Joe South, who had massive hits in the 1960s and 1970s such as ‘Games People Play’ and ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes’ died on September 6th aged 72. He suffered a heart attack.
South, whose real name was Joseph Souter, was born in Atlanta on February 28th, 1940. As a child developed his own radio station with a one mile transmission area and made his first record in 1958 – the novelty song called, ‘The Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor’.
He penned a number of hits including ‘Down In The Boondocks’ a 1965 hit for Billy Joe Royal and later covered by Ry Cooder. He also wrote the Grammy-nominated ‘I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden’ for Lynn Anderson.
South worked as a session guitar player on Aretha Franklin’s ‘Chain of Fools’, on Dylan’s ‘Blonde On Blonde’ , with Wilson Pickett and on many country music albums.
‘Games People Play’ won him two Grammys for Best Contemporary Song and Song of the Year. ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes’ and ‘Don’t It Make You Want to Go Home’ were also hits
Joe South’s last album was “Classic Masters” in 2002.