Cuba Gooding Sr.

Cuba Mark Gooding (April 27, 1944 – April 20, 2017) was an American singer. He was the most successful lead singer of the soul group The Main Ingredient, replacing former lead singer Donald McPherson who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1971. According to Billboard, as the lead vocalist he scored five top 10 hits, most notably, "Everybody Plays the Fool" (1972), peaking at No. 2 for three weeks, and peaking at No. 3 on Billboard′s all-genre Hot-100 list. "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" (1974), "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend" and "Rolling Down a Mountainside" were also top 10 hits on Billboard charts. He also recorded as a solo artist with hits of his own. Early life Born in Harlem, New York City, Gooding was a son of Dudley MacDonald Gooding (1890–1955) and his wife Addie Alston. The elder Gooding was a native of Barbados who fled the island in 1936 to Cuba, and met and married a woman there. When she was murdered because of their affiliation with Pan Africanist leader Marcus Garvey, Dudley Gooding promised his wife on her deathbed that he would name his first son Cuba. His father died when Cuba was 11 years old. Gooding's father was a taxi driver in Manhattan. Career Gooding Sr. joined The Main Ingredient as a back-up vocalist. He became the lead singer after lead singer Donald McPherson died of leukemia in 1971. The 1973 album Afrodisiac featured several songs co-written by Stevie Wonder. Gooding left The Main Ingredient in either 1977 or 1978. He had a brief solo career on Motown Records during the late 1970s and early 1980s making two albums; the first was titled The 1st Cuba Gooding Album. His biggest international success was Brian Auger's "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend" in 1983, which has in recent times been sampled by several R&B artists, as well as hitting the charts again as a remix by UK Hardcore Rave group Altern-8 in 1991. In 1980, Gooding returned to The Main Ingredient and made two more albums for RCA Victor. In 1991, samples from the song also featured prominently in Bizarre Inc's single "Playing With Knives". Gooding released a single called "Politics" in September 2007. He was also developing a film project called Everybody Plays the Fool: The Cuba Gooding Story. The film highlights three generations of the Gooding Family: Dudley "Cuba" Gooding, Cuba Gooding Sr., Cuba Gooding Jr.