"They had their songs going, but they didn't have an artist to do them,” says Sam. There they encountered Hayes and Porter, just getting their feet wet as a house writing and production team. Their live act dazzled Atlantic Records boss Jerry Wexler, but instead of producing them in New York, he shipped them off to record in Memphis at Atlantic-distributed Stax. A half-dozen 1962-63 Roulette singles later, they remained hitless. "We got with a recording company, and we were able to get a Sam & Dave sound together,” says Moore. Roulette Records owner Morris Levy picked up the 45s and the duo too. The duo cut their first pair of singles for Henry Stone's Marlin label, their young producer Steve Alaimo a popular Miami singer himself. The club owner immediately offered them a gig if they'd team up. When Sam nearly knocked the mic stand over, both young singers fell to their knees to grab it without missing a beat, electrifying the crowd. But Prater didn't know the words, so Moore started singing it with him. Prater wanted to sing Sam Cooke's Wonderful World, but the band didn't know it, so he settled on Jackie Wilson's Doggin' Around. Sam found a job as a singer and amateur night emcee at a Miami nightspot, the King of Hearts, and Dave came in one night in late 1961 to compete. Yet both eventually went a secular route. Born in Ocilla, Georgia, Prater arrived in Miami to sing in his brother J.T.'s sanctified quartet, The Sensational Hummingbirds. Born in Miami on October 12, 1935, Sam Moore was a member of a local doo-wop outfit, The Majestics, that made a '56 single for Henry Stone's Marlin label, but he honed his lead singing with two local gospel quartets, The Gales and The Melionaires. Sam & Dave came by their melismatic tendencies naturally. But Sam Moore and Dave Prater had one crucial element in their hitmaking arsenal that set them apart: the songwriting and production team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter. Hundreds of soul-singing duos modeled themselves after Sam & Dave.
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