Sam Dees (born December 17, 1945) is an American soul singer, songwriter and record producer. He has released several albums throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and the 1990s; as a composer, he has written hundreds of songs for many music artists. Sam Dees was born in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, into a large family and distinguished himself with his voice. At the age of nine, and already champion of several singing contests, he founded his own vocal group, the "Bossanovians". As a teenager he traveled to perform and, in 1968 he recorded his first single at Nashville, Tennessee's SSS International. He released his next few singles on Lolo Records. Chess Records producer Lenny Sachs gave him an opportunity to self-produce two singles on the Chess label, which Dees recorded in a former church in Birmingham. From there he began recording for Atlantic, which released his landmark album The Show Must Go On in 1975.
Since then, Sam Dees recording career stalled while he wrote hits for other singers, such as "Am I Dreaming" (Atlantic Starr), "One in a Million You" (Larry Graham), "Save the Overtime (For Me)" (Gladys Knight and The Pips), "Love All the Hurt Away" (George Benson and Aretha Franklin), and "Lover for Life" (Whitney Houston).
Sam Dees also wrote the song "Just The Lonely Talking again", which was originally recorded by the American R&B vocal group The Manhattans on their 1983 album "Forever By Your Side", and later recorded by Whitney Houston in 1987 on her second studio album "Whitney". He released a solo single titled "After All" in 1989, and the accompanying album, Secret Admirer, was not successful.
Sam Dees continues to write and produce. He released recordings on his own Pen Pad label and also recorded for Ardent Records in England, not to be confused with Ardent Records of Memphis, Tennessee. Another English label, Kent Records, has released early recordings. Other previously unissued recordings from the early 1970s are planned for release by Selecta Records, whose parent company Millbrand Music control the copyrights to many of Sam Dees' early songs.
Links to Peel[]
Peel mentioned on his 14 December 1991 show, which was the date when Sam Dees session was first broadcast, that he decided to have the singer do a session for his show, after looking through Echoes magazine (UK magazine of soul, jazz, R&B, hip hop and reggae music) and seeing which artists were coming in the country, that he could invite to do a session. After seeing Sam Dees' name on the magazine, he decided that the singer should be invited to do a session for the programme, which he accepted.
Sam Dees performed a session for Peel with his Beauty & The Beat backing band, where he performed 3 songs recorded on 7th November 1991. They were "One In A Million", "The Homecomings" (his latest 12" EP release at the time) and "Child Of The Streets" from his 1975 LP "The Show Must Go On".
Peel also mentioned that Sam Dees made some great records in the 60's and 70's, but since then 'lost track of him', although according to available playlists, he did a play a track (Just Out Of My Reach, which was released in 1973) from the singer in 1985.
Interestingly Sam Dees' session was never repeated on Peel's show and the DJ seemed to have neglected the artist's work on his shows after that.
Sessions[]
John Peel - Radio 1 Session 14 Dec 1991 - Sam Dees performing "One In A Million" live & 2 more
1. Recorded: 1991-11-07. First Broadcast: 14 December 1991
- One In A Million / Homecoming / Child Of The Streets
Other Shows Played[]
- 1985
- 02 January 1985: Just Out Of My Reach