Sonny Charles’ first ride on the Soul Train was in 1969, before the hit TV show even started.
“I first met Don in 1969, the summer of that year, in Chicago,” Charles recalled in a phone conversation this afternoon. “We came in and played our new record, and he interviewed us then before he ever hit it big.”
The Don in this instance is Don Cornelius, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound today at his home in L.A. He was 75. Cornelius was the creator and host for one of TV’s longest-running music shows and leading cultural institutions, “Soul Train,” which aired from 1971-1993.
But before Cornelius moved to L.A., where he launched the soul music and dance show famously sponsored by Afro Sheen Hair Food (“It makes your hair look delicious!”), Cornelius was a top DJ and radio exec in Chicago at radio station WVON-AM.
Along with his friend since childhood, the late Marvin “Sweet Louie” Smith, Charles was co-founder of the Checkmates, one of Las Vegas’ top lounge acts from 1965, when they opened at Pussycat A Go Go (a small casino that sat in the shadow of the old Desert Inn) through Smith’s death of a heart attack on a cruise ship in December 2007. The Checkmates, at their peak, performed at Sands Lounge, Nero’s Nook at Caesars Palace, the lounge at International/Las Vegas Hilton and Casbar Lounge at Sahara.
The Checkmates were a consistently popular late-night act, performing in rotation with such nationally famous headliners as the Count Basie Orchestra and the Righteous Brothers. They were friendly with Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Sammy Davis Jr., and opened for Sinatra and Bill Cosby on U.S. tours. Sinatra once hired them to play his birthday party at the Sands.
The Checkmates were groundbreaking culturally, too, as one of the first black acts to perform regularly on the Strip. They were not known as great hit-makers, though, at least not in comparison with acts from the Motown machine. But they did record a Top 10 song, “Black Pearl,” produced by Phil Spector, and the release of that song led them to Cornelius.
“We were doing a promotional tour, and in those days you went from city to city to get radio stations to play your record,” Charles said. “We went to Chicago and met Don. He had a fledgling show, an afternoon ‘American Bandstand’-type show, but just for the radio. He also had a nightclub show he was doing, and we did a show there.”
The Chicago appearance helped make “Black Pearl” a hit. Within two years, Cornelius had uprooted and made the move to L.A., where “Soul Train” stormed the rails for more than two decades. The Checkmates appeared two or three more times with Cornelius on the show, Charles says.
“If the kids danced to it and liked it, you had a good record,” Charles said. “There was a lot of prestige in being on ‘Soul Train.’ If you got on 'Soul Train,' you had done something because not everyone got on ‘Soul Train.’ ”
To reach an audience buying funk, soul and R&B music, “Soul Train” was the most powerful vehicle in the country.
“You know, to be honest, a soul act would rather be on ‘Soul Train’ then be on (‘American) Bandstand.’ You want to do both, but for the audience that wants to buy soul music, ‘Soul Train’ was the place to be. I remember, we’d play dance clubs, and everyone would be doing the ‘Soul Train’ dance line. Everyone watched the show, the dancing was great, and Don always had the best acts.”
Of Cornelius’ disposition, Charles recalled, “The Don you saw onstage was the Don you got off-stage. He was all business.”
A footnote to all of this is that the man who has survived, Sonny Charles, has become one of the more remarkable stories on the Vegas music scene. Soon after Smith died in 2007, Charles took a call from Steve Miller -- the great guitarist of Steve Miller Band fame. Miller had long been a fan of Charles and the Checkmates and asked Charles to join his band. He meant really join the band. Record, tour, everything.
So, since 2008, Charles has been a full-fledged member of one of the great acts in rock music. At age 71, but still fit enough to sing and dance through a 2-hour show, Charles is prepping for a May world tour with Miller. No dates announced, but he might well return to the stage in Vegas, where he still lives.
“What can I say?” he says. “It’s a long way from playing the lounges, where you might have three people in the room and two are asleep and the other one is complaining that you’re not playing country music. I’m having the time of my life.”
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.
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