Jerry Butler’s baritone combined the soaring ecstasy of church, the rumbling rhythms of Chicago and the soul of his native Sunflower, Mississippi. Warm and plush but also cool, it won him the nickname “Iceman.”
The songs of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer became a soundtrack for the 1950s and 1960s. He achieved fame as a member of The Impressions and later as a solo soul artist. His songs have been sampled by others including Missy Elliott, Snoop Dogg, Method Man and The Game.
The Bronzeville resident went on to a 32-year political career as a member of the Cook County Board, helped by backing from Mayor Harold Washington.
Mr. Butler, whose voice was stilled by Parkinson’s disease, died Thursday night at home, according to a family friend.
“He was very important to both music and to the community, and he will be missed,” his niece Yolanda Goff said Friday. “We hope the city of Chicago recognizes the legacy he leaves behind.”
In 1942, when he was 3 years old, his sharecropper parents left Mississippi for Chicago.
“We were so poor when I was growing up that my mother would boil chicken feet in water, add a little salt, and that was our meal,” Mr. Butler wrote in his autobiography, which took its title from his late 1960s hit “Only the Strong Survive (Memoirs of a Soul Survivor).”
The Butlers moved into the Cabrini-Green public housing complex at 1117 N. Cleveland Ave. He attended James A. Sexton elementary school, where his teacher Ernestine B. Curry taught her students about Black leaders like Mary McCleod Bethune, W.E.B. DuBois, Duke Ellington and Nat Turner.
“Mrs. Curry gave us a sense of pride and dignity that has carried me and many of her students through life,” Mr. Butler wrote.
His father Jerry Butler Sr. got a job with the city of Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation.
His religious mother Arvelia Agnew Butler used to call the radio stations that played the blues “devil stations.”
But young Jerry was allowed to watch TV’s “Hit Parade.”
He learned how to write songs by reading “Hit Parade” magazine, which “printed out the sheet music of the hits performed on the show,” he wrote. “It helped us learn how not only to sight read but how to structure songs.”
In 1953, 13-year-old Jerry visited the Traveling Souls Spiritualist Church of Rev. Annabelle Mayfield. He joined her gospel group, the Northern Jubilee Singers, and met her grandson, someone he wrote had “a great tenor voice.” That was Curtis Mayfield.
Before they climbed the music charts as The Impressions,young Jerry attended Washburne Trade School, studying to be a chef — which made him popular on the road.
“Jerry could cook like somebody’s mama,” Smokey Robinson said in Mr. Butler’s book.
He didn’t like high school music class. Mr. Butler wrote that he and other Black students chafed at singing “old racist standards like ‘Old Black Joe,’ ‘Swanee River’ and ‘My Old Kentucky Home.’ ”
Still, according to Mr. Butler, “Music period wasn’t a total loss. We would go in the boys room and sing all the latest doo-wops and listen to our voices bounce off the tile and porcelain.”
He and Mayfield went on to form The Impressions, with Mr. Butler as lead singer, according to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where the group was inducted in 1991. Mr. Butler said their manager suggested the group’s name because they left a good impression.
They performed in gray silk jackets they bought at the old Maxwell Street market.
Their first hit was 1958’s “For Your Precious Love.” Rolling Stone said it was based on a poem Butler wrote in high school. In 2003, the magazine ranked the song No. 335 on its “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
“The Impressions traversed the sounds of the Fifties and Sixties as well as old and new social attitudes,” according to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. “Their music was the sound of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Jerry and Annette Butler’s wedding in 1959 included singer Chuck Barksdale of the Dells and the Moonglows, Moonglows singer and future record executive Harvey Fuqua and Wade Flemons, an early singer-pianist with Earth Wind & Fire, in the wedding party.
After “For Your Precious Love,” Mr. Butler decided to go solo. But soon he found “My career wasn’t going anywhere,” he said in his book. He and Mayfield reunited to craft Mr. Butler’s 1960 Vee-Jay hit “He Will Break Your Heart.”
Mayfield matured into the musical genius who created the soundtrack for the 1972 film “Superfly,” pulsating with slinky soul and ferocious funk. He wrote hits like “It’s All Right” and civil rights anthems including “People Get Ready.”
Mr. Butler went on to work with legendary songwriter-producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, creators of what became known as the Philly sounds. Their hits included “Never [Gonna] Give You Up,”
“Hey Western Union Man” and “Only the Strong Survive,” which Mr. Butler said grew out of his mother’s words of wisdom when his high school romance ended.
He said his biggest money came from “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” which he composed with Otis Redding. It’s been covered by Joe Cocker, Aretha Franklin, Jason Isbell, Etta James, Cat Power, the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner.
“I receive more royalties from Otis’ one recording of that song than I get from everything I ever recorded,” he wrote.
In 1961, before it became a theme song for singer and TV variety-show host Andy Williams, Mr. Butler recorded “Moon River.”
He toured with Tammi Terrell and recorded for Motown with Thelma Houston. Over the years, his background singers included Nick Ashford, Patti Austin, Nona Hendryx, Cissy Houston, Patti LaBelle, Melba Moore and Valerie Simpson.
Mr. Butler’s velvet voice could smoothly shift to a sensual growl or catch-in-the-throat throb. He credited singers Sam Cooke and Archie Brownlee as influences. His nickname came from his cool style.
“It started with a disk jockey in Philadelphia as a joke,” he said. “I came through a period when the Isley Brothers were jumping off the stage, and James Brown was sliding across the floor. But I am just a standup singer. Because of that, it started out that I was ‘cool.’ then ‘ice,’ then ‘the Iceman.’
Mr. Butler sang on the soundtrack to the 1970 Peter Boyle film “Joe.” He had a line as a prison guard in the schlocky 1972 movie “The Thing with Two Heads.” As Rosey Grier is about to be executed in the electric chair — and have Ray Milland’s head attached to his body — Mr. Butler says to the football great: “More power to you, brother.”
And he starred in a 1980s McDonald’s commercial for a new sandwich, the McD.L.T. The Iceman crooned about the cool lettuce and tomato, while “sizzlin’ ” Aretha Franklin sang about the hot burger.E
In his later years, Mr. Butler fought in court for artist royalties and benefits, and with his brother, singer Billy Butler, created a workshop for fledgling songwriters.
Method Man sampled Mr. Butler’s song “I’m Your Mechanical Man” in “Bring The Pain,” and Missy Elliott did the same in her song by the same name. The Game sampled “No Money Down,” and Snoop Dogg sampled “I Need You” in “Think About It.”
Mr. Butler’s wife died in 2019. Survivors include their sons Anthony and Randy, four grandchildren and a great-grandchild.