J.J.Cale
J.J. Cale was born on December 5, 1938. He is a singer, composer, guitarist, songwriter and producer. He became famous mainly thanks to the songs “After Midnight” and “Cocaine”, which were included in Joe Cocker’s repertoire.
Cale started his adventure with music as a teenager, performing in many rock & roll bands. At 21, he moved to Nashville, where he played with the Grand Ole Opry. He then returned to his hometown Tulsa and played in clubs with Leon Russell.
The year 1964 is when both musicians move to Los Angeles. Carl Radle also left with him, who later helped Cale break out. In a new location, Cale joined the Delaney and Bonnie team. However, he quickly focused on a solo career and in 1965 he recorded his great hit “After Midnight”. A year later, the artist, together with Roger Tillison, created the band the Leathercoated Minds. Later that same year, the group released an album entitled “A Trip Down Sunset Strip”.
In 1967, Cale decided to return to his hometown again and perform in clubs again. He also recorded a demo that Radle got. Thanks to him, the material reached Denny Cordell, who, together with Russell, founded the Shelter label. Cale signed with her in 1969. A few months later Eric Clapton recorded “After Midnight”, which instantly became a huge hit throughout the United States and brought great fame to the creator of this song as well.
Cale’s debut album was released in late 1971 under the title “Naturally”. It included such hits as “Crazy Mama”, “Call Me the Breeze” and the new version of “After Midnight”. In the same year, the album “Really” was released with the hit “Lies”.
The musician returned in 1974 with the publishing house “Okie”, and two years later “Troubadour” with the recordings of “Hey Baby” and “Cocaine”. The latter was later sung by Eric Clapton. We had to wait for the artist’s next album until 1979. Then “5” was released. Two years later, Cale decided to record under the MCA label, where the album “Shades” was released. In 1981, however, the artist changed his mind and moved to Mercury Records. Thanks to it, we could listen to the album “Grasshopper”.
1983 saw the artist’s next album – “8”. It was the first release to be left out of any chart, which was probably one of the reasons Cale left the label.
The musician returned only in 1990 with the album “Ravel Log” released by Silvertone. Two years later, the album “10” was released. Thanks to him, Cale became a star again and signed a contract with the Virgin label. There the publishing house “Close to You” was released in 1994, and then “Guitar Man”.
After a few more years of hiatus, Cale decided to record again. The result of his work was the albums “Tulsa and Back” from 2004, and then “The Road to Escondido”, which the artist recorded two years later together with Clapton.
J.J. Cale has so far performed with Neil Young and Art Garfunkel, among others.
