Soul Great Fontella Bass Passes

Fontella Bass

ST. LOUIS soul singer FONTELLA BASS died in hospice care from complications of a heart attack she suffered three weeks ago, REUTERS reports. BASS, who was 72 at her passing, is best known for topping the charts in 1965 with the song, "Rescue Me."

BASS  was born into a singing family in ST. LOUIS; her mother, MARTHA, was a singer in the CLARA WARD SINGERS gospel group, and her brother, the late R&B singer DAVID PEASTON, scored a handful of hits in the 1980s and 1990s. She first achieved success dueting with BOBBY MCCLURE in 1965 with "Don't Mess Up A Good Thing" and "You'll Miss Me (When I'm Gone)" -- hits on the pop and R&B charts.

BASS' biggest hit, "Rescue Me," has been covered and sampled numerous times over the years, by artists such as LINDA RONSTADT and CHER, and more recently in 2000 by U.K. group NU GENERATION, who remixed the song into a dance track. She later had moderate success in with a gospel album in the 1990s.

BASS was married to jazz trumpeter and composer LESTER BOWIE. The two spent time living in EUROPE in the late 1960s and early 1970s before moving back to the U.S.

Funeral arrangements for BASS have not been finalized. The singer is survived by her four children.

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