#JERRY BUTLER TV#

Except for a few fundraisers (where he was reunited with such Chicago soul stars as Curtis Mayfield, the Impressions and Tyrone Davis), he didn't sing on the stump. Though he enjoyed the kind of built-in name recognition that most politicians would die for, Butler campaigned hard to establish himself as a serious political candidate.

But when you see things happening in Georgia today just like they did in 1967, you know we have a long way to go.' What I would like to see in America is what the Constitution has always promised: that each man have an equal opportunity to the pursuit of happiness. You realize that if you applied that power to politics you could change some things. 'When people are willing to pay to hear you sing,' he explains, 'it dawns on you that you have the power to communicate. He will squeeze in a six-night stand at Blues Alley, tonight through Sunday, between the commission's biweekly meetings. His new day job hasn't kept Butler from singing, though. Last November Butler was elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners, which oversees the county hospitals, parks, schools and jails in Chicago and nearby suburbs. If you had told me 10 years ago that I'd be a Cook County commissioner, I'd have rolled over laughing.' 'I always saw singing as a way to something else, but I didn't know what that was until recently. 'I've always felt there was something more for me to do in life than just singing,' he insists. Now, however, it has been more than five years since his last record, and Butler is avidly pursuing his second career as a politician. He went on to a hit-filled solo career as a leading voice of Chicago soul and then Philadelphia soul. Butler turned to his wife and said, 'Wouldn't it be a shame if I was 80 years old and I was still standing on some stage singing 'For Your Precious Love.' 'īutler was only 18 when he scored his first hit as leader of the Impressions with that song in 1958.

#JERRY BUTLER TV#

About 10 years ago, Jerry Butler and his wife were watching TV at his home in Chicago, when a 70-year-old Cab Calloway came on and sang 'Hi-De-Ho' one more time.

Jerry butler