Chuck Strong

After several more releases on various imprints, Strong signed with Waldoxy Records, and 3-N-A-Bed appeared on the label in 2002. Strong served as executive producer, penned three of the ten songs and co-wrote I Was Checking Out She’s Checking In with Richard Cason. Cason also contributed production and composed the title track, the strutting Southern Girl and the ballad You’re All the Woman I Need. Covers of the Homer Banks / Carl Hampton / Raymond Jackson classic If Loving You Is Wrong and William Bell’s I Forgot to Be Your Lover allow Strong’s sweet tenor to shine.

Strong’s next Waldoxy release was Let’s Get Back Together in 2004. Cason and Morris Williams provided production for the album, and guitarist Billy Ray Charles was among the backing musicians. Cason wrote five of the ten tracks—including the popular, risqué Rock That Man In the Boat and the stirring I’ll Still Be Lovin’ You—and Williams co-wrote Ex Love Next Love with John Cummings.

Faithful to a Married Woman is Strong’s most recent record for Waldoxy. Cason and Hense Powell produced the 2009 release, with Lucius Parr and Gemi Taylor sharing guitar duties. Three of the 12 songs are Cason compositions, and he collaborated with Strong on the title track and She Had to Do Bad. Robert Conerly’s Big Women Make the Best Lovers is sultry and smooth, and Gene Chandler’s Rainbow proves ideally suited to Strong’s voice.

Strong’s recording of Rock That Man In the Boat also appears on the 2007 Waldoxy compilation Southern Soul Radio.

—Melanie Young