Womack & Womack

Cecil Womack was born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio, and performed with his older brothers Bobby (1944–2014), Harry (1945–1974), Friendly, and Curtis (born Howard Curtis Womack on 22 October 1942, died 21 May 2017 in a Bluefield, West Virginia, hospital of respiratory heart failure), as a gospel group. After meeting Sam Cooke, they changed their name to the Valentinos and in 1961 began to sing and record "the devil's music" for secular audiences, to the horror of their religious father. The Valentinos had a hit record with "Lookin' for a Love", selling two million copies, later becoming a No. 39 U.S. hit for the J. Geils Band in 1971. But the fall-out from Cooke's death – he was shot by a motel manager in Los Angeles in December 1964 – and Bobby Womack's subsequent marriage to Cooke's widow months later halted their progress. In the 1960s, Cecil Womack worked primarily as a songwriter and producer. He first met Linda, who is Sam Cooke's daughter, born in 1953, when he was thirteen and she was eight. Although Linda and Cecil were close, particularly after her father's death in 1964, he married singer Mary Wells in 1967 and wrote material for her, including the hit "The Doctor", released on Jubilee Records. They had three children, and he managed her career until their break-up in 1977. Bobby Womack was her stepfather, having married Sam Cooke's widow, Barbara. Bobby began a sexual relationship with Linda, which her mother discovered when Linda was 17. Cecil Womack and Mary Wells divorced in 1977, and he and Linda married shortly afterwards, and had four more children together (three of whom have gone on to form "The Womack Sisters" vocal trio as of 2022). ==Performers==

In 1983, Cecil and Linda began performing and recording together as Womack & Womack, and released a successful album, Love Wars produced by Stewart Levine on Elektra Records. The first single from the album, "T.K.O.", reached the Billboard R&B chart; the next single, "Love Wars", reached no.14 on the UK singles chart in early 1984, and the third single from the album, "Baby I'm Scared of You", charted in both the US (no. 25, R&B chart) and the UK (no. 72). As with most of the tracks they recorded together, the songs were written by the pair. Their next album, the self-produced Radio M.U.S.C. Man, released in 1986, included songs which Sam Cooke had started to write and which Cecil and Linda completed, along with a cover of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun". The album only produced one hit, "Strange & Funny", the pair's last chart entry in the US, and they left Elektra to record for the Manhattan label. Two other album tracks charted in England, "Life's Just a Ballgame" (U.K. no. 32) and "Celebrate the World" (U.K. no. 19). An eleven-song VHS, Womack & Womack: Live in Concert was released in 1989, filmed during their "Celebrate the World" tour in Australia, America, England, Spain and France. It was re-released on DVD in 2009 by Cherry Red Films. Their next album, 1991's Family Spirit was released on RCA in the U.S., and BMG/Arista in the rest of the world. It didn't chart, but the single "Uptown" was a club and radio hit. After traveling to Nigeria, they discovered ancestral ties to the Zekkariyas tribe, and adopted African names. Now recording for Warner Bros. Records, in 1993 they released what was to be their last album of new material under the name of Womack & Womack, Transformation to the House of Zekkariyas. The original SAR Records was Sam Cooke's record label. ==Songwriters==

Linda commenced a songwriting career in 1964 at the age of 11, composing "I Need A Woman", and would also co-write "I'm In Love" for Wilson Pickett and "A Woman's Gotta Have It" in 1972 for Bobby Womack. It was also recorded by James Taylor, along with many others. ==Discography==

Albums Compilations • 1993: Tear Drops (Greatest Hits) • 1998: Greatest Hits (CD version of Tear Drops) • 2004: The Best of 1984-1993: Strange and Funny Singles ==References==