Womack  Obituaries

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CECIL D. WOMACK,   Sep. 25, 1947 - Feb. 1, 2013   African/American

Cecil Womack, who has died aged 65, saw his role as one of R&B's backroom boys – a songwriter, producer, arranger and session singer for dozens of illustrious clients. But he will be best remembered as one half of Womack & Womack, whose 1980s chart success outstripped that of even Cecil's more famous brother, Bobby.

Cecil was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the youngest of five brothers. His father, Friendly Womack, assembled a family band in the late 1950s. Cecil was eight years old when he and his siblings – Friendly Jr, Curtis, Bobby and Harry – started touring the midwest gospel circuit as the Womack Brothers, accompanied by their mother, Naomi, on organ and their father on guitar.

The brothers came to the attention of Sam Cooke, who invited them to open for one of his shows (a terrified young Cecil wet himself when confronted by Cooke's 500-strong audience) and later signed them to his SAR label in 1961. Cooke changed their name to the Valentinos, relocated them to Los Angeles and encouraged them to take the same journey from gospel to secular R&B that he had taken.

They had three hits (Looking for a Love, I'll Make It Alright and It's All Over Now), but when Cooke was shot dead at a motel in Los Angeles in 1964, they were left without a mentor. Bobby married Cooke's widow, Barbara, months later, and the backlash from bitter Cooke fans left the Valentinos without a career. A 1966 comeback single for Chess Records failed to chart.

That year, Cecil married the former Motown singer Mary Wells, best known for the chart-topping My Guy. Her career was in decline, but Cecil co-wrote and co-produced several tracks for Wells, including The Doctor (1968). The couple had three children and divorced in 1977. Wells went on to have a child with Cecil's older brother Curtis. In 1979 Cecil married Linda Cooke, daughter of Sam Cooke and erstwhile stepdaughter of Cecil's brother Bobby. (In his 2002 autobiography, Bobby wrote that he had had a relationship with Linda while he was married to her mother.)

Cecil and Linda had known each other since they were children. After marrying, their careers as songwriters and performers flourished. In 1980, Teddy Pendergrass had a hit with their song Love TKO (later covered by Bette Midler, Boz Scaggs and Hall & Oates) and Cecil and Linda quickly became an in-demand songwriting duo, their songs recorded by Randy Crawford, George Benson, Patti LaBelle, the O'Jays, Millie Jackson, Johnnie Taylor, Loleatta Holloway and Bobby Womack.

These were emotionally draining, adult love songs, sweetened by infectious Philly disco beats. Soon they were writing for themselves and landing hit singles as Womack & Womack: Love Wars (1984) and Teardrops (a No 3 in the UK in 1988) were both tightly plotted psychodramas on the subject of infidelity. Following the Love Wars album (1983), a string of other LPs ensued: Radio MUSC Man (1985), Star Bright (1986) and Conscience (1988).

There were further songwriting credits (for Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Angie Stone, Ruby Turner and the Beautiful South) and more Womack & Womack albums, including Family Spirit (1991), but a trip to Nigeria in the early 1990s would prove life-changing for both of them. After discovering ancestral ties to the Zekkariyas tribe of Nigeria, the couple moved from their homes in Philadelphia and southern California to explore Africa. Cecil adopted the name Zekkariyas and Linda became Zeriiya. Subsequent releases, including Secret Star (1994), were credited to The House of Zekkariyas.

The couple lived in South Africa but also had a home in Thailand, where an estate and recording studio that they had started building was destroyed by the tsunami in 2004. They continued to tour and record with their seven children.