Jerry Butler, soul hitmaker and Illinois politician, dies aged 85

The Guardian

21-02-2025

Jerry Butler, the US singer and songwriter who had a string of 1960s pop and soul hits before a long career in Illinois politics, has died aged 85.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Butler died at home on Thursday. He had been living with Parkinson's disease.
Born to a poor family in Mississippi and then raised in Chicago, Butler originally trained to be a chef – 'Jerry could cook like somebody's mama,' Smokey Robinson later said – but became an influential and versatile musician who came of age as soul music evolved out of doo-wop and mid-century pop.
He brought his gospel music background to bear on one of his earliest songs, For Your Precious Love – named as one of the 500 greatest of all time by Rolling Stone in 2004 – which he wrote and then performed with his group Jerry Butler and the Impressions, taking it to No 11 in the US charts in 1958.
The group also featured Butler's childhood friend Curtis Mayfield, who fronted them after Butler left for a solo career – they found further success with songs such as People Get Ready. But the Butler-Mayfield collaboration continued, with Mayfield writing or co-writing a number of solo Butler songs, including He Will Break Your Heart, a No 7 hit in 1960. Butler also co-wrote other hits, such as Otis Redding's I've Been Loving You Too Long.
Butler also found success with his takes on a series of pop standards, including Moon River and Make It Easy on Yourself, but his biggest hit of all was self-penned: Only the Strong Survive, which reached No 4 in 1969. It was co-written with powerhouse Philadelphia duo Gamble and Huff, and together they scored a number of other hits. He earned the nickname 'Iceman' for his cool, collected demeanour on stage: 'I came through a period when the Isley Brothers were jumping off the stage, and James Brown was sliding across the floor. But I am just a standup singer,' he said.
A cover of He Will Break Your Heart became a US No 1 hit for Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1975, under the title He Don't Love You (Like I Love You). But his own musical success waned in that decade, and he ended up focusing on a beer distribution company he'd founded in 1973.
Come the 1980s, he decided to move into politics, and in 1986 was elected to the Board of Commissioners in Cook County, Illinois – it acts as the legislature for the area, and oversees courts, prisons, healthcare and more. He held a position on the 17-strong board until his retirement in 2018.
He was made a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 as a member of the Impressions, and his sizeable songbook was also later sampled by hip-hop artists including Snoop Dogg and Missy Elliott.