Billy Always

Vocalist Billy Always, godson of Mahalia Jackson, built an extensive childhood career in gospel. By age nine he had become lead singer in his church choir, and at eleven he was already touring and recording with Rev. Isaac Whittman. In 1969 Aretha Franklin supplied him with studio and recording time while also supplying background vocals, alongside Cissy Houston and her sister Carolyn, for an unreleased Always single. During the 1970s Franklin’s background vocalist Evelyn Green introduced Always to Barrett Strong, with whom he later co-wrote several songs, among them “Man up in the Sky,” which Strong and Johnny Bristol both recorded. In 1979 his attorney financed a self-produced, written, and performed LP session titled Billy Always, two tracks of which—“I Mean to Love You” and “Some Kind of Love”—later surfaced as a bootleg single. Always met legendary Memphis-based producer Willie Mitchell in 1980, and Mitchell produced the single “Didn't We Do It” for his Waylo label in 1981 as well as the LP Billy Always in 1982. Mitchell also produced the 1988 Always album Trust Me, which Epic released. Ann Peebles recorded Always’ “Didn't We Do It,” and “Come to Me,” co-written by Always with Bernie Miller, appeared on Walter Jackson’s LP Tell Me Where It Hurts.