"Go on Back to Him" (Solomon Burke)

Solomon Burke often gets overlooked in the pantheon of soul singers.  Sad, considering the man actually coined the phrase "soul music."
Burke was an imposing presence.  Not only was he a big man physically (he weighed approximately 350 pounds at his death in 2010), but he also had a big stage presence that he'd honed from years spent watching charismatic preachers and singing/preaching in churches himself.  In fact, he was known as the "Wonder Boy Preacher" long before he was known as the "King of Rock & Soul."  And lest anyone forget that he was "King," his schtick throughout the 60s was to walk on stage in full regalia: fur cape, crown, and scepter.
He also had a reputation for being a serial entrepreneur: he owned a limousine service, pharmacies, funeral parlors...  (After he was eclipsed by disciples like Otis Redding and James Brown in the mid-60s and his record sales dropped, he went to work as a mortician.)  And while he was touring the so-called "chitlin circuit" in the 1950s Deep South, he was notorious for always having a stash of sandwiches and snacks, which he'd sell (at highly inflated prices) to fellow musicians if they were refused service at segregated diners.
Then there's his reputation as a smooth operator.  Let's just say he had lots of love interests, on and off the road.  Some accounts say he fathered 14 kids; Burke himself claimed he had 21.
But as entertaining as he was as a character, the real allure was the music.
Although his best known song is "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" (which The Blues Brothers brought to the mainstream in 1980), my favorite track of his is a ballad called "Go on Back to Him," a song penned by Joy Byers, a former 1950s housewife who ended up writing songs for the likes of Burke and Elvis Presley.
The premise of the song is pretty simple (and somewhat ironic, considering his reputation as a ladies' man): Burke is telling his girlfriend, who has been stepping out with her former lover, that he's willing to let her go because he loves her so much.
Burke's nuanced performance captures the entire range of emotions in the lyrics: the pain, the embarrassment, the hurt, and the prideful facade.  It's all there in every inflection of his voice as he goes from a near whisper on each verse to a shouted, gritty tenor on the bridge.  (Side note: take one listen to that bridge, and it becomes crystal clear where John Fogerty got his vocal style.)