Sam and Dave

Induction Year: 1992

Induction Category: Performer

The greatest of all soul duos, Sam (Moore) and Dave (Prater) brought the sound of the black church to pop music with their string of call-and-response hits for Stax Records from 1965 to 1968. The pair usually worked with the songwriting and production team of and David Porter, using as backing musicians. From these collaborations came such soulful, fevered exchanges as “You Don’t Know Like I Know,” “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” “You Got Me Hummin’,” “Soul Man” and “I Thank You.” Sam and Dave also gained renown as an electrifying live act in the Stax revues of the mid-Sixties, where they’d compete for applause with such labelmates as .

Prater was born in Georgia and Moore in Florida; the duo met in the latter’s hometown of Miami in 1961. Moore, a church-reared singer who sang with such gospel quartets as the Gales and the Mellionaires, once turned down an offer to replace the departing in . Prater had himself moved to Miami to sing in his brother’s gospel group, the Sensational Hummingbirds. But it was R&B that brought the two singers together onstage at Miami’s King of Hearts nightclub one fateful amateur night. Sam and Dave recorded for the Alston and Roulette labels before being discovered by Atlantic Records’ , who caught their act at the King of Hearts in 1964 and then sent them to Memphis-based Stax to record the next year.

Theirs was the perfect balance of pop melody and church feeling; moreover, the duo intuitively played off each other to great effect. Sam and Dave split up in 1970, only to reunite and part ways several more times over the years, with the Blues Brothers’ revival of “Soul Man” in 1979 instigating one of their more successful reunions. Never as close offstage as they were in performance, Sam and Dave finally called it quits after a performance in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve, 1981. Prater was killed in a 1988 auto accident. Moore, who continued singing, turned up on several tracks of Bruce Springsteen’s Human Touch album.

TIMELINE

October 12, 1935: Sam Moore was born.

May 9, 1937: Dave Prater was born.

August 1, 1960: strikes a handshake deal giving Atlantic distribution rights to Memphis-based Stax Records. The labels’ eight-year association will yield scores of hits by such artists as , Sam and Dave and Booker T. and the MGs, literally shaping the sound of Sixties soul music.

November 4, 1967: Sam & Dave hit #2 with “Soul Man”.

March 23, 1968: Sam & Dave hits #9 with “I Thank You”.

Essential Recordings

Soul Man
Hold On, I’m Coming
I Thank You
When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
You Got Me Humming
You Don’t Know Like I Know
Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody
Soothe Me
Can’t You Find Another Way (Of Doing It)
You Don’t Know What You Mean to Me