His greatest success came with a string of hit singles in the late 1960s, including "Ain't Nobody Home" and "Get It While You Can," the latter of which became a hit for the singer Janis Joplin. After withdrawing from the music business and struggling with drug addiction, Tate mounted a warmly received comeback in 2001.
According to an interview Tate gave to No Depression magazine writer Edd Hurt in 2006, he was born in Elberton, Georgia. Tate pronounced the town's name as "Eberton," but the 1940 census records for Elberton show a two-year-old boy named Howard Tate as a resident of the city. According to the census record, Tate's father was named Hult Tate and his mother Roberta Tate. He moved with his family to Philadelphia in the early 1940s. In his teens, he joined a gospel music group that included Garnet Mimms, and, as the Gainors, they recorded rhythm and blues songs for Mercury Records and Cameo Records in the early 1960s. Tate performed with the organist Bill Doggett and returned to Philadelphia.
Mimms, leading a group called the Enchanters, introduced Tate to the record producer Jerry Ragovoy, who began recording Tate for Verve Records. Utilizing New York City session musicians, including Paul Griffin, Richard Tee, Eric Gale, Chuck Rainey, and Herb Lovell, Tate and Ragovoy produced a series of soul blues recordings from 1966 to 1968. With Ragovoy he recorded during these years "Ain't Nobody Home", "Look at Granny Run Run", "Baby I Love You" and "Stop". The recordings were well received by record buyers. "Ain't Nobody Home", "Look at Granny" and "Stop" charted in the Top 20 of the Billboard R&B chart.
Janis Joplin performed another of Tate's Ragavoy songs, "Get It While You Can" (on the album Pearl), around this time. Tate's reputation among critics was high. Robert Christgau wrote in his review of Tate's Verve recordings, "Tate is a blues-drenched Macon native who had the desire to head north and sounds it every time he gooses a lament with one of the trademark keens that signify the escape he never achieved. He brought out the best in soul pro Jerry Ragovoy, who made Tate's records jump instead of arranging them into submission, and gave him lyrics with some wit to them besides."
Tate, working apart from Ragovoy, recorded the album Howard Tate's Reaction, produced by Lloyd Price and Johnny Nash and released in 1970 by Turntable Records, it was distributed in small quantities. Christgau wrote, "Tate's voice is potent enough to activate more inert material." The record was reissued, under the title Reaction, in 2003. Ragovoy and Tate reunited for the 1972 album Howard Tate, released by Atlantic Records; it included more songs by Ragovoy, along with Tate's cover versions of "Girl from the North Country", by Bob Dylan, and "Jemima Surrender", by Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm.
After recording a single for Epic Records and a few songs for his own label, Tate retired from the music industry in the late 1970s. He sold securities in the New Jersey and Philadelphia area. In the 1980s, after his 13-year-old daughter died in a house fire, he developed a drug habit and ending up living in a homeless shelter. In the mid-1990s, he began counseling drug abusers and mentally ill people and also worked as a preacher.
Phil Casden, a disc jockey from Camden, New Jersey, discovered Tate's whereabouts early in 2001, and in spring 2001 Tate played his first date in many years, in New Orleans. He then began working with Ragovoy on the 2003 album Rediscovered. It included covers of songs by Elvis Costello and Prince and a new version of "Get It While You Can."
At the Roskilde Festival in 2004, he sang "Love Will Keep You Warm" with Swan Lee. A recording of the performance is included on the album Swan Lee: The Complete Collection (2007).
The album Howard Tate Live, recorded in Denmark in 2004, was released by Shout! Factory in 2006. Working with the producer, arranger and songwriter Steve Weisberg, Tate recorded A Portrait of Howard, released in 2006 on the independent Solid Ground label. It included compositions by Randy Newman, Nick Lowe, Lou Reed and Carla Bley, along with songs written by Tate and Weisberg. In late 2007, Tate recorded Blue Day in Nashville with the producer Jon Tiven; it was released in 2008.
Tate was a judge for the sixth annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
He and his touring quartet performed songs from his catalogue at Blue Heaven Studios, for an album released in 2010 as a limited-editon vinyl-only, direct-to-disc live recording.
Tate died in Burlington, New Jersey, December 2, 2011, at the age of 72.
