Leon Haywood

Leon Haywood (born 11 February 1942, Houston, Texas) is an American funk and soul singer, best known for his song "I Want a Do Something Freaky To You". The song was sampled on two of Dr. Dre's singles, "Nuthin' But a "G" Thang" and "The Wash". The song was also sampled on the Redman track "Rockafella", on Redman's Dare Iz a Darkside album, and on the track "Mobster's Anthem", from Twista's Adrenaline Rush. Mariah Carey also sampled that song for her 2002 album Charmbracelet for the song "You had your change", putting Mr. Haywood as one collaborator. Basement Jaxx also used the base line from "Don't Push It, Don't Force It" in 1999 for the song "Red Alert" for the "Remedy" album.

Haywood, scoring his only Top 40 hit single in the UK Singles Chart with "Don't Push It, Don't Force It" in 1980, remains considered a one-hit wonder in the UK.^[1]

Early life

He launched his career as a conventional entertainer with successes in the 1960s, having over 20 singles on the U.S. R&B chart from 1965. He listened to the blues as a child and started playing piano at the age of three. In his teens, he performed with a local Houston group and accompanied blues artist, Guitar Slim, for some time.

Relocation

He relocated to Los Angeles, California in the early 1960s and worked with saxophonist Big Jay McNeely, who arranged for him to record his first single, "Without A Love', an instrumental on the small Swingin' record label. After that, he joined Sam Cooke's band as keyboardist until the singer's death. Haywood next recorded two singles for Fantasy Records, and subsequently moved to Imperial Records, where he recorded the single "She's With Her Other Love", which made the R&B charts in 1965.

Haywood was part of two session bands organized by Los Angeles disc jockey Magnificent Montegue which issued the instrumental hits "Hole In The Wall" (R&B #5/Pop #50, 1965) under the name of the Packers, and "Precious Memories" (R&B number 31, 1967) as the Romeos. In 1967, Haywood secured his first solo hit with "It's Got To Be Mellow" (R&B number 21) on Decca Records. He played on further recording sessions with the Packers and Dyke And The Blazers, then returned to recording under his own name. He found only sporadic success, most notably with "It's Got To Be Mellow" and "Keep It In The Family". After recording for Columbia Records, he moved over to MCA Records. He emerged as a star in the 1970s by modifying his style to incorporate the emerging funk and disco idioms. Haywood joined 20th Century Records in 1974 and was immediately successful, notably with "I Want'a Do Something Freaky To You" (R&B #7/Pop #15, 1975), "Strokin' (Pt. II)" (R&B #13, 1976) and "Party" (R&B #24, 1978).

In 1980, Haywood revived the shuffle beat of 1950s rock and roll with "Don't Push It Don't Force It" (R&B #2 and Pop Top 40). His last R&B chart record was "Tenderoni" (#22) in 1984. After a few more chart singles, for Casablanca Records and Modern Records, Haywood disappeared from the charts, but in the late 1980s became associated in an executive/production capacity with the Los Angeles based Edge Records label.

Haywood is credited with writing the 1981 hit "She's a Bad Mama Jama" by Carl Carlton.

In the 1990s, he produced blues albums by Jimmy McCracklin and others on his own Evejim Records label.^[2]

References

External links

• Allmusic.com biography