Frankie Beverly, Philadelphia soul singer of ‘Joy and Pain’ and ‘Before I Let Go,’ has died at 77

Frankie Beverly, 77, the soul singer who was raised in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, has died. He had an enduring career that stretched over five decades that included much-loved hits such as “Joy and Pain” and “Before I Let Go.”

His death on Tuesday night was confirmed by his family on Mr. Beverly’s social media pages Wednesday morning. “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,” the family wrote. He died in Walnut Creek, Ca. No cause of death has been announced.

Mr. Beverly, who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, last performed in Philadelphia in July, when he headlined two shows at the Dell Music Center in Strawberry Mansion with his longtime backup band, Maze. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who called Mr. Beverly “by far my favorite artist ever,” appeared on stage with him and presented the singer with a bouquet of roses.

“When I tell you Frankie Beverly and Maze have a song for every emotion — ‘Joy and Pain,’ ‘We Are One,’ ‘Golden Time of Day,’ ‘While I’m Alone,’ it goes on and on,” Hurts said then of Mr. Beverly, who had a street named after him in Germantown this year.

On Wednesday, the quarterback took to X to honor his favorite musician.

“His timeless music, his powerful words and his lasting impact. I’m devastated to hear about this one,” he said. “My prayers are with the Beverly family and the many Frankie fans across the world! His legacy will live on forever. Rest easy my friend. Long Live Frankie”

Mr. Beverly’s soothing music soundtracked the lives of generations of Black Americans. His songs rarely crossed over to pop radio and white audiences but were staples of Black culture. The band frequently headlined arena shows around the U.S. — and at the Spectrum in South Philly — on the Budweiser Superfest tour and annually held down closing spots at New Orleans’ Essence Festival and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, with Mr. Beverly typically dressed in all white with a white baseball cap.

On Wednesday, Mr. Beverly’s death was mourned by fans, fellow musicians, and music industry admirers as a particularly painful loss because of the way his music wove its way into the fabric of their lives.

On X, novelist S.A. Cosby wrote: “For a generation of African Americans, Frankie Beverly and Maze were the soundtrack of cookouts and summer musicfests, of dates and dancing and that kind of bliss that is sweet and peaceful. Frankie was the sound of a safe place for black ppl where we could just … be.”

Earlier this year, Mr. Beverly appeared on Questlove Supreme, the podcast hosted by Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who referred to “Before I Let Go” as “the national anthem” and “the happiest breakup song ever.”

“Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, they hold a very special place in the hearts of their fans, right?” Dyana Williams, Black Music Month cofounder and longtime Philadelphia radio personality, said to The Inquirer. “Frankie Beverly was the equivalent for Black folks.”

“There was no Grammy, none of the major awards. And he had not recorded in a long time,” she said. “But the music that he made in the 20th century carried him into the 21st century because it was timeless music that people who came to the shows grew up on.”

The two songs that were so central to “gatherings of families, loved ones, friends, and social occasions,” Williams said, “that you couldn’t get out of without hearing them” are “Before I Let Go” and “Joy and Pain.”

In her 2018 performance at the Coachella Festival, Beyoncé covered “Before I Let Go,” which Mr. Beverly recorded in 1981. More recently, she included the song in her set on the Renaissance Tour at Lincoln Financial Field in the summer of 2023.

“Beyoncé covered [’Before I Let Go’] while he was living, and he was aware of it and he was pleased,” said Williams. “And ‘Joy and Pain’ is the real anthem. Folks are able to relate to it because it describes so lyrically what we’ve gone though in this country, through slavery, racism — all the -isms. It’s festive, it’s meaningful, it’s simple, and it’s so powerful.”

The singer who became known as Frankie Beverly was born Howard Stanley Beverly and raised in the East Germantown section of the city. Growing up in the 1950s, he was such an enthusiastic fan of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers and their hits like “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?” that he started calling himself Frankie.

In 2014, Mr. Beverly told Ebony magazine about going to see Sam Cooke with a group of friends in North Philly. “We were at Philly’s Uptown Theater trying to get his autograph. [I] said, ‘Mr. Cooke, Mr. Cooke, can you sign mine?’ He said, ‘Have you guys ever been backstage? Well, come on!’”

Cooke, Mr. Beverly said, taught him to always be welcoming to fans. “I don’t turn people down. I always think of Sam Cooke and how kind and patient he was. He didn’t have to do that for us.”

In the early 1960s, Mr. Beverly sang with the doo-wop groups the Blenders and the Butlers. The Butlers went on to make career headway, recording with Philadelphia independent labels such as Fairmount, Guyden, Liberty Bell, and Gamble Records, an early venture by songwriter-producer Kenny Gamble, who would go on to cofound Philadelphia International Records.

But Mr. Beverly was a soul singer from Philadelphia who never found his niche in the Sound of Philly scene that centered on Sigma Sound Studios during its late 1960s and 1970s heyday. Instead of working with Gamble and Leon Huff at PIR, Mr. Beverly moved to San Francisco and developed his own sound.

There, his band Raw Soul gained the attention of Motown great Marvin Gaye, who loved Mr. Beverly’s music but didn’t take to the band name. So in 1976, the group came to be known as Maze featuring Frankie Beverly.

A series of hits that made Mr. Beverly’s earthy voice a mainstay on what is known as “urban” radio followed. His first chart-topper was “Back in Stride” in 1985, and in 1989 he had hits with “Can’t Get Over You” and a song whose title fit the sound of his music to a T: “Silky Soul.”

Mr. Beverly made music that was subtle and sensual, and often took a slow-burning route to success. “Joy and Pain,” a deliciously unhurried celebration of the vicissitudes of love that asks “How come the things that make us happy make us sad?” and observes “The ones that you care for give you so much pain,” is a case in point.

It was originally released as the title cut to the Maze album Joy and Pain in 1980, a collection that scored R&B hits with “Southern Girl” and “The Look In Your Eyes.” The title track didn’t break out in popularity until 1989, and even then, it was singer Donna Allen who climbed the charts with her cover in the U.K.

That same year, hip-hop duo Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock sampled “Joy and Pain” in a song of the same name, bringing it to a new generation who came to familiarize itself with the tradition of singing along about the joy and pain of life with Frankie Beverly and Maze.

Mr. Beverly announced his retirement from touring in February. In May, the block of North Norwood Street between Church Lane and West Godfrey Avenue was renamed Frankie Beverly Way. Fans sang along to Mr. Beverly’s songs at a ceremony on a rainy spring day at the Dell, where a resolution proposed by Councilwoman Cindy Bass honored Mr. Beverly for “his outstanding contributions to the world of music, celebrating his artistry, influence and the joy he brought to countless lives.”

After Mr. Beverly’s two shows in Philadelphia in July, he performed once more, at the San Jose Jazz Festival in August. He is survived by his son Anthony, grandson Brandon and granddaughters Tiera and Ava Beverly. No plans for a funeral or memorial serivce has been announced.