TV One will pay tribute to Bobby Womack with a special memorial airing of “Unsung” tonight, Tuesday, July 1 at 9PM/ET.
The legendary singer-songwriter and musician passed away on June 27 at the age of 70.
Unsung featuring Bobby Womack – which originally aired in January 2012 – will take a look back at the illustrious career of the artist often called the Poet, the Preacher, and the last Soul Man. In his own words, Womack will tell his story of his life – one filled with events that mirror the painful dramas of his classic songs. He grew up as the middle child among the talented Womack brothers, later re-named the Valentinos, where they forged success as a pop group under the tutelage of soul icon Sam Cooke. Bobby became Cooke’s protégé, a guitar-playing and songwriting prodigy who penned his first number one hit, ‘It’s All over Now’, as a teenager. But his budding career took a wild turn when, within months of Cooke’s shocking murder in 1964, the 21 year old married Sam’s widow, Barbara. He became a pariah among former fans, a target for violence by Cooke’s brothers, and was all but banned from the record industry.
But talent persevered, and Womack emerged in the ‘70s and ‘80s as a singer-songwriter of uncommon range, penning soulful standards, from ‘That’s the Way I feel about Cha’ to ‘Across 100th Street,’ to ‘If You think You’re Lonely Now.’
