Remembering Frankie Beverly

• Frankie Beverly, singer-songwriter and founder of the R&B/funk band Maze, whose baritone voice drove such ’80s hits as “Back in Stride,” “Too Many Games,” “Before I Let Go,” and “Can’t Get Over You,” died Tuesday, Sept. 10 at the age of 77, according to a social media post from his family and reported by Variety. No cause of death was announced. The Beverly family’s statement reads, in part, “He lived his life with pure soul as one would say, and for us, no one did it better. He lived for his music, family and friends. “Love one another, as he would want that for us all.”

Howard Stanley Beverly was born in Philadelphia on December 6, 1946. From his earliest days in Philly’s East Germantown section, he was involved in music, joining a vocal quartet called The Silhouettes when he was 12, and creating his own a cappella doo-wop group, The Blenders, as a teen at Germantown High School. When the Blenders broke up, Beverly formed The Butlers (later, Frankie Beverly & The Butlers) in 1963.

Emerging Philadelphia songwriter-producer Kenny Gamble took an interest in Beverly’s sound and signed the band to his Gamble Records. However, their music didn’t fit into Gamble and partner Leon Huff‘s template of “The Sound of Philadelphia” soul — and Beverly left the label. In 1971 Beverly and his group, renamed Raw Soul, moved to San Francisco, where they attracted a fan in Marvin Gaye, who enlisted Raw Soul as his opening act, secured them a deal with Capitol Records and convinced them to change their name to Maze.

The group’s self-titled debut album was released by Capitol in 1977. This first album contained Beverly’s soon-to-be signature hits, “Happy Feelin’s,” “While I’m Alone,” and “Lady of Magic.” After five more albums for Capitol, the group left for Warner Bros. in 1989, where they recorded “Silky Soul,” a tribute to Gaye.

While Maze released its last studio album in 1993 with Back to Basics, Maze music was sampled heavily by early hip-hop artists; most notably, Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock used the chorus of Maze’s “Joy and Pain” for their 1988 single of the same name. Beverly and Maze continued to tour over the decades, finishing with a retirement tour that concluded last month with an emotional performance at Philadelphia’s Dell Music Center.

Earlier this year, Beverly received a lifetime achievement honor at the NAACP Image Awards.