Z. Z. Hill

Template:Short description Template:Infobox musical artist Arzell J. "Z. Z." Hill (September 30, 1935 – April 27, 1984)<ref name ="amg">Dahl, Bill. [[[:Template:AllMusic]] "Z.Z. Hill"]. Allmusic.com. Retrieved 29 March 2014.</ref> was an American blues singer best known for his recordings in the 1970s and early 1980s, including his 1982 album for Malaco Records, Down Home, which stayed on the Billboard soul album chart for nearly two years.<ref name="amg"/> The track "Down Home Blues" has been called the best-known blues song of the 1980s.<ref name="russell">Template:Cite book</ref> According to the Texas State Historical Association, Hill "devised a combination of blues and contemporary soul styling and helped to restore the blues to modern black consciousness."<ref name="tsha">Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Hill was born in Naples, Texas.

Career

Hill began his singing career in the late 1950s as part of a gospel group the Spiritual Five, touring Texas. He was influenced by Sam Cooke, B. B. King, and Bobby "Blue" Bland. He began performing his own songs and others in clubs in and around Dallas, including stints fronting bands led by Bo Thomas and Frank Shelton. He took his stage name in emulation of B. B. King.Template:Efn

Encouraged by Otis Redding, who had seen him perform, he joined his older brother Matt Hill, a budding record producer, in Los Angeles in 1963, and released his first single, "You Were Wrong", on the family's M.H. label. It spent one week at number 100 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964, and Hill was quickly signed by Kent Records.<ref name="amg"/> Most of the songs he recorded for Kent were written or co-written by Hill and arranged by the prominent saxophonist Maxwell Davis. None charted; in retrospect, however, many, such as "I Need Someone (To Love Me)", are now viewed with high regard by fans of soul music.<ref name=soulblues>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=ace>Template:Cite web</ref>

After leaving Kent in 1968, he recorded briefly for Phil Walden's Capricorn label, based in Macon, Georgia, but after a disagreement with Walden his recording contract was bought by Jerry "Swamp Dogg" Williams' Mankind label, where Hill fulfilled his end of the deal. He returned to California to record for his brother's label, Hill, and the song "Don't Make Me Pay for His Mistakes", produced by Matt Hill and Miles Grayson, became his biggest pop hit, reaching number 62 on the Hot 100. The Kent label reissued his 1964 recording of "I Need Someone", which also charted. Williams also recorded Hill in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in 1971, resulting in several R&B hits, including "Chokin' Kind" and "It Ain't No Use", as well as the LP The Brand New Z. Z. Hill.<ref name="whitburnr&b"/><ref name= shambling>Template:Cite web</ref>

With his brother's help, Hill then signed with United Artists, where he was aided by arrangements and compositions by established R&B talents including Lamont Dozier and Allen Toussaint, and released several singles that made the R&B chart in the mid 1970s. After his brother Matt's sudden death from a heart attack, Z. Z. Hill left United Artists and signed with Columbia Records, recording two albums with leading arranger-producer Bert de Coteaux in New York. Several singles taken from the albums charted, including "Love Is So Good When You're Stealing It", which spent 18 weeks on the Billboard R&B chart in the summer of 1977.<ref name="amg"/>

In 1979, he left Columbia and returned south, signing for Malaco Records, a move which, according to Allmusic writer Bill Dahl, "managed to resuscitate both his own semi-flagging career and the entire [blues] genre at large".<ref name ="amg"/> His first hit for the label was his recording of "Cheating in the Next Room," written by George Jackson, which was released in early 1982 and reached the R&B top 20, spending a total of 20 weeks on the chart. He had a number of best-selling albums for Malaco, the biggest being Down Home, which stayed on the Billboard soul album chart for nearly two years. The song "Down Home Blues", also written by Jackson, was later recorded by labelmate Denise LaSalle.<ref name ="amg"/> Hill's next album, The Rhythm & the Blues, released in 1982, was also received with critical acclaim, and its success contributed to the subsequent boom in blues music, much of it recorded by the Malaco label, in Jackson, Mississippi.<ref name ="amg"/><ref name=tsha/><ref name=shambling/>

Personal life and death

While touring in February 1984, Hill was involved in a car crash. He gave his final performance two months later, on April 23, at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas. On April 27, he died of a heart attack arising from a blood clot in his leg that formed after the accident.<ref name="russell"/><ref name=tsha/><ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Malaco Records producer Gerald "Wolf" Stephenson told reporters that a friend found Hill lying in the driveway of his home in Dallas; he was pronounced dead at Charlton Methodist Hospital after attempts to resuscitate him failed.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Legacy

Hill's song "That Ain't the Way You Make Love" was sampled by Madvillain in their track "Fancy Clown."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Hill is the subject of Angela Jackson's poem "One Night ZZ Hill Sang at the Club Tupelo."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The band ZZ Top is named in his honor.

Discography

Albums

• The Soul Stirring Z.Z. Hill (Kent, 1965)
• A Whole Lot of Soul (Kent, 1967)
• The Brand New Z.Z. Hill (Mankind, 1971)
• The Bluest Blues (Excello [France], 1971) reissue of Mankind album
• Z.Z. Hill's Greatest Hits: Dues Paid in Full (Kent, 1972)
• The Best Thing That's Happened to Me (United Artists, 1973)
• Z.Z. (United Artists, 1974)
• Keep on Loving You (United Artists, 1975)
• Let's Make a Deal (Columbia, 1977)
• The Mark of Z.Z. Hill (Columbia, 1979)
• Z.Z. Hill (Malaco, 1981)
• Down Home (Malaco, 1982)
• The Rhythm & the Blues (Malaco, 1982)
• Velvet Soul (Malibu, 1982)
• I'm a Blues Man (Malaco, 1983)
• Bluesmaster (Malaco, 1984)
• Thrill on the Z.Z. Hill (Rare Bullet, 1984) reissue of Malibu album
• When a Man Loves a Woman (Kent, 1984)
• In Memoriam 1935-1984 (Malaco, 1985)
• Greatest Hits (Malaco, 1986)

<ref>Discography at SoulfulBluesMusic Template:Webarchive. Retrieved 28 March 2014.</ref>

Charted singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions
		US Pop<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	US R&B<ref name="whitburnr&b">Template:Cite book</ref>
1964	"You Were Wrong"	100	20<ref name=rnb>No Billboard R&B chart was published between November 1963 and January 1965.</ref>
1965	"Hey Little Girl"	134	—
1968	"You Got What I Need"	129	—
1971	"Don't Make Me Pay for His Mistakes"	62	17
	"I Need Someone (To Love Me)"	86	30
	"Chokin' Kind"	108	30
1972	"Second Chance"	—	39
	"It Ain't No Use"	—	34
1973	"Ain't Nothing You Can Do"	114	37
	"I Don't Need Half a Love"	—	63
1974	"Let Them Talk"	—	74
	"Am I Groovin' You"	—	84
	"I Keep On Lovin' You"	104	39
1975	"I Created a Monster"	109	40
1977	"Love Is So Good When You're Stealing It"	102	15
1978	"This Time They Told the Truth"	—	42
1982	"Cheating in the Next Room"	—	19
1984	"Get a Little, Give a Little"	—	85

See also

• List of electric blues musicians
• List of soul-blues musicians
• List of blues musicians

External links

• Discography