Cecil Womack, brother of Bobby, dies at 65
eurweb.com
Bobby Womack has confirmed the death of his brother and former collaborator, Cecil, who courted controversy over the years and scored an international hit, “Teardrops,” in 1988 with the husband-wife duo Womack and Womack.
“I was terribly upset when I heard about my brother’s passing, and I still am,” Bobby Womack confirmed in a Facebook post. According to BBC News, Womack died on Feb. 1 at his home in Africa. He was 65.
Per Billboard: Cecil Womack began his career alongside siblings Bobby, Harry, Friendly Jr. and Curtis in the Womack Brothers, later The Valentinos. Their early sixties hits include “Lookin’ for a Love” (later a bigger solo hit for Bobby) and “It’s All Over Now.”
The brothers began to fracture upon the death of mentor Sam Cooke in late 1964. The tragedy spawned a series of controversies that caused rifts among the family: Three months after his death, Bobby married Cooke’s widow; Cecil proposed to Cooke’s 12-year-old daughter, Linda, who turned him down but years later married him and formed Womack and Womack. Bobby also had a brief affair with Linda, his step-daughter, when she was a teenager.
“We made music together for a long time, but we’ve had many differences over the years,” Bobby wrote in his statement. “Thankfully we got a chance to reunite last year after a very long separation — and little did I know that it would be the last time I would see him.”
Womack continues, “I can only pass along what I have now learned, which is to not let anything — money, success, etc, come between you and your family.”
After a marriage to “My Guy” singer Mary Wells ended in divorce in 1976, Cecil reconnected with Linda Cooke and they married a year later, forming a musical partnership as well. As a songwriting duo they wrote songs for Teddy Pendergrass and The O’Jays and have had songs covered by Elton John, Joss Stone and The xx, among others.
They released four albums as Womack & Womack in the 1980s, including 1983 debut “Love Wars” and 1988’s “Conscience,” which included the hit “Teardrops.”
For years, Cecil and Linda have lived with their children in Africa, where they changed their names to Zekuumba and Zeriiya Zekkariyas and recorded under the moniker The House of Zekkariyas.
+ Top Story
Zoe Saldana has played an alien and a future space traveler — but taking on the role of an actual famous person proved even harder. The 34-year-old star of Avatar and Star Trek plays pianist, singer and activist Nina Simone in the forthcoming biopic Nina.
Mel Brooks, director, producer, writer and actor, is in an elite group as one of the few entertainers to earn all four major entertainment prizes – the Tony, Emmy, Grammy, and Oscar. His career began in television writing for Your Show of Shows and...
Besides detailing the ups-and-downs of the turbulent, 2011 tennis season, this riveting and revealing documentary treats the audience to an intimate look at the close-knit sisters with the help of home movies from their adolescence.
His rise to success with “The Office” and his stand-up prowess quickly brought him to the attention of comedy maven Judd Apatow. Robinson made audiences question their notions of vanity, playing the sensitive bouncer in Knocked Up. He then kept audiences glued to their seats as...
A 17-year-old from Pittsburgh has won the fifth annual August Wilson Monologue Competition, performing a section of the playwright’s “King Hedley II” with powerful skill. Tambi Gxuluwe, who attends West Mifflin Area High School, took the first place trophy Monday night...
Collected and curated by Penn professor and PBS "History Detectives" host Tukufu Zuberi, forms the basis of a provocative new exhibition at the Penn Museum: Black Bodies in Propaganda: The Art of the War Poster, opening at 1:00 pm on June 2, 2013, and running through March 2, 2014.
“Twenty Feet from Stardom” - featuring Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Tata Vega, Patti Austin among others - spotlights the untold true stories of the backup singers to some of the greatest musical legends of our era. And, because their stories begin most often in church...
In the upcoming science fiction film After Earth, our home planet goes through some serious changes over the next 1,000 years. So it’s fitting that the film’s stars, actor Will Smith and his son Jaden, would take some time to envision what the future of Earth might entail.