S3 Ep21 The Eclectic - Conversation with the Charles Wright

About this episode

The episode features a conversation with Charles Wright, exploring his life, music career, and influences.

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…

People in this episode

Guest: Charles Wright

Topics covered

• music
• interview
• biography
• influence
• history

Keywords

• Charles Wright
• music career
• Jesse Belvin
• Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
• biography

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Places: Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States

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