wop classic, and as the co-writer of "Let's Get It On" with Marvin Gaye.[1]

Biography

Townsend was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee and his family soon moved to Memphis where his father was pastor at an African Methodist Episcopal church.

The year Townsend graduated from high school, he was elected to the International American Methodist Episcopal Youth Council (IAMEYC) and travelled worldwide before enrolling in college the next year at Arkansas State College. After graduating, he taught for a year. Although he never formally practiced law, he frequently used his law training to assist other entertainers in negotiating their recording and performance contracts.

In 1951, Townsend joined the United States Marine Corps and served in Korea. After his discharge, he recorded a number of singles for various labels, none of which made the charts. In 1958, he took his ballad, "For Your Love" to Capitol Records, hoping to interest Nat King Cole, but, impressed with his voice, Capitol signed him to record it himself. Dick Clark had just started American Bandstand on television and invited Townsend to sing the first month the show aired. He was an overnight success and the song shot up the US pop chart, reaching #13.

Townsend had no further vocal hits of his own. In 1962, he wrote a tune for soul singer, Jimmy Holiday, "How Can I Forget?", which was later covered by Ben E. King. Then he wrote and produced Theola Kilgores "The Love Of My Man." He also composed "Tears Of Joy," "Hand It Over," "I Might Like It," "Since I Found You," and "Foolish Fool." In the early 1970s Ed Townsend teamed up with Marvin Gaye to write one of the biggest hits of all time, "Let's Get It On" from the album of the same title.

One of his most memorable performances was on the PBS television special "Rock, Rhythm, and Doo Wop" filmed at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 16 and 17, 2000. DVDs of the event were sold as fundraisers for PBS stations nationwide.

Addiction

Townsend battled addiction to alcohol and other drugs, but was finally able to overcome it. In the few years prior to his death, he wrote a full length musical titled, "Rehabilitation: Been There Done That!" which toured Southern California to bring a strong message of sobriety through his artistic genius. He valued it as his "most important work to date". An original cast album was produced on his label, EBT New Life and got extensive radio play nationally across the United States on many gospel and R&B radio stations. In his lifetime he produced close to fifty major artists.

Family

Ed Townsend was married once and had two sons and one daughter, Kathryn Griffin-Townsend (one son was David Townsend, former guitarist for Surface[1]). He died on August 13, 2003 in San Bernardino, California at the age of 74 and enjoyed the company and professionalism of Janice Carbonnaire his last passion. He loved children and honored the families of EBT New LIFE as often as he could celebrating their milestones fully entertaining the large brood of 'adoptees' to his condo/home in Reseda. Around 2002, he began using a wheel chair after he fell a couple times getting to the mic. Although he was able to fully rehabilitate from drugs and alcohol and spent his sober life helping others up from a life of abuse, he never was able to kick his smoking habit and preferred clove tobacco which likely weakened his heart. However, nothing could have weakened his heart more than to see a world ignore his call for a world sobriety check (source?). More love for humanity you could not find, it was shameful that he remained an addict so long (according to whom)?. His articulate speech and immaculate writing skills created an unbelievable individual that fostered the careers of so many. With unmarried son David's sudden passing two years later at the youthful age of 50, the sole heir to Ed's works is his sister, Helen. Although Ed Townsend moved away from his roots, he never left them behind.

Honored with a Purple Heart in the Korean War, he was given a full military gun salute at his memorial at Riverside National Cemetery.

Filmography

Townsend served as Composer for:

  • Black Fist (1975)
  • The Ultimate Thrill (1974)

In the R&B world, he is best remembered for his work with Dee Dee Warwick on "I Wanna Be With You","Foolish Fool" and "That's Not Love"

References

  • ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. R. R. Bowker Co., 1980.

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Perrone, Pierre (December 25, 2005). David Townsend - Singer with the soul trio Surface. Independent.co.uk - Obituaries. Retrieved on April 24, 2009.

External links

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Dieser Artikel basiert auf dem Artikel Ed Townsend aus der freien Enzyklopädie Wikipedia und steht unter der GNU-Lizenz für freie Dokumentation.
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