> Hi.
> Anyone who have information on Darrell Banks apart from the one
> which is to
> be found in "The Lost Soul"-compilation?
>
> //astrid
>
Hope this is of some use - taken from Dean Farrell's Soul Express website
at:
http://whusfm.saup.uconn.edu/SoulExpress/index.html
DARRELL BANKS
In March 1970, the soul world lost a fine vocalist. It was late morning in
northwest Detroit when an off-duty policeman, Aaron Bullock, was dropping a
barmaid, Marjorie Bozeman, off after giving her a ride home. Soul singer
Darrell Banks--born some 31 years before as Darrell Eubanks in Mansfield,
Ohio--the divorced father of two children, had been dating the woman,
although she had apparently been trying to end the relationship.
Banks had been waiting for Bozeman to return home. As she exited the car, he
approached her and grabbed her by the collar, demanding that they talk.
Identifying himself as a police officer, Bullock intervened, only to find
himself looking down the barrel of a .22 revolver, which Banks had pulled
from inside his coat. Reacting, Bullock ducked, drew his own gun, and fired
a shot, which hit Banks in the neck. The singer was taken to Detroit's New
Grace Hospital and was pronounced dead at 12:10 p.m.
Much of the short history of Darrell Banks is shrouded in mystery. His age,
his birthplace, the venue where he was "discovered," all are subject to
variation. What follows is Banks' story as best as we could piece it
together:
The Eubanks family moved from smalltown Ohio to Buffalo, New York, when
Darrell was a baby. Treading the well-worn path of a soulster, his earliest
experiences were in church, followed by school and graduating to local
clubs. There, he met and befriended fellow performer Donnie Elbert, a New
Orleans native who, like Banks, was raised in Buffalo following a family
move.
While Banks was performing at the Michigan State Fair, someone from Solid
Hitbound Productions happened by, and decided that Darrell was ready for the
recording studios. The end result was the singer's first release on the
Revilot label, "Open The Door To Your Heart." A perfect mid- to uptempo
blend of tune, upfront instrumentation and an achingly soulful vocal from
Banks, the record shot up the charts in the summer 1966, reaching #27 pop
and #2 R&B in Billboard. And the Cash Box R&B survey ranked it at #1! The
follow-up, "Somebody (Somewhere) Needs You," reached #55 pop and #34 R&B
that fall, and proved Darrell's last single to chart anywhere.
An in-demand performer on the strength of his initial outing, Banks found
his recording contract picked up by Atlantic, which bought out his Revilot
masters and placed him on its Atco subsidiary. Over a three-month period,
Atco issued two singles on Darrell--"Here Comes The Tears" and "Angel Baby
(Don't You Ever Leave Me)"--but chart success did not come. An LP, Darrell
Banks Is Here, followed. That was probably the end of any direct contractual
involvement with Atlantic. There are, however, six further Darrell Banks
tracks dating from recording sessions in March and December 1967, which were
given matrix numbers by Atlantic but remain unearthed.
Darrell's remaining recordings came under the umbrella of Don Davis at
Groovesville Music, the first product being the single "The Love Of My
Woman," leased to the Cotillion label (an Atlantic subsidiary) and released
in August 1968. And when Davis hooked up with Stax, Banks found himself on
its Volt subsidiary.
While neither of his two Volt singles raced up the charts, Banks was
preparing to work both as a solo performer and as a member of the touring
Stax/Volt Revue. An album, Here To Stay, featured a mix of typical Detroit
and more "southern-leaning" sounds. At this point, there was no indication
that Banks' career would be a short one--until that fateful morning in March
1970, that is.
Although he has been dead for three decades, Darrell's music is alive and
well on the Northern Soul scene in Great Britain. And in 2000, the Goldmine
label released its Open The Door To Your Heart CD, a "greatest hits"
anthology, as part of its "Connoisseur Collection" series.
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