Solomon Burke was the King of Rock and Soul -- a three-hundred-pound preacher in a velvet cape and a crown, seated on a throne onstage, who could make a grown man weep with a ballad and then testify with a fury that shook the rafters. "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," covered by the Rolling Stones and the Blues Brothers, was just the beginning.

He was a child preacher in Philadelphia and he brought the church with him when he crossed over to R&B. His Atlantic Records sides in the 1960s defined the sound of soul music before anyone called it that: "Cry to Me," "Just Out of Reach," "Down in the Valley." He ran a funeral home. He sold popcorn at his shows. He was the most theatrical figure in soul, and he meant every word.

In 2002, at 62, he made "Don't Give Up on Me" -- an album of songs written for him by Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Tom Waits, and Elvis Costello. It won a Grammy. The King of Rock and Soul proved he still had the power to stop a room.