The Poor Souls, ca. 1983
Bobby Smith, front center
(From the Classic Urban Harmony Archives)
Bobby Smith, front center
(From the Classic Urban Harmony Archives)
The Poor Souls: Carolina Beach Music at its Finest
On November 29, 2009, Carolina Beach Music lost one of its
brightest stars. Bobby Smith, bass singer extraordinaire and key
founding member of the Poor Souls died of a heart attack. A year and a
half later, on June 9, 2011, we lost magnificent tenor, Butch Stone, of
lymphocytic leukemia. For those of us who
love vocal harmony groups and Carolina Beach Music, the Poor Souls
were the embodiment of both. Sure, you could dance the shag to all the
Poor Souls' songs. But the Poor Souls chose material that was true to
Beach Music's 1950's R&B roots.
The Poor Souls repertoire featured
songs by the Swallows, Checkers, Cadets, Coasters, Clovers, Blenders, Bull Moose Jackson
and Louis Prima as
well as their own original material that sounded like it came from 1954!
And while the Poor Souls were outstanding in every way, what gave them an
edge on most Beach groups was Bobby Smith's bass lead and Butch Stone's
tenor. Please scroll to the bottom of this page to watch a very moving
video slide show of a Poor Souls' road trip.
More @ Classic Urban Harmony
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