Keith Powell Biography

A blue-eyed soul singer from Birmingham, Powell released almost a dozen British singles in the mid-’60s without making the charts. Judged against other British soul (as opposed to rock) vocalists of the time, he wasn’t bad, with a deep voice and expressive delivery, but unlike Chris Farlowe and John Baldry — two peers who, at least from the recorded evidence, were not as talented — he couldn’t find hit material. His first three singles (in 1963 and 1964) were recorded for Columbia with his backing group, the Valets, a combo featuring brass and organ, somewhat in the style of a muted Georgie Fame. After moving to Pye in late 1964, the Valets would no longer play on his records; producer John Schroeder steered him toward melodramatic soul ballads with strings, produced in a fashion that recalled Jerry Butler’s mid-’60s material. With Pye, Powell released eight singles in 1965-66, three of which were male-female duets with Billie Davis (who had made the British Top Ten with a cover of the Exciters’ “Tell Him”). The results weren’t bad, if a bit lugubrious, but were not rewarded by commercial success.