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Aug 12, 2011 · Explore Percy Mayfield's discography including top tracks, albums, and reviews. Learn all about Percy Mayfield on AllMusic.
Percy Mayfield. Profile: US R&B vocalist and composer (b. August 12, 1920, Minden, Louisiana, d. August 11, 1984, Los Angeles, CA) Though maybe mostly known for penning the classic "Hit the Road, Jack", Mayfield himself was a major performer for the Specialty label in the first half of the 50s delivering slow blues ballads with his smoky voice ...
Aug 12, 2012 · Singer-songwriter Percy Mayfield was known as "Poet Laureate of the Blues," and his widely recorded compositions, have become standards in American popular music. Born in Minden, Louisiana, Mayfield wrote poems as a boy and set them to music, but because his mother didn't approve of blues, he sang only in church.
Percy Mayfield has been widely described as "the poet laureate of the blues." Armed with a dry baritone, songwriter and singer Mayfield sang blues ballads that pondered worlds of trouble, melancholy, pain, and suicide. He was one of the most creative songwriters and performers of California blues.
Known as “the poet laureate of the blues,” Percy Mayfield is revered as a uniquely sensitive songwriter and rhythm and blues (R&B) artist. One of Mayfield’s early producers, Art Rupe, stated that “If he could have been encouraged more, [Mayfield] would have been seen as great as Langston Hughes.”
Percy Mayfield was a popular recording artist in the early 1950s when he had a No. 1 R&B hit with “Please Send Me Someone to Love,” but after a disfiguring injury in an auto accident in 1952 he performed less often and focused his attention on the talent that brought him even greater acclaim – songwriting.
Percy Mayfield. BIOGRAPHY AND DISCOGRAPHY. One of the most acclaimed singer/songwriters in rock history, Mayfield’s career was cut in half by a tragic accident that derailed his performing considerably after which he turned more to songwriting for hire where he made an equal mark.
