Herb Lance
{{Short description|American singer-songwriter (1925–2006)}}
Herbert J. Lance (June 12, 1925 – November 7, 2006) was an American jazz, blues and gospel singer, songwriter, record producer, recording studio owner and radio DJ. As well as recording several hits himself in the late 1940s, he co-wrote Ruth Brown's signature song, "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean".
Biography
Herb Lance was born in Georgetown, South Carolina, and lived there until he signed up to the US Army in 1944.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/|title=Ancestry | Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History Records|website=Ancestry.co.uk}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/offers/join?dbid=1732&gsfn&gsln&h=244066073&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ancestry.co.uk%2Fdiscoveryui-content%2Fview%2F244066073%3A1732|title=Join Ancestry®|website=Ancestry.co.uk}} In 1948 he made his first recording backed by the Ray Abrams Sextet, for Bob Shad's "Sittin' In With" record label. His first success came with his version of the Bernice Petkere song "Close Your Eyes", which reached #4 on the Billboard R&B chart (called the Race Records chart at the time) in 1949. Two further single releases later the same year also made the R&B chart: "Because" (#8) and "That Lucky Old Sun" (#6).{{cite book |title= Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-1995|last=Whitburn |first=Joel |authorlink=Joel Whitburn |year=1996 |publisher=Record Research |page=259}} Lance performed around the country in 1950, including a residency in Baltimore with the Cootie Williams band, and a series of one-nighters in Ohio with Roy Brown. Later records on "Sittin' In With" were less successful,[http://www.globaldogproductions.info/s/sittin-in-with.html "Sittin' In With" singles discography", GlobalDog Productions]. Retrieved 26 May 2015 and in September 1950 he started recording for Columbia Records, before headlining for a week at the Apollo Theater in New York City the following month. His single releases for Columbia failed to make the charts, and in 1951 he was moved to the subsidiary OKeh label, before signing with Mercury Records in Chicago.[http://home.earthlink.net/~v1tiger/Mostly%20forgotten-1.html J C Marion, "Forgotten Names - Forgotten Faces", JammUpp #33, 2004]. Retrieved 25 May 2015
As well as performing around the country, Lance also wrote songs. According to Atlantic Records producer Herb Abramson, Lance wrote "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean" with his friend Johnny Wallace (the brother of boxer Coley Wallace), after the pair had heard a blues singer on the street in Atlanta, Georgia, singing a mournful song that included the title line. Although singer Ruth Brown initially disliked the song, she was persuaded by Lance and Wallace to record it, and did so in December 1952 after Abramson had speeded up its tempo.{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/bluerhythmssixli00deff_0|title=Blue rhythms|date=July 4, 1996|publisher=University of Illinois Press|via=Internet Archive}} "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean" became Brown's third #1 hit on the R&B chart, in 1953, and her first pop chart hit.{{cite book |title= Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-1995|last=Whitburn |first=Joel |authorlink=Joel Whitburn |year=1996 |publisher=Record Research |page=54}} In some later versions, the song's authorship was also co-credited to Charles Singleton, with whom Lance wrote a number of other less commercially successful songs in the 1950s.[http://repertoire.bmi.com/writer.asp?blnWriter=True&blnPublisher=True&blnArtist=True&page=1&fromrow=1&torow=25&querytype=WriterID&keyid=192875&keyname=LANCE+HERBERT+J&CAE=17173993&Affiliation=NA] {{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
In 1953 Lance was reported to be facing court action taken by a dancer who claimed he had assaulted her backstage in New York.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/vieilles_annonces/6397743497 "Shake Dancer Sandra Fields Claims Singer Herb Lance Bit and Kicked Her", Jet magazine, May 21, 1953]. Retrieved 25 May 2015 He recorded unsuccessfully for the Bruce label in New York, before joining the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra in 1955 as a vocalist and touring with Gillespie in the US and Europe. In 1956, the orchestra, with Lance as vocalist and also featuring arrangers Quincy Jones and Melba Liston, toured Asia, visiting Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and elsewhere, with Lance being described as "pouring his heart" into some spirituals.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-rSc6g9RQ0C&q=%22herb+lance%22+&pg=PA282|title=Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie|first=Alyn|last=Shipton|date=July 19, 2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-534938-2 |via=Google Books}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ACApPO-A3OYC&q=%22herb+lance%22+&pg=PA414|title=To Be, Or Not-- to Bop|first=Dizzy|last=Gillespie|date=July 4, 2009|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-6547-1 |via=Google Books}} He also recorded with Gillespie, before recommencing his solo singing career on the DeLuxe label in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1957. He released further singles in the late 1950s on the Mala and Castle labels, before having his only pop hit in 1961 when his version of "Blue Moon" recorded with vocal group the Classics on the Promo label, in a similar style to the more successful recording by the Marcels, reached #50 on the Billboard pop chart.{{cite book|first=Joel|last=Whitburn|year=2003|title=Top Pop Singles 1955-2002|edition=1st|publisher=Record Research Inc.|location=Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin|isbn=0-89820-155-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/joelwhitburnstop00whitbur/page/397 397]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/joelwhitburnstop00whitbur/page/397}}
In 1961 Lance, billed as "Cousin Herb", started working as a DJ on radio station WERD in Atlanta.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KLMDAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22herb+lance%22+atlanta&pg=PA63|title=Jet|first=Johnson Publishing|last=Company|date=November 30, 1961|publisher=Johnson Publishing Company|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fSgEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22herb+lance%22+atlanta&pg=PA38|title=Billboard|page=38|date=September 9, 1967|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|via=Google Books}} He also set up a record production company in Atlanta with his friend Calvin Arnold. They produced and released several soul singles during the 1960s at their Atlanta Sound Studio, by singers including Grover Mitchell and Billy Byrd, several on their Cindy label, named after Lance's wife.[http://www.georgiasoul.com/blog/2008/02/120/ Grover Mitchell “That’s A Mighty Good Reason”], GeorgiaSoul.com. Retrieved 26 May 2015 In 1966, Lance issued an LP, The Comeback, on Chess Records (LP1506).[http://www.discogs.com/Herb-Lance-The-Comeback/release/4512601 Herb Lance, The Comeback], Discogs.com. Retrieved 26 May 2015 Lance and Arnold continued to act as the executive producers of soul and disco recordings at their studio through the 1970s, including the 1973 soundtrack album, The Burning of Atlanta.[http://www.last.fm/music/Spirit+of+Atlanta/The+Burning+Of+Atlanta/+wiki "The Burning of Atlanta" soundtrack]. Last.fm, Retrieved 26 May 2015 Lance also later released gospel recordings.
He died in 2006, aged 81.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/offers/join?dbid=3693&gsfn&gsln&h=88750451&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ancestry.co.uk%2Fdiscoveryui-content%2Fview%2F88750451%3A3693|title=Join Ancestry®|website=Ancestry.co.uk}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.vocalgroupharmony.com/ROWNEW/ThatLuck.htm Herb Lance] at Vocal Group Harmony
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lance, Herb}}
Category:African-American record producers
Category:African-American male singer-songwriters
Category:American male singer-songwriters
Category:People from Georgetown, South Carolina
Category:20th-century African-American male singers
Category:20th-century American male singers