Product Code Database
Willie Clayton (born March 29, 1955) is an American Chicago blues and soul-blues singer and songwriter. He has recorded over 25 albums since the 1980s. He has been performing since the late 1960s. His record chart successes span the decades from the 1980s onward.
Allmusic noted that Clayton is "one of those vocalists who could sing the phone book and the result would sound perfectly phrased and memorable." Along with Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, and Little Milton, Clayton was one of the most important figures in Chicago blues in the 1970s and 1980s.
Clayton released the single "Rock You" for the Good Luck record label in 1980. The song was written and produced by the Lu-Cor Music team of Maurice Commander and Jerline Shelton-Commander, as well as, S. Harris (according to label printing). Another Chicago-based artist who made on the Billboard Billboard charts and Soul Train with the efforts of the Lu-Cor team (Morris Jefferson) later covered the song for the re-release of the album Rock You! in the late 1980s.
Clayton then joined Compleat Records. He issued a couple of singles before "Tell Me", produced by General Crook, was a modest hit in 1984. It was followed on the US Billboard R&B record chart by "What a Way to Put It." He returned to the R&B chart in 1989, credited by Polydor Records as Will Clayton, with "Never Too Late" and "Tell Me" (a different song from his earlier hit), followed by "I Wanna Be Where You Are", on which he was co-credited with Audrey Wheeler, a former runner-up in the Miss Black Universe contest, who also recorded with Jeff Lorber and Omar Chandler and worked as a session singer.Whitburn, 1996, p.476 Clayton also recorded a number of albums with Ichiban Records. In 1992, a joint compilation album with Bobby McClure, Bobby McClure & Willie Clayton, was released by Hi Records.
In 1993, Ace Records released the album Let's Get Together, followed by Simply Beautiful and It's About Love (1999). His 1998 album, Something to Talk About, reached number 14 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart. Clayton had similar chart successes for the following ten years. Something to Talk About included his duet with Tyrone Davis on the song "Mine All Mine" and his of the songs "Something to Talk About" and "Heart of the City." Clayton started another record label, EndZone, in the late 1990s. He signed with Malaco Records in 2005.
Clayton recorded his version of "I Can't Stand the Rain" on his 2008 album Soul & Blues. My Tyme, which was released the same year, was his third album in a five-year period to peak at number 83 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart. He returned to the singles chart in 2010, after an absence of over 20 years, with his recording of "We Both Grown", a duet with Dave Hollister
His latest album, I Am Rhythm & Blues, was released in 2012. In May 2013, Clayton performed at the Leflore County Civic Center in Greenwood, Mississippi.
| 1998 | |
| 2000 | |
| 2001 | |
| 2002 | |
| 2004 | 83 |
| 2005 | |
| 2006 | 83 |
| 2008 | 93 |
| 2008 | 83 |
| 2012 | |
| 2020 | |
| Compleat 124, produced by General Crook |
| Polydor 889658, billed as Will Clayton |
| Polydor 876762, billed as Will Clayton, with Audrey Wheeler |
|
|
