Like Nat King Cole, Lou Rawis developed a successful cabaret and supper club vocal style from a solid base in blues, soul and jazz. With a three octave range, he also developed a form of rhythmic monologue called ‘aoulin’. He released over fifty albums. With school friend Sam Cooke, Rawls sang in gospel groups the Highway QCs and the Soul Stirrers. After military service Rawls followed Cooke to Los Angeles and joined the Pilgrim Travelers before his career as a gospel singer was curtailed by a serious car accident in 1958. When he was able to recommence his career, Cooke had moved on to the

world of pop music and Rawls followed suit. Aspiring producers Herb Alpert and Lou Adler produced ‘Love Love Love’ and further singles on Candix before Rawls signed to the West Coast’s biggest label, Capitol.
   There he was teamed with pianist Les McCann on ‘Stormy Monday’. In 1962 he backed Cooke on the hit ‘Bring It on Home to Me’. His mixture of supper club ballads, polite blues and jazz performed with a small combo propelled Rawls into the top rank of cabaret artists. Although his smooth voice was well suited to Cole-style crooning, his gospel roots were never far from the surface and his sixth album, 'Live' (Capitol, which featured a dynamic reading of ‘Tobacco Road’), was a Top Ten hit while ‘Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing’, ‘Dead End Street’, ‘Your Good Thing (Is About to End)’ were also highly successful.                 
   In 1967 Rawls appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival. At the end of the decade, Rawls joined MGM for ‘A Natural Man’ whose title track was his only pop hit until Gamble and Huff revived his recording career by producing ‘You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine’. Other R&B best-sellers from this period included ‘See You When I Git There’ and ‘Let Me Be Good to You’. Rawls also sang on Budweiser beer commercials, even titling ‘When You’ve Heard Lou, You’ve Heard It All’ after the Budweiser slogan.      
   In 1982, he moved to Epic, releasing ‘Now Is the Time’, ‘When the Night Comes' and ‘Close Company’. In 1988 he recorded for the revived Blue Note jazz label, Rawls also entered television production working on music shows in partnership with Dick Clark.