Eric Mercury, Canada’s ‘Electric Black Man,’ voice of ‘Be Like Mike,’ dies at 77
Posted March 16, 2022 4:00 am.
Last Updated March 16, 2022 4:17 am.
TORONTO — Eric Mercury, the Canadian singer-songwriter whose soulful vocals pushed the boundaries of rock music on his 1969 debut “Electric Black Man,” has died at age 77.
His niece Lee Ann Mercury says the Toronto-born musician died Monday in Montreal after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Mercury launched his career in the late 1950s just as Toronto’s music scene started to catch fire with a growing number of hot live venues.
He joined local band the Pharaohs before stepping to the front of the stage in the Soul Searchers, an act where he shared top billing with fellow lead singer Dianne Brooks.
By the late 1960s, he had moved to New York to pursue a solo career and released an energetic debut album “Electric Black Man.” Three more solo records followed in the 1970s.
Mercury would later join Stevie Wonder to co-write a song for Roberta Flack, appear in the 1978 drama “American Hot Wax” and lend his singing voice to the famous “Be Like Mike” Gatorade advertising campaign in the early 1990s.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 16, 2022.
David Friend, The Canadian Press
