McClure was born in
Chicago,
Illinois. By the age of two his family had moved to
St. Louis, where he sang in church and gospel groups in his youth. He sang with
The Soul Stirrers (then led by
Sam Cooke) in the 1950s, and moved into
secular music soon after, singing with Bobby & the Vocals, Big Daddy Jenkins, and
Oliver Sain. McClure, who recorded for Checker, a subsidiary of
Chess Records, scored two hit singles in the U.S. in 1965, and thereafter helped launch the careers of
Little Milton and
Fontella Bass; during this time he also played with
Otis Clay and
Shirley Brown. McClure suffered a
brain aneurysm in 1992, and died in
Los Angeles,
California, of complications from a
stroke soon after. and an earlier joint album with
Willie Clayton,
Bobby McClure & Willie Clayton (
Hi Records, 1992). ==Discography==