Anheuser-Busch, the brewers of Budweiser, suggested his telethon work to him. A track on the 1978 album Lou Rawls Live features him singing the commercial slogan. There was no attempt to avoid the similarity between the title of the 1977 album When You've Heard Lou, You've Heard It All and his corporate sponsor's slogan "When You Say Bud, You've Said It All". Budweiser was a sponsor for the Rawls telethon and UNCF. He appeared in a number of Budweiser advertisements. First appearing in television and radio commercials in the mid-to-late 1960s for Spur Malt Liquor, a Rainier Brewing Company product in Seattle. He was a guest host on Jazz Central, a television program that was broadcast on the BET channel.įor many years, he was a spokesperson for the Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company. He had a supporting role in Baywatch Nights. He had a role and sang in Lookin' Italian (1994), an independent film about the mafia. He appeared in the films Leaving Las Vegas, Blues Brothers 2000, and Angel, Angel, Down We Go. He was also in the season 5 episode "Lifeline" of the television show Mannix and the season 6 episode "Return to the Cotton Club" of the show Fantasy Island.
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His first acting credit was in the Western television series The Big Valley (starring Barbara Stanwyck, along with Lee Majors and Linda Evans). He was a guest during the second season of The Muppet Show.
He dismissed the suggestion to use cue cards for the performance but reversed his decision when he forgot the order of the letters. Rawls appeared in a segment aired during the first season of Sesame Street to sing the alphabet.
The event raised over US$250 million for the fund at the time of Rawls' death in 2006. The annual event, known since 1998 as "An Evening of Stars: A Celebration of Educational Excellence", consists of stories of successful black students who have benefited from and/or graduated from one of the many historically black colleges and universities who receive support from the UNCF, along with musical performances from various recording artists in support of the UNCF's and Rawls' efforts. In 1980, Rawls began the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon which benefits the United Negro College Fund. Lou Rawls (right) at Baltimore's Inner Harbor (1980) being interviewed by local news anchor Curt Anderson, promoting the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon Rawls charted with a cover of "Bring It On Home to Me" in 1970 (with the title shortened to "Bring It On Home"). In 1962 he signed a contract with Capitol Records and sang backing vocals on " Bring It On Home to Me" and " That's Where It's At", both written by Cooke. "In My Little Black Book" and "80 Ways" were released a year later by Candix Records. His first two singles were "Love, Love, Love" and "Walkin' (For Miles)" for Shar-Dee Records, a label owned by Herb Alpert. With Dick Clark as master of ceremonies, Rawls was able to perform at the Hollywood Bowl in 1959. He considered the crash a life-changing event. He spent a year recuperating and several months before his memory returned. He was pronounced dead before arriving at the hospital, where he stayed in a coma for five and a half days. In 1958, while touring the South with the Travelers and Sam Cooke, Rawls was in a car crash. He left the Army three years later as a Sergeant and rejoined the Pilgrim Travelers (then known as the Travelers). He served in B Co 2/505th Parachute Infantry and made 26 jumps. In 1955, Rawls enlisted in the United States Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division.
Rawls was hired by the Chosen Gospel Singers and moved to Los Angeles, where he joined the Pilgrim Travelers. In 1951, he replaced Cooke in the Highway QC's after Cooke departed to join The Soul Stirrers in Los Angeles. Career Īfter graduating from Dunbar Vocational High School, he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a gospel group, and then with the Holy Wonders. He began singing in the Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church choir at the age of seven and later sang with local groups through which he met Sam Cooke, who was nearly three years older, and Curtis Mayfield. Rawls was born in Chicago on December 1, 1933, and raised by his grandmother in the Ida B.