Luther Ingram
Luther Ingram, born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1944. Ingram chased show biz success in New York City, and made his first recording “I Spy for the FBI” there. The notorious Johnny Baylor met Ingram in 1964 in the city, and groomed Ingram. The two formed a partnership based around Baylor’s KOKO Records label. When Baylor came to Memphis to aid Al Bell in spring 1968, he brought Ingram along. Ingram’s early numbers included “Ain’t That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One),” “My Honey and Me, and “I’ve Been Here All the Time.” In 1971, Ingram expressed the goal of the Baylor-Ingram team. “We want to go to the top of the whole musical affair- to the height of the musical world.” He nearly made it the next year with the hit “If Loving You is Wrong (I Don’t Want to be Right).” He and Sir Mack Rice later co-wrote the Staple Singers hit “Respect Yourself.” Ingram performed at Wattstax in Los Angeles in August 1972.
Ingram often appeared as an opening act for Isaac Hayes and recorded into the 1980s, but he began to suffer from diabetes and kidney disease. He died March 19, 2007.