VOICE OF “THE GREATEST SOUL SINGLE EVER RECORDED” KILLED:
DARRELL BANKS
THE CUT TO HEAR: “OPEN THE DOO TO YOUR HEART” Revilot 201 (Donnie Elbert) #27 POP, October 1, 1966
He is interred, through this day, in a grave which bears no name.
Darrell Banks was shot to death. It was less than 40 months after the meteoric rise of what auditory analysts with soul argue was the creator of “the greatest soul single ever recorded.”
Reported interviews and fragments suggest a story with possibility, but with inconsistencies. A Police Officer, Aaron Bullock, was out with Darrell’s onetime girlfriend, a barmaid, Marjorie Bozeman. Darrell harbored notions that the lady was his and was waiting outside her place. His temperament has been described as “gloomy,” “very bad tempered” and “quick to get angry.” The car with the couple pulled into her driveway on LaSalle Boulevard in North West Detroit. It was Tuesday, March 1, 1970, 11am; or possibly Feburary 24. Darrell approached, grabbing the woman’s coat, saying “We must talk.” Bullock announced that he was a police officer and ordered Darrell to release Marjorie. Banks pulled a .22 revolver from his waist band, pointing it at the off-duty officer; but did not fire. Bullock drew his service revolver, shooting at least twice. At his arrival at Grace Hospital at 12:10pm Darrell Banks was dead, with a wound to his neck and one to his chest.
The official Death Certificate described the incident as an “assault” and a “homicide.” No court case has ever emerged. Newspaper reports waited eight days, until the March 1st date—leading to questions as to why the messing with the incidents date—and mention was of but a wound to the neck.
He was born Darrell Eubanks in Mansfield, Ohio, July 27, 1937. He grew up on the East Side of Buffalo, N.Y. singing in gospel church’s from earliest on. A researcher, Richard Pack, has uncovered that Darrell had performed with the Daddy B. Combo and Grand Prix, secular groups. In the mid’60s, he happened on to a dentist, Doc Murphy, who was to become the kid’s manager and secured for him a chance to sing at Buffalo’s Club Revilot. Doc introduced him to Lebaron Taylor, co-owner with WXYZ DJ’s Don Davis and George White who fronted Solid Hitbound, a new production company, that had already had releases on Detroits’ other big independent label, Golden World/Ric Tic.