May 9

They were soul men long before the Blues Brothers.

Florida native Samuel Moore and Georgian David Prater were gospel music veterans when they joined together in 1961 to form the rhythm and blues duo Sam and Dave. From 1965 to ’68 the duo worked at Stax Records in Memphis with Songwriters Isaac Hayes and David Porter, and backed by house band Booker T. and the M.G.’s, they recorded a string of hits that earned them the nickname “Double Dynamite”: “Hold On, I’m Comin,” “You Don’t Know Like I Know,” “When Something is Wrong With My Baby,’” and “I Thank You.” Their biggest hit, “Soul Man,” reached number two on the charts in 1967.

Sam and Dave were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, four years after Dave’s death in a car accident. David Prater, one of the singers who formed what Rolling Stone magazine called the most successful duo in soul music history, was born in Ocilla on May 9, 1937, Today in Georgia History.