Joseph Arrington Jr. was born in Texas, in August of 1933. He sang in gospel groups in his formative years, before the winning of a local talent quest led to him being signed to a recording contract, in 1955. Nevertheless, the by now Joe Tex had to deal with a succession of recording companies, over the period of a decade, before he was to experience his first hit of any significance.
“Hold What You’ve Got” was recorded by the soulful Tex, in the famed studios of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in November, 1964. It was to be the title track for Joe’s first album.
Incongruously, most of Joe’s recordings were made in the ‘capital’ of country music, Nashville, Tennessee, although he also recorded in nearby Memphis, and, on one occasion, in New York.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVKNdZxVDhg
In 1965, Joe Tex achieved his first No.1 on the rhythm and blues charts with “I Want To (Do Everything For You)” and followed it, almost immediately, with another, “A Sweet Woman Like You”. Joe’s biggest hit came in 1972, when “I Gotcha” sold in excess of a million copies.
Joe’s talents extended into that period of music known as disco, when, in 1977, “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)” was also sell more than a million records. A convert to the religion of Islam, Joe Tex had changed his name to Joseph Hazziez, in July of 1972. He died of a heart attack in August, 1982 at the age of forty-nine.
The names of more tracks by Joe Tex can be located in the suggested playlists.