Willie Hightower

Born in Gadsden, Alabama, on September 30, 1940, Willie Hightower sang in church as a youngster before gravitating toward soul, especially the style of Sam Cooke. In the mid-sixties he entered into a management deal with Birmingham DJ Shelley Stewart of WENN, who introduced him to Bobby Robinson of Fire and Fury Records. Robinson signed the vocalist in 1965, resulting in several sides over the ensuing four years. The first, “What Am I Living For,” surfaced on Enjoy that year; two years later “If I Had a Hammer” became his initial Capitol release. Later in 1967 Capitol issued “Because I Love You,” produced by Richard Gottehrer and Seymour Stein, yet it was the 1968 single “It’s a Miracle” that carried him into the Billboard R&B Top 40, where it reached number 33. Capitalizing on that success, the label assembled the album If I Had a Hammer, drawing mostly from prior Enjoy, Fury, and Capitol material, and closed out Hightower’s stint with the company via the single “Ooh Baby How I Love You.”

After parting ways with Robinson, Capitol moved the singer to FAME Records in 1970. His debut single there, “Time Has Brought a Change,” preceded the follow-up “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” which climbed to number 27; one additional FAME 45, “Back Road into Town,” appeared in 1971. Shifting to Mercury in 1972, Hightower cut covers of Freddie Hart’s country hit “Easy Lovin’” and “Don’t Blame Me” before leaving the roster. A lone 1976 single on Sound Stage 7, “Chicago, Send Her Home,” preceded a lengthy recording hiatus that ended only with the 1980s Adventure One release “Too Many Irons in the Fire,” although he also laid down unreleased tracks alongside Bill Cantrell and Quinton Claunch during that decade.

Operating at the periphery of the FAME circle in the late sixties, Hightower had secured two national entries—“It’s a Miracle” and the Joe South composition “Walk a Mile in My Shoes”—under Robinson’s guidance before receding from view. His supple, timeworn voice, shaped first by Cooke and later by deep-soul phrasing, nevertheless earned lasting regard among collectors. Reissues of his sixties and seventies sides circulated in the nineties and early 2000s, yet the 2004 Honest Jon’s/Astralwerks anthology titled Willie Hightower ignited renewed attention. After years of local performances in Gadsden, the compilation paved the way for a reunion with Claunch, yielding the 2018 Ace album Out of the Blue. Produced by Billy Lawson and tracked in Muscle Shoals, the set marked Hightower’s unexpected return.