RIP Cuba Gooding (Main Ingredient)

So sad to hear of this today, one of my favorite soul singer ever!

Soul singer Cuba Gooding Sr. found dead in Woodland Hills

 

Wow, I feel bad for his son, Cuba Gooding Jr.

 

A stone classic that never gets old.
RIP.

 

Dreadful news RIP.

 

RIP.

 

RIP, Cuba.

 

Rest In Peace, Cuba.

 

Sad Day!! Thanks for the great tunes.

 

Terrible news, RIP Cuba Sr. beautiful voice too!

 

Rest easy, Mr. Gooding.

Condolences to Mr. Gooding Jr. and family.

 

R.I.P.

 

Sadly some news outlets are reporting that drug paraphernalia was found at the scene. Reportedly Cuba had problems with drugs in the past, I had no idea.... RIP.

 

Idle mind ...

 

Great song of my teen years ...RIP

 

I love most of them. The Main Ingredient were lucky to get Cuba after the death of their original lead singer, Donald McPherson. Cuba was just a fun, charasmatic singer. There's a lot of favorites.

Girl Blue
California My Way
Happiness Is Just Around The Bend
Rolling Down A Mountainside
I Want To Make You Glad
Instant Love

So many to name.....

 

Damn! I loved The Main Ingredient! R.I.P., Mr Gooding, Sr.

My favorite songs are, of course, the hits "I Just Don't Want To Be Lonely", "Rolling Down A Mountainside", and "Everybody Plays The Fool". Those three songs are a big part of my life's soundtrack.

 

This is truly sad news, especially as he was only 72. His hits with the Main Ingredient are monumental.

 

He also did some cool things on his own. How about this one from the oddly-titled "Love Dancer"



Michael L. Smith couldn't be escaped at this point and this is one of his. Cuba works with the rather dubious lyric of this really well.

Ed

 

The one thing I always liked about Cuba was his enthusiasm, he really gave his all. In a way he always reminded me of an actor in that way.

Yep, I remember Michael L. Smith, he also produced that duet album G.C. Cameron and Syreeta among many other efforts.

 

It's hard to call a band that a bunch of top 40 (and a couple of top 5) hits underappreciated, but I don't think The Main Ingredient get the same kind of respect as some of their 70s soul contemporaries like The Spinners and the O'Jays while they definitely deserve it.

Cuba Gooding Sr. was put in an almost impossible situation when he joined The Main Ingredient - they'd had a bunch of hits on their first two albums, and then their original lead vocalist, Donald MacPherson died from leukemia just before their 3rd album ('Black Seeds') came out in 1971. Not only was MacPherson the recognisable voice of the band, he was also the group's primary songwriter and as a pianist he the only one of the trio that could play an instrument. By all measures his loss should have ended the group, but Gooding came in and not only did the Black Seeds tour (I read a review of a gig on that tour that criticised him for being too animated of all things) and then went immediately on to record the Bitter Sweet album which gave the band their highest charting single ever when Everybody Plays The Fool went to #2 in the Billboard charts.

The Main Ingredient also counted Stevie Wonder amongst their fans, so much so that he gave them 3 previously unreleased songs for their 1973 album Afrodisiac, and appeared live on stage with them that year when they played at Radio City Music Hall in New York. I don't think Stevie Wonder gave very many songs away during that period (I can only think of Syreeta, Rufus and Minnie Riperton off the top of my head) so I think that puts the group in very esteemed company.

I think like a lot of people who don't know the group that well, I kind of pigeonholed them based on only having heard 'Everybody Plays The Fool'. Then I spent the better part of last year immersed in their music, in preparation for writing the liner notes for the Dutton Vocalion hybrid SACD reissue of their 1974 album Euphrates River. Other posters in this thread have highlighted some of their great individual tracks, so all I'll say is if you like mid-70's soul, you can't go wrong with these guys. They seemed to be able to synthesize the best of Detroit, Philadelphia and Memphis, not to mention their ability to rearrange pop and rock songs so convincingly that you'll swear they were written as R&B tracks from the ground up.

I really agree with what @zebop said too, Cuba wasn't just a singer, there was a measure of performance to all his vocals and I think it's immediately obvious where Cuba Gooding Jr.'s acting genes come from. He may not have quite had the power or technical facility of some of his contemporaries, but his voice is instantly recognisable and his energy and charisma undeniable.

A real loss to music, and someone well worth remembering.

 

The Goodings, Senior and Junior.
Image credit: Getty.

 

RIP

Like many others, Everybody Plays the Fool, was a critical song from the soundtrack of my life.