Harold Burrage
b. 30 March 1931, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 26 November 1966, Chicago, Illinois, USA. A great singer and pianist in the city blues tradition, Burrage was a well-known face on Chicago's west side R&B scene by his late teens. In 1950 he made his first recordings for Decca backed by Horace Henderson's septet, resulting in Claude Trenier's suggestive Hi Yo Silver which spawned several cover versions. He made one-off sessions for Aladdin (1951) and States (1954) before hitting his stride between 1956-58 with Cobra Records, with whom he recorded in his own right in a soul-blues vein as well as backing artists such as Magic Sam, Otis Rush and Ike Turner. He continued in the same style in his brief associations for VeeJay Records Paso and Foxy, but in 1962 he joined One-Der-Ful's M-Pac subsidiary and over the following four years laid down his prime work, including his only real hit, Got To Find A Way, which reached number 31 in the August 1965 R&B charts. He died tragically young at the age of 35, at the home of his friend Tyrone Davis.