Claude Jeter R.I.P.

"Saviour Pass Me Not" is amazing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/arts/music/11jeter.html?scp=1&sq=claude%20jeter&st=cse

A versatile stylist, Mr. Jeter once sang bass with the Dixie Hummingbirds. But he is best known for his falsetto in the Swan Silvertones, which he formed in 1938. Often acting as a foil for the group’s rougher, shouting voices — which included those of Solomon Womack and Louis Johnson — he sang graceful and penetrating high melodies.

His fillips in songs like “Careless Soul” and “Saviour Pass Me Not” have been echoed by many singers, most notably Al Green and Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations. A line he sang in the Swan Silvertones’ 1962 song “Mary Don’t You Weep” — “I’ll be a bridge over deep water if you trust in my name” — inspired Paul Simon to write “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

Great voice. R.I.P.