About Cuba Gooding Sr.
Cuba Mark Gooding Sr. was an American singer. He was the most successful lead singer of the soul group The Main Ingredient, replacing former lead singer Donald McPherson who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1971. According to Billboard, as the lead vocalist he scored five top 10 hits, most notably, "Everybody Plays the Fool" (1972), peaking at No. 2 for three weeks, and peaking at No. 3 on Billboard′s all-genre Hot-100 list. "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" (1974), "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend" and "Rolling Down a Mountainside" were also top 10 hits on Billboard charts. He also recorded as a solo artist with hits of his own. When she was murdered because of their affiliation with Pan Africanist leader Marcus Garvey, Dudley Gooding promised his wife on her deathbed that he would name his first son Cuba. The 1973 album Afrodisiac featured several songs co-written by Stevie Wonder. Gooding left The Main Ingredient in either 1977 or 1978.1 He had a brief solo career on Motown Records during the late 1970s and early 1980s making two albums; the first was titled The 1st Cuba Gooding Album, while the second was titled Love Dancer.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.