The Valentinos

Friendly Womack Sr. dreamed of fathering five gospel-singing sons before Friendly Jr., Bobby, Harry, Curtis, and Cecil were conceived. When they arrived, the hard-working laborer/preacher groomed them to praise the Lord and audiences watched the Womack Brothers perform at churches with Bobby standing on a crate because he was so small. They lived in the East 85th & Quincy area, one of the roughest neighborhoods in Cleveland in the late '50s and early '60s; a dubious honor that housing projects claimed in the '70s and '80s. If not for a strict father, they could have succumbed to their tumultuous surroundings. They attended Quincy Elementary, Rawlings Jr. High, and East Technical High School and were regular guys with classmates and acquaintances. Friendly took his name seriously and you won't hear one bad word about him. He married a girl named Shirley before the recordings, worked at a furniture store on Euclid Avenue, and as security at Karamu House, a landmark African American theater that features live plays. They met Sam Cooke on a gospel tour with the Soul Stirrers in the mid-'50s. The brothers had a row with their father some years later for singing the devil's music and were thrown out of the house. Cooke had started SAR Records, discussions had begun for the brothers to sign, and there was no better time than right then. A call to Cooke in Los Angeles produced 3,000 dollars to wire as an advance on future royalties. They brought an old Cadillac and motored precariously to California to record for SAR Records, saying goodbye to 85th and Quincy and its cast of nefarious characters forever. Their first record was credited as the Womack Brothers in 1961. The two gospel sides "Somebody's Wrong" b/w "Yield Not to Temptation," pleased their father, but didn't sell...