Lou Rawls Fighting Cancer

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 19, 2005 5:26PM

Lou Rawls, a South Side native and singer of such soul classics as “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine,” is doing his best to kick cancer’s ass.

According to the AP, Rawls has been diagnosed with lung cancer and his estranged wife says he is also struggling with cancer of the brain. Sounding upbeat, Rawls noted that “many people who have been diagnosed with this kind of thing, and they're still jumpin' and pumpin'.''

In addition to selling 40 million albums and winning three Grammys, the 70 year-old singer has also won praise for his work on the Parade of Stars telethon that airs annually in January on WGN and has raised over $200 million dollars for the United Negro College Fund in its over 25 year history.

As winter’s setting in, thoughts of Rawls seem particularly apropos for two reasons. A Sun-Times sidebar discusses how Lou brought talk of “The Hawk” from out of the South Side and to the rest of the world in his 1966 song “Dead End Street.” “The Hawk” is the kind of wind that shows up on bitterly cold Chicago days and “blows down the street around 35, 40 miles an hour…like a giant razorblade blowin' down the street.”

We’re also partial to Lou Rawls this time of year because the Chicagoist office usually rings in the New Year by spinning his version of Auld Lang Syne, a sample of which can be heard here.