Kiss
Howard Tate Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To turn me on
I just need your body baby
From dusk till dawn
You don't need experience
To turn me out
You just leave it all up to me
I'm gonna show you what it's all about
You don't have to be rich
To be my girl
You don't have to be cool
To rule my world
Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your
Kiss,
Oh oh
You got to not talk dirty, baby
If you want to impress me
You can't be to flirty, mama
I know how to undress me, yeah
I want to be your fantasy
Maybe you could be mine
You just leave it all up to me
We could have a good time
Don't have to be rich
To be my girl
Don't have to be cool
To rule my world
Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your
Kiss
Yes, oh oh oh
Ah
I think I want to dance, uhh, ooohh
Gotta, gotta, oh
Little girl Wendy's parade
Gotta, gotta, gotta
Women not girls rule my world
I said they rule my world
Act your age, mama (not your shoe size)
Not your shoe size
Maybe we could do the twirl
You don't have to watch Dynasty
To have an attitude
You just leave it all up to me
My love will be your food
Yeah
You don't have to be rich
To be my girl
You don't have to be cool
To rule my world
Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your
Kiss
The song "Kiss" by Howard Tate is a classic love song that speaks to the simplicity of what turns him on. He sings about how a woman does not need to fit the societal beauty standards to get his attention. Instead, he values the physical connection that can be formed between two people. This connection can take place from "dusk till dawn." He goes on to explain how he does not need a woman who is highly experienced, he just wants her to trust him to show her how to have a good time.
Tate also emphasizes that a woman does not have to be wealthy or "cool" to win him over. He sings about how there is no specific type of person he is compatible with, he just needs their "extra time and...kiss." This line shows that all he needs is the attention and affection of the person he is with.
Tate then goes on to provide some advice for potential partners. He speaks on how dirty talk will not impress him, and how flirting is not needed because he knows how to get what he wants. He desires to be his partner's fantasy while they fulfill his own desires.
Overall, this song is about the simplicity of attraction and how someone's personality will always reign above their looks or wealth.
Line by Line Meaning
You don't have to be beautiful
To turn me on
Your physical appearance is not the only factor that arouses me.
I just need your body baby
From dusk till dawn
I don't require anything beyond your physical presence for a night-long companionship.
You don't need experience
To turn me out
Your lack of sexual experience isn't an issue for me in igniting passion in you.
You just leave it all up to me
I'm gonna show you what it's all about
I'll take the lead and give you a pleasant firsthand experience.
You don't have to be rich
To be my girl
Your financial worth plays no part in being my partner.
You don't have to be cool
To rule my world
Your trendy persona doesn't impress me to make you a significant part of my life.
Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your
Kiss,
Oh oh
I don't look for a specific trait to be parallel with me, but I need a kiss that lasts longer than usual.
You got to not talk dirty, baby
If you want to impress me
Speaking of inappropriate things won't please me, rather may push me away.
You can't be too flirty, mama
I know how to undress me, yeah
You shouldn't be excessively informal with me, and I excel at seducing myself without external help.
I want to be your fantasy
Maybe you could be mine
I wish to become your wildest imagination, and you can reciprocate by fulfilling mine.
We could have a good time
You just leave it all up to me
If you let me take charge, we can together have a good time.
Women not girls rule my world
I said they rule my world
Adult women assert their power on me rather than young girls.
Act your age, mama (not your shoe size)
Not your shoe size
Maybe we could do the twirl
Let's not let your young spirit take over and act your age, not your shoe size. We can dance together.
You don't have to watch Dynasty
To have an attitude
You don't need to keep up with any TV show to have a particular way of thinking.
My love will be your food
Yeah
My affectionate emotions will be your source of happiness and sufficing livelihood.
Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your
Kiss
I don't require a specific quality but time and a kiss that extend beyond the ordinary.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave
Written by: PRINCE ROGERS NELSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Maryanna Chanteuse
Magnifique, incontournable et inoubliable voix de la Soul'Music...Très belle reprise de la chanson de Prince !!
lunched management & booking
RIP Howard Tate. Wonderful singer - I wish I had known about him before!
Valerie Thompson
oh man I wore out his first record, which I bought in a cut out bin for a buck and a quarter, but this particular cut is the bomb.
Georgios Vlaxos
GEORGIOS VLACHOS / APRIL 16TH, 2021 / GREECE. The song is nice, but Mr. Tate just
copied it. The original song (You don't have to be a star), belongs to Marilyn McCoo & Billy
Davis Jr. However, he is a good singer with very nice voice.