August 12, 1920 – August 11, 1984
Percy Mayfield was known as the Poet Laureate of the Blues. He was born in Mindon, LA, where he started writing poetry, which led to songwriting. He first moved to Texas to start performing his music, then moved to LA in the early 1940s. It took a couple of years for him to start making it.
A true West Coast Bluesman, he did not look for a white audience, and sang mostly blues ballads. In late 1950, his song “Please Send Me Someone to Love” hit number one on the R & B charts. He had several top ten songs in the next couple of years.
In 1952, he was severely injured and disfigured in an automobile accident. While he didn’t perform for a while, it couldn’t stop the poet in him, and his songwriting continued. In 1955 he started recording again for several different labels with some success. Ray Charles ended up being the first to record Percy’s song “Hit the Road, Jack”, making it into his sixth number one hit. Percy also wrote several other of Ray Charles’ popular tunes in the early 1960s.
He continued to write songs for RCA and Atlantic into the 1970s with several minor R&B hits to his name. He was “rediscovered” in the early 1980s, and recorded the album “Hit the Road Again” with the Philip Walker Blues Band in 1983.
Mark Naftalin, a keyboardist for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, produced a documentary “Percy Mayfield: Poet Laureate of the Blues”.
Happy Birthday Percy, thanks for your music!