Obituaries : Dave Prater Sr.; Soul Grammy Winner

Dave Prater Sr. of the Grammy-winning Sam and Dave soul duo has been killed in an auto crash, it was reported Tuesday.

Prater became popular with the 1960s hit “Hold On, I’m Comin” and returned to the public eye when John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd re-recorded their acrobatic “Soul Man.”

Prater, 50, was killed Saturday when the car he was driving went off Interstate 75 near Sycamore, Ga., and slammed into a tree.

Prater was on his way to visit his mother in Ocilla, the small Georgia town where he grew up, said his wife, Rosemary.

Prater, a laborer’s son, was a short-order cook when he met Samuel David Moore, son of a Miami Baptist deacon, in 1961. Moore was performing at a Miami club at the time.

They formed a duo and eventually signed a contract with Stax, a Memphis record company. Their first, “It Was So Nice While It Lasted” in 1965, was not a success but the next year they started a string of hits.

The successes included “You Don’t Know Like I Know” and “Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody,” which were followed by the No. 1 hit “Hold On, I’m Coming.”

They won a Grammy Award in 1967 for best rhythm and blues group vocal for “Soul Man” but by the early 1970s, their popularity had waned, and in 1981, Moore and Prater broke up.

Prater resumed the Sam and Dave act in 1982, but with Sam Daniels of Miami.

In 1985 Sam Moore forced Atlantic records to attach a disclaimer to their “The Sam and Dave Medley” release that noted he wasn’t involved in the recording.

“Soul Man” was revived as a hit when parodied by Aykroyd and Belushi in the 1980 movie “The Blues Brothers.”

Prater was arrested last summer in Paterson for selling a vial of crack to an undercover police officer. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced March 5 to three years probation and ordered to pay a $2,580 fine and perform 150 hours of community service.