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Curtis Mayfield music biography continued...

Mayfield first sang with Gospel groups from his grandmother's church. He dropped out of high school in 1957 to become lead singer and songwriter for The Impressions, a rhythm and blues vocal group. After reforming, the group signed with ABC-Paramount and hit the pop and R&B charts with Mayfield's flamenco-styled "Gypsy Woman." Mayfield then entered a prolific period during which his writing and singing would come to define what Rolling Stone has called the "Chicago sound," which rivaled Motown in the early and mid-'60s. Mayfield's hit songs during this period included, "It's All Right," which zoomed to number one on the R&B charts and number four on pop in 1963; "I'm So Proud" (number 14 pop), "Keep On Pushing" (Number 10 pop), and "Amen" (number seven pop, Number 17 R&B) in 1964. In 1970 Mayfield also made a major career move, leaving the Impressions to go solo. At first the move didn't pay off, but his 1972 soundtrack to the blaxploitation film, Superfly, landed Mayfield at number one on the charts. The 4-million-selling album included two gold singles, "Superfly" and "Freddie's Dead" established Mayfield as a solo superstar and led to even more film work during the rest of the decade, as well as a continuous stream of hit singles.



The 80s were not especially kind to Mayfield, as the hits stopped coming and his label went bankrupt. Then, On August 14, 1990, while Mayfield was performing an outdoor concert in Brooklyn, New York, a lighting rig fell atop him, leaving him permanently paralyzed from the neck down. Mayfield and the Impressions were subsequently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and an extravagant and stirring tribute was paid to Mayfield at the 1994 Grammy Awards gala. Two tribute albums by a variety of artists followed, and Mayfield himself, barely able to sing due to his injury, released his last album, New World Order. Though he died in 1999 due to complications from diabetes, Mayfield's tunes live on in the recordings of other artists who were influenced and awed by his prodigious talent.