Jerry "Iceman" Butler, famed soul singer and Chicago politician, dies at 85
Jerry Butler, a premier soul singer of the 1960s and after whose rich, intimate baritone graced such hits as "For Your Precious Love," "Only the Strong Survive" and "Make It Easy On Yourself," has died at age 85.
Butler was also known for more than 30 years in Chicago as a commissioner on the Cook County Board, and as the longtime chairman of the powerful Health and Hospitals Committee.
Butler's niece, Yolanda Goff, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Butler died Thursday, Feb. 20, at his home in Chicago. As a County Board commissioner, Butler would still perform on weekends and identify himself as Jerry "Iceman" Butler, a show business nickname given for his understated style.
A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a three-time Grammy Award nominee, Butler was a voice for two major soul music hubs: Chicago and Philadelphia. Along with childhood friend Curtis Mayfield, he helped found the Chicago-based Impressions and sang lead on the breakthrough hit "For Your Precious Love," a deeply emotional, gospel-influenced ballad that made Butler a star before the age of 20.
A decade later, in the late 60s, Butler joined the Philadelphia-based production team of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, who worked with him on "Only the Strong Survive," "Hey Western Union Man" and other hits. Butler's albums "Ice on Ice" and "The Iceman Cometh" are regarded as early models for the danceable, string-powered productions that became the classic "Sound of Philadelphia."
Butler was an inspired songwriter who collaborated with Otis Redding on "I've Been Loving You Too Long," a signature ballad for Redding; and with Gamble and Huff on "Only the Strong Survive" (1968), later covered by Elvis Presley, among others. His credits also included "Never Give You Up" (also 1968, with Gamble and Huff), and "He Will Break Your Heart" (1960), which Butler helped write after he began thinking about the boyfriends of the groupies he met on the road.
"You go into a town; you're only going to be there for one night; you want some company; you find a girl; you blow her mind," Butler told Rolling Stone in 1969. "Now you know that girl hasn't been sitting in town waiting for you to come in. She probably has another fellow and the other fellow's probably in love with her; they're probably planning to go through the whole thing, right? But you never take that into consideration on that particular night."
Butler was the son of Mississippi sharecroppers who moved north to Chicago when Butler was 3, part of the era's "Great Migration" of Black people out of the South. He grew up in what became the Cabrini-Green housing development on Chicago's Near North Side.
Butler loved all kinds of music as a child and was a good enough singer that a friend suggested he come to a local place of worship, the Traveling Souls Spiritualist Church on Chicago's West Side, presided over by the Rev. A.B. Mayfield. Her grandson, Curtis Mayfield, soon became a close friend. (Mayfield died in 1999).
In 1958, Mayfield and Butler, along with Sam Gooden and brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks, recorded "For Your Precious Love" for Vee-Jay Records. The group called itself the Impressions, but Vee-Jay, anxious to promote an individual star, advertised the song as by Jerry Butler and the Impressions, leading to estrangement between Butler and the other performers and to an unexpected solo career.
"Fame didn't change me as much as it changed the people around me," Butler wrote in his memoir "Only the Strong Survive," published in 2000.
One of his early solo performances was a 1961 cover of "Moon River," the theme to "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Butler was the first performer to hit the charts with what became a pop standard, but "Moon River" would be associated with Andy Williams after the singer was chosen to perform it at the Academy Awards, a snub Butler long resented. His other solo hits, some recorded with Mayfield, included the aforementioned "He Will Break Your Heart," "Find Another Girl" and "I'm A-Telling You."
By 1967, Butker's formal style seemed out of fashion, but Butler was impressed by the new music coming out of Philadelphia and received permission from his record label (Mercury) to work with Gamble and Huff. The chemistry, Butler recalled, was so "fierce" that they wrote hits such as "Only the Strong Survive" in less than an hour.
"Things just seem to fall into place," Butler told Ebony magazine in 1969. "We lock ourselves in a room, create stories about lovers, compose the music, then write the lyrics to match the music."
From stage and studio to Cook County, Illinois boardroom
By the 1980s, Butler's musical career had faded and he was becoming increasingly interested in politics. Encouraged by the 1983 election of Harold Washington, Chicago's first Black mayor, he ran successfully for the Cook County Board in 1986.
Butler was one of several candidates elected to the County Board with Mayor Washington's backing that year, along with attorney and future Chicago alderman Charles Bernardini and teacher Bobbie Steele. Before Butler and Steele were elected, John H. Stroger Jr. — who went on to be elected County Board President in 1994 — had been the only Black commissioner on the board, the Chicago Reader noted.
Among other responsibilities, the 17-member County Board oversees the nation's second-largest court system as well as the Cook County Jail, a massive public health care and hospital system, and the county's forest preserves when meeting as the Forest Preserve Board. The County Board is also responsible for approving a multimillion-dollar annual budget, which in many budget years has drawn criticism for introducing new taxes or hiking existing ones.
Butler was re-elected to his seat repeatedly, even after supporting a controversial sales tax increase for the 2009 budget.
In 2011, the Cook County Health and Hospitals System honored Butler for his service as a county commissioner — noting that he was instrumental in establishing single-member districts. Before the districts were created in 1994, county commissioners were elected on an at-large basis from the city and suburbs.
Butler's true passion as a county commissioner was ensuring health care for all, and he was at the forefront in opening John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County — replacing the old Cook County Hospital — in 2002, the CCHHS noted.
As quoted in a 2011 Chicago Reader article, longtime fellow Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin said Butler entered politics "for only one reason—he felt that he had a voice because of all the blessings he'd been given, and that he could use it for other people."
In 1993, while serving on the County Board, Butler earned a master's in public administration from Governors State University.
Butler retired from the board in 2018. Current Cook County Commissioner Bill Lowry succeeded Butler in the 3rd District seat.
Of Butler, Lowry said in part: "He was not only a pillar of Cook County government but also a trailblazer in the music industry, earning his rightful place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. His impact on both public service and the arts is immeasurable, leaving behind a legacy that will be cherished for generations.
"For nearly 33 years, Commissioner Butler served the residents of the 3rd District with unwavering dedication, integrity, and vision. His leadership, particularly as chair of the Health and Hospitals Committee and vice chair of the Construction Committee, was instrumental in ensuring access to quality healthcare and vital community resources. His work uplifted countless lives, and his influence will continue to be felt across Cook County."
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle likewise honored Butler for his "distinguished voice [that] helped shape the sound of R&B and soul, leaving an indelible mark on American music," and for how he "worked tirelessly to expand healthcare access, improve infrastructure and advocate for policies that strengthened our communities" as a county commissioner.
Butler was married for 60 years to Annette Smith, who died in 2019, and with her had twin sons. Many of his generational peers had struggled financially and he worked to help them.
Butler chaired the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, which provides a wide range of assistance to musicians, and pushed the industry to provide medical and retirement benefits. Butler considered himself relatively lucky, even if he did pass on the chance to own a part of Gamble and Huff's Philadelphia International recording company.
"You know, I have lived well. My wife probably would say I could've lived better," Butler told the Reader in 2011. "Did I make 40, 50 million dollars? No. Did I keep one or two? Yes. The old guys on the street used to say, 'It's not how much you make. It's how much you keep.'"
