"He was an extraordinary performer," Tucker Jr. said. "I recognized that from the time I was little. Having his name didn't help me, because I couldn't sing."
Davis died last year.Dixie Hummingbirds lead singer dies
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - June 26, 2008 Tucker had severe heart problems and died Tuesday in
Philadelphia, where the group was based for many years, according
to his son, Ira Tucker Jr.
Among those influenced by the band were the Temptations, James
Brown, Stevie Wonder and Al Green, according the National Endowment
for the Arts, which honored the Hummingbirds in 2000.
They became widely known to Top 40 radio listeners in 1973, when
Simon's "Loves Me Like a Rock" reached No. 2 on the Billboard
chart. Besides singing backup with Simon, the Dixie Hummingbirds
also produced their own version, which won a Grammy for best soul
gospel performance.
In 2007, the group's "Still Keeping It Real" was nominated for
the Grammy for best traditional gospel album.
The Dixie Hummingbirds traces its history to 1928, when founder
James B. Davis formed it as a student quartet in Greenville, S.C.
Tucker, born in 1925 in Spartanburg, S.C., was still in his teens
when he auditioned for Davis in the late 1930s.
He was the band's lead singer for decades thereafter, bringing a
mixture of gospel and blues to the group's style, and adding an
energy and versatility to their performances, according to the
Vocal Group Hall of Fame, which inducted the group in 2000.
"Tucker, in particular, wowed audiences with his flamboyant
theatrics, rejecting the long tradition of 'flat-footed' singers
rooted in place on stage in favor of running up the aisles and
rocking prayerfully on his knees," the hall of fame says on its
Web site. "By 1944, he was even regularly jumping off stages."
After World War II, as the sound of gospel changed, the
Hummingbirds added guitar, bass and drums.
