Maze Frontman Frankie Beverly Passes Away at 77
Frankie Beverly, the lead singer and songwriter of the soul and funk band Maze with songs like “Golden Time of Day,” “Joy and Pain” and “Happy Feelin’s,” throughout a five five-decade music career passed away at 77. He announced earlier this year he was retiring in a farewell tour.
With his unique baritone vocals, Mr. Beverly led Maze to success on the R&B charts and Black radio. They did not reach major pop success.
“Yeah, I wish more people did know who I was,” he said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun in 1994, “but if it’s at the expense of me giving up this thing we have, then I just have to wait until they find out. ’Cause whatever we have, whatever this thing is that we seem to have a part of, it’s a cult kind of thing.”
Maze placed 29 songs on Billboard’s R&B singles chart including nine in the Top 10, and 14 albums on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, two of which reached No. 1. Four of its singles and 10 of its albums also made the Billboard pop charts.
Many artists covered his work like his 1978 song “I Need You” which was sampled in “Hustler’s Ambition” by 50 Cent, “Talk to Em” by Young Jeezy and “I Need U” by Lil Boosie and Webbie. Also, “Before I Let Go,” was covered by Beyoncé on her live album “Homecoming” in 2019.
Frankie Beverly was born Howard Stanley Beverly on Dec. 6, 1946, in Philadelphia. His father was a truck driver, and his mother ran the household.
He was influenced as a child by the music he heard in church, by R&B singers like Sam Cooke and Lloyd Price, and by the doo-wop group Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. He later changed his name to Frankie because of his admiration for Frankie Lymon’s music.
As a 12-year-old, he said, he toured the East Coast for about a year with the Silhouettes who had a No. 1 hit with “Get a Job” in 1958 after they heard he could sing like Mr. Lymon. He then formed a few doo-wop groups. Mr. Beverly changed his group Butlers from a traditional vocal harmony ensemble into Raw Soul, which bore the influence of Sly and the Family Stone’s adventurous fusion of soul, rock and funk.
He and the other members of Raw Soul moved to San Francisco in 1972 but had trouble achieving success. They did manage to get booked at a few small clubs and Marvin Gaye’s sister-in-law saw them perform and alerted Mr. Gaye to their talent. He persuaded them to change their name, took them out on tour in 1976 as an opening act and helped them get a deal with Capitol Records.
“He loved me like a little brother,” Mr. Beverly said of Mr. Gaye in the online biography, “and certainly working with him helped bring our demos back to life.”
The renamed band’s first album, “Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly,” was released in 1977. It was the first of nine albums by the group to be certified gold, including the two-disc “Anthology” (1996).
His death was announced in a statement by his family on his Instagram account and did not state the cause of death. He is survived by his son, Anthony Beverly.