Winfield Parker

A vocalist esteemed by aficionados of deep soul as well as traditional gospel, Winfield Parker began his musical path as a teenage saxophonist performing with Maryland and D.C.-area ensembles that included the Veejays and Sammy Fitzhugh & the Moroccans. Before stepping out as a solo artist he also toured as a sideman with Little Richard and directed his own group, the Imperial Thrillers. Between the closing years of the 1960s and the end of the 1970s he cut sides for a range of imprints—Arctic, Ru-Jac, Wand, Spring, and GSF among them. His greatest commercial success arrived in 1971 when his rendition of “S.O.S. (Stop Her on Sight),” the Edwin Starr hit from five years earlier, climbed to number 48 on Billboard’s Soul Singles chart. Additional tracks such as “Shake That Thing” and “Mr. Clean” later earned lasting regard on England’s Northern Soul circuit. Parker simultaneously fronted the Best of Both Worlds, whose lone album, I Want the World to Know, appeared on the Calla label.

In 1981 he was ordained as a minister, issued his first gospel recordings in 1988, and launched an independent label. Far from abandoning his earlier work, he maintained careful oversight of his complete catalog and kept performing the R&B repertoire even as his gospel output gained wider recognition. The Omnivore label’s 2016 anthology Mr. Clean: Winfield Parker at Ru-Jac gathered every previously issued Ru-Jac selection and introduced six previously unreleased performances. At that point Parker remained active within the gospel community and was approaching his sixtieth year as a recording artist.