Roy Malone

Roy Malone I've Got Something For The Ladies GCS

Roy Malone You're The Sweetest Thing Big M


Over the next couple of weeks, I thought that I would look back to the early 80's when there seemed to be a glut of good 45s coming out of Memphis every other week and feature some of my favourites.

First off, we have Roy Malone who had at least 3 singles out in the 80's and who seems to have dropped off the map since then. Roy was born in 1951 just outside Memphis and went into music via the Baptist Church where he sang in the choir. While still a teenager, he formed his own group with some school friends and sang at birthday parties and talent shows.

He graduated from high school in 1970 and worked as a cab driver. During this time, he formed a band with James Boner, an old school friend, called Fringe Benefits. He spent the next 4 years touring around the South before leaving in order to pursue a writing career. He eventually went back to taxi cab work to make ends meet. One day, as fortune would have it he ended up driving Carl Smith then a writer with Stax. Roy's singing in his cab impressed Carl Smith enough to offer him jobs cutting demos. Carl Smith offered Roy a contract at Stax but the fates intervened when Roy was shot by a robber.

After recovering, Roy hooked up with Reginald Eskridge and recorded 2 of his own songs I've Got Something For The Ladies and Keep On Dancing for the GCS label at the Galaxy Studios in Memphis. Roy had 2 further sides out on his own Big M label You're The Sweetest Thing and Hold Me, Kiss Me, Thrill Me. You're The Sweetest Thing even got a release on the UK Move label who issued a number of albums in the mid-80's featuring indie soul.

Does anyone know what happened to Roy Malone?

Biographical detail based on original article by Richard Carrington in UK magazine Voices From The Shadows 9 Winter 88/89