"Sweet Soul Music"- Arthur Conley

On Disappearing Completely

Spotlight on Arthur Conley — the gay man who, in an alternate timeline, might’ve been the next Otis Redding.

If you like soul music, this song is like a roll call of the genre’s best to offer in 1967: Lou Rawls, Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and James Brown. “Sweet Soul Music” put a “spotlight on” the gods of soul we should be worshipping for eternity.

Spotlight on James Brown now
He's the king of them all, y'all
He's the king of them all, y'all
Oh yeah, oh yeah

But what about the man who co-wrote and sang this song? Why don’t we recognize his name alongside this playlist of giants? For a person who wanted to give so many of his talented contemporaries the attention they deserved, Arthur Conley knew how dangerous it would be to have the stage lights burn too brightly on himself. 

Very little has been written about Conley’s life. He has one of the shortest Wikipedia pages of any chart-topping soul singer. There are no biographies of his life outside of paragraphs in books about his peers. You’d have to dig pretty far into the depths of the Internet to know who Arthur Conley might’ve really been as a person. That’s because Conley disappeared — or rather, moved to Europe and changed his name.

After a few unsuccessful years with his group, Arthur & the Corvettes, Conley moved to Baltimore to embark on a solo career. There, he was given a chance to record vocals for a song called “I’m a Lonely Stranger” by a local group called Harold Holt and his Band. Holt’s manager happened to hear that Otis Redding was in town and found a way to slip him a copy of the single. Unfortunately for Holt, Redding wasn’t impressed by the clumsy production. He did, however, like the young singer whose voice sounded similar to his own. Redding was putting together his own record label and decided to pluck Conley away as his first signing. He arranged for Conley to re-record the song, which was released on Redding’s own Jotis Records label. 

Spotlight on Otis Redding now

Singing fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa

Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa

Oh yeah, oh yeah

This was the beginning of a beautiful partnership. Young Conley was the perfect protégé for Redding. Both men were from Georgia, and Conley’s voice was a winning combination of Redding’s mixed with a little Sam Cooke. It’s fitting that among the first songs Conley recorded for Redding was one called “Where He Leads Me, I Will Follow.” That’s exactly how Arthur Conley’s career would unfold. 

Although Jotis Records folded in 1966, Redding secured a new home for Conley on the Atlantic Records subsidiary, ATCO. To ensure Conley’s success, the pair met up at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama to test their songwriting partnership. This is where “Sweet Soul Music” was born. It turns out that the songwriting session was less about writing original material and more about borrowing from their peers. Rather than starting from scratch, the pair augmented songs they both loved and melded them into something new. 

As an homage to Sam Cooke, who had been murdered three years prior, the duo took Cooke’s song “Yeah Man” and altered the lyrics. Where Cooke’s lyrics are about dance styles, the Redding/Conley version is a love letter to the biggest soul singers of the day, including Redding himself. Listening to both tracks side by side, they sound almost identical. It’s fair to say, though, that Redding and Conley turned a decent song into a hit. 

Cooke:

Conley/Redding:

Cook wasn’t the only inspiration. The opening riff of “Sweet Soul Music” was directly lifted from the score from the 1960 film The Magnificent Seven by Elmer Bernstein (and used in a Marlboro cigarette commercial when the film was released). Though Bernstein didn't seem to mind, Conley and Redding were sued by Sam Cooke’s estate for swiping the melody of his song. A settlement was reached with Cooke’s family, and Cooke was posthumously added as a songwriter so the estate could collect royalties. 

“Sweet Soul Music” proved to be a massive hit, peaking at No. 2 on the U.S. charts and in the Top Ten in Europe. Redding had made a star out of his young protégé. 

But 1967 was to be the best and worst year of Arthur Conley’s professional life. Kids all over the world were dancing to his new hit in their living rooms or on shows like American Bandstand. (Check out this clip for some sweet mid ‘60s dance moves.) He had recorded several more songs under Redding’s tutelage and was invited as a guest opener on the Stax/Volt Revue tour featuring the label’s most prominent artists — Redding, Booker T & the MG’s, and Sam & Dave. Even though Conley was signed to a different label and several of the musicians on the tour were miffed that Redding would invite an outside artist on a Stax sponsored tour, Redding knew that Conley’s upbeat hit would be a fruitful addition to the lineup. 

Just as the spotlight began shining brightly onto Arthur Conley, tragedy struck. At the end of 1967, Otis Redding was killed in a plane crash. 

“That’s when the bottom fell out,” Conley said in a rare 1987 interview with European television show Atlantis.

“After that period I felt like I was in a washing machine because all kinds of hands were reaching through my management and all kinds of producers wanting to produce…and I just closed it all off mentally.”

After the death of his mentor and friend, Conley bounced around under several different producers and released a few singles between 1967-1970.  His “People Sure Act Funny” reached No. 20 on the R&B charts, followed by “Funky Street,” which peaked at No. 5 on the R&B charts and 14 on the pop charts. But Conley was heartbroken, lonely, and mistrusting of the guidance being given by producers with whom he had no personal connection. Redding’s former manager, Phil Walden, tried to update Conley’s sound by having him record a cover of the Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” with guitarist, Duane Allman (yes, of the Allman Brothers) and the result was as bizarre as you can imagine. 

Conley was at a crossroads. Should he continue chasing the spotlight without the protection of his mentor? 

Another problem that Conley had to consider: He was gay. And if the spotlight shone brightly enough, it might expose his secret. 

Having lost his professional soulmate, Conley vanished from fame in pursuit of a personal one. In the mid ‘70s, he abruptly moved to Europe and changed his name to Lee Roberts (an amalgamation of his middle name and his mother’s maiden name). It felt easier to live as a gay no-one in the Netherlands rather than a closeted superstar in America. Before Redding died, he made sure that Conley would receive royalties from all  the songs he released — a loving parting gift that would help Conley, now Roberts, start a new life. 

“If you want to rest in the world and find out your next destiny, you come to Amsterdam. You drink the Dutch water and you become free of mind.”

Conley/Roberts continued to make music but without the pressures of stardom from his old life. He released a couple singles with the group Lee Roberts & the Sweaters and started a small production company out of his home in the ‘80s to promote local acts. 

“I work on my own music. I have space enough in my own studio to create. And if there's something good then, I have to give it away. I can’t keep it.” 

Perhaps Conley wanted to make more music for himself. Perhaps he did miss the spotlight. But he knew that he couldn’t marry his two lives together without controversy. So he chose peace. Even in the rare 11-minute Atlantis interview, he chooses his words carefully when describing his private life. 

“This is my house where I’m living with my friend and his mother.” 

Arthur Conley died in 2008 of Cancer. No one became the heir of soul music after Otis Redding died. But if the world had been more accepting of gay people, maybe it would’ve been Arthur Conley. Every time “Sweet Soul Music” is played, let it be an homage to the spotlight that never was. 

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