By Bill Zwecker Don Cornelius gets the crowd going before the start of the 40th Anniversary Soul Train concert Monday September 5, 2011 at Pritzker Pavilion . Editor’s note: This story was published in the Chicago Sun-Times on Sept. 3, 2010, under the headline: ‘Don Cornelius recalls power of “Soul Train”; Pioneering music show gets DVD treatment’
What started out as a series of record hops at Chicago-area high schools back in the mid-1960s wound up as the catalyst for the hugely successful TV series “Soul Train,” thanks to Don Cornelius, a news reporter-turned DJ/host/executive producer with the basso voice and passion for music that rivaled even that of “American Bandstand” main man Dick Clark.
From 1971-2006 (it aired as a local weekday program in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles in 1971), “Soul Train” turned Saturday afternoons into a soul/funk extravaganza. It became a great source of national exposure for iconic artists such as Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Ike and Tina Turner, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Barry White and Gladys Knight and the Pips.Don Cornelius, creator of the iconic TV music and dance show "Soul Train" that helped introduce Americans to black pop culture, died on Wednesday after shooting himself in the head, Los Angeles officials said.Launched on August 17, 1970 and syndicated in October 1971, Soul Train was an hourlong musical variety show hosted by creator (and former radio DJ and news reporter) Don Cornelius. Featuring shots of the dancers as well as performers (like Aretha Franklin, pictured above with Cornelius) Soul Train helped launch the careers of many R&B and soul artists and offered a prominent platform to music coming out of the African-American community.
R.I.P. Soulbrother!
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