Join us for our conversation with Charles Wright. Mr. Express Yourself himself. Charles Williams Wright (born April 6, 1940) is an American singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. He has been a member of various doo wop groups in the late 1950s and early 1960s as well as a solo artist in his own right. He is also the former leader and writer of hits for the group, Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band.
Wright was born on April 6, 1940, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States. The seventh of twelve children, he was raised on a cotton plantation. Years later, he would refer the sharecropping era as "The next shade after slavery". According to the book Up from Where We've Come, the sharecropper that owned that plantation was a cruel man by the name of Edward Miles. When Wright was 12, the family moved to Los Angeles. Contrary to his father's rule of not allowing his children to listen to secular music, he began listening to popular music and became mesmerized by it. Jesse Belvin was a singer that he heard on the radio was to have a significant influence on the young Wright and who became his mentor. After hearing Belvin on the radio, he looked up his number in the phone book and contacted him. He was told by Belvin to stop copying his sound and find his own. Later, Belvin took Wright under his wing and helped him get started. This association lasted until 1960, but stopped because Belvin died in a car crash at the age of 27. The following year, Wright had his first hit record.
Wright is best known for his role as band leader of the group Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, which had the classic 1971 hit "Express Yourself". He has been associated with Johnny Guitar Watson, touring with him and playing on early recordings by him. He also added his vocals to an album by The Watsonian Institute. For a very brief period, Wright managed singer Bill Withers
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