Ed Townsend

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ed Townsend was an American singer, songwriter and producer, born in 1929 in Fayetteville, Tennessee. His family moved to Memphis, where his father was a minister in an African Methodist church. After high school he travelled the world as a member of a church youth council, and then studied at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. In 1951 he joined the United States Marine Corps and served in Korea, for which he received a Purple Heart.

Music and breakthrough

After his service he recorded a few singles for various labels, without success. In 1958 he took his ballad For Your Love to Capitol Records, in the hope that Nat King Cole would sing it. But the label was impressed by his voice and signed him itself. For Your Love became a doo-wop and R&B classic. After that he had no more hits himself. He did write for others, however, such as How Can I Forget for Jimmy Holiday in 1962, which Ben E. King later recorded, and he wrote and produced The Love of My Man for Theola Kilgore. His best-known contribution is that he co-wrote Let's Get It On with Marvin Gaye.

Influence

Townsend still appeared in 2000 in the PBS special Rock, Rhythm, and Doo Wop. He died in 2003. His son David Townsend was a member of the group Surface. He shows that much of soul history was made by writers and producers who were seldom in the spotlight.

Listening