Jerry Butler, who found R&B stardom in the late 1950s as the first lead singer of the Impressions before moving on to a solo career and a second life in Chicago politics, died Thursday. He was 85.
His death was reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, which cited a family friend and said that Butler (who had Parkinson’s disease) died at his home.
Nicknamed “The Iceman,” Butler sang in a coolly knowing baritone that hinted at the passions of church and romance while putting across a sense of reassurance that here was a guy who knew what to do in any given situation. Among his dozens of hits — many of which he co-wrote — were the Impressions’ debut single, “For Your Precious Love”; “He Will Break Your Heart”; “Make It Easy on Yourself”; “Let It Be Me”; and “Only the Strong Survive,” which reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1969 and inspired subsequent renditions by Elvis Presley, Skeeter Davis, Billy Paul, Rod Stewart and Bruce Springsteen, among others.
In 1970, “Only the Strong Survive” was nominated for R&B song at the Grammy Awards, while Butler’s album “The Ice Man Cometh” — produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, architects of the lush Philly soul sound — received a nod for best R&B vocal performance. Butler put more than 50 songs on Billboard’s R&B chart, including 18 in the Top 10. As a member of the Impressions — which he formed with his adolescent friend Curtis Mayfield, who took over as the group’s lead singer when Butler left in 1960 — Butler was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, half a decade after he was elected to a spot on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. He held the position until he retired in 2018.
Butler was born to sharecropper parents on Dec. 8, 1939, in Sunflower, Miss., and moved at age 3 with his family to Chicago. He and Mayfield sang together in church and toured as members of a gospel outfit before starting the Impressions. The group scored a deal with Vee-Jay Records in 1958 and released “For Your Precious Love,” which Otis Redding and Jackie Wilson later covered.
Jerry Butler performs at New York’s Apollo Theateraround 1965.
(Don Paulsen / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
After leaving the Impressions in Mayfield’s care — the group went on to help soundtrack the civil rights movement with such songs as “Keep on Pushing” and “People Get Ready” — Butler topped the R&B chart on his own with “He Will Break Your Heart,” which he co-wrote with Mayfield and featured Mayfield on guitar and backing vocals. Butler reached No. 11 on the Hot 100 in 1961 with a debonair version of “Moon River”; in 1965, he and Redding co-wrote “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” which became a widely interpreted soul standard. By the end of the ’60s, Butler had struck up a fruitful partnership with Gamble and Huff that presaged the success that duo would find in the ’70s.
Butler briefly reunited with the Impressions in the early ’80s — Mayfield died in 1999 at age 57 — and he continued to perform amid his duties as a politician. His music was sampled by the likes of Method Man, J Dilla and Pusha T; Springsteen used “Only the Strong Survive” as the title track for his 2022 R&B covers LP, which also included a take on Butler’s “Hey, Western Union Man.” Butler’s wife Annette Butler, who sometimes performed with her husband, died in 2019. According to the Sun-Times, his survivors include their two sons, four grandchildren and a great-grandchild.