8
placed secular lyrics to Bobby’s song
and came up with
Lookin’ For A Love
.
“
Everything has been rewritten
from gospel,”
says Bobby.
“Gospel
is the foundation of everything
else.”
Renamed The Valentinos,
the Womacks cut it in February
of ’62, again in Chicago, and had
themselves a #8 R&B hit that
summer.
“Sam was a major influence
,” says
Womack
. “More so than an influence,
he was a big brother to me. A guy that there’s
not a day go by that I don’t think about him, and I miss him. I just want
to represent him well, what he taught me.”
Cooke invited The Valentinos
to Hollywood and properly launched their career, the group enduring
into the mid-‘60s before Bobby went solo. Doubling on southpaw guitar,
he made singles for Checker and Atlantic before scoring hits for Minit
Records.
Moving over to parent label United Artists, Womack really came into his
own as a hitmaker in 1971 with
That’s The Way I Feel About Cha
(the
same year The J. Geils Band revived
Lookin’ For A Love
as their first pop
hit) and the ’72 R&B chart-topper
Woman’s Gotta Have It
. The million-
selling
Harry Hippie
hit big at the end of ’72. He provided the soundtrack
