CMT News

Solomon Burke, a soul music legend who frequently acknowledged his country music influences, died Sunday (Oct. 10) of natural causes at an Amsterdam airport at age 70. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the Philadelphia-born singer-songwriter is best known for hits such as 1965's "Got to Get You Off My Mind." Most famous, perhaps, is "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," a 1964 hit covered by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in the 1980 film, The Blues Brothers. Burke's style was heavily based on rhythm and blues and gospel, but he also grew up listening to the cowboy music of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. He achieved his first major hit in 1960 with a country song, "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)." In 2006, he recorded and released Nashville, an album produced by Buddy Miller in Music City. The project included duets with Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin and Gillian Welch. Harris, Griffin and Welch made guest appearances during Burke's 2006 concert at Nashville's Belcourt Theatre. At the time of his death, Burke had traveled to Amsterdam to perform a concert.