Photo courtesy of SOS Band Facebook post
(March 14, 2021) Last Fall, we informed SoulTrackers that SOS Band lead singer Mary Davis had taken ill and was hospitalized, leaving her millions of fans worried and in prayer. The band has just posted an update on Mary’s health as well as on the group’s status – including a search for a new lead singer. Here is the post:
The SOS Band would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone with overwhelming gratitude for your prayers and well wishes for our beloved Mary Davis.
She is recovering well. Please continue to keep her in your prayers. Currently, she must devote her time to healing and recovery, which entails limiting her performance and travel schedule.
(March 14, 2021) Last Fall, we informed SoulTrackers that SOS Band lead singer Mary Davis had taken ill and was hospitalized, leaving her millions of fans worried and in prayer. The band has just posted an update on Mary’s health as well as on the group’s status – including a search for a new lead singer. Here is the post:
The SOS Band would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone with overwhelming gratitude for your prayers and well wishes for our beloved Mary Davis.
She is recovering well. Please continue to keep her in your prayers. Currently, she must devote her time to healing and recovery, which entails limiting her performance and travel schedule.
This change of events has created a new challenge for the SOS Band. Our focus has always been to bring our fans the best live musical entertainment and we will continue to do so. As the SOS Band continues to support Mary's recovery, we currently are looking for a professional female vocalist to assist in continuing the vocal legacy of lead vocalist, Mary Davis. As so many legendary groups have done, our intent is to find an amazing vocalist similar to the Mary Davis' singing vocalist sound. This talented vocalist will have the ability to step in when needed to continue the SOS Band sound that Mary has created with her amazing voice. If you know of or have a similar singing voice with that Mary Davis/ SOS sound, please send a 2 or 3 minute video covering a SOS Band song as lead vocals thesosbandtalentsearch@gmail.com.
More details to come.
This is yet another chapter for the historic band, originally formed in Atlanta as the "Sound of Success" Band. At its peak it consisted of singers Davis and Jason Bryant, multi-instrumentalist Abdul Ra'oof, saxmen Willie Killebrew and Billy Ellis, drummer James Earl Jones III, bassist John Simpson and guitarist Bruno Speight.
Signed to the fast-rising Tabu label in 1980, the band debuted auspiciously, hitting the top of the charts with its self-titled album as well as the Sigidi Abdullah composition "Take Your Time (Do It Right)." But bigger success lay ahead, as the group teamed with now-legendary hitmakers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for a series of albums that yielded hit after hit, including "Just Be Good To Me," "Just the Way You Like It," "Tell Me If You Still Care," and their biggest smash, a 1986 beat-heavy masterpiece, "Finest."
The departure of Davis from the group and the loss of Jam and Lewis as producers led to a decline in the band's fortunes, and by 1991 the SOS Band was no more. However, in the mid 90s, Davis and Ra'oof joined together and reconstituted the SOS Band with a new set of musicians. The Davis-Ra'oof version of the band has performed regularly now for a quarter century, including such major shows as the Capital Jazz Cruise. They also issued the 2017 adult soul hit "Just Get Ready," which found them successfully recapturing the sound that took them to the top three decades earlier.
We will be praying for the full recovery of Mary Davis, in the hopes that she will be able to join the SOS Band again in the future. In the meantime, we also hope that the band can continue on its journey with a new lead singer who will continue the legacy that Davis started there.
By Chris Rizik