In their 20-year career, the duo of Sam Moore, who has died aged 89, and Dave Prater recorded several of the most memorable records in the history of soul and R&B music. Sam & Dave’s biggest hit was Soul Man (1967), which topped the US R&B chart and reached No 2 on the pop chart. Its funky, driving beat, powerful horns and vocal interplay between Moore’s high tenor voice and Prater’s gritty baritone made it a soul and gospel classic.
Its writers, Isaac Hayes and David Porter, had drawn inspiration from the US civil rights movement, seeing the song as “a story about one man’s struggle to rise above his present conditions”.
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