Jerry Butler, aka "The Ice Man (or Iceman)."
A Chicago institution, he first made his name as the original lead vocalist for the Impressions, one of the great vocal groups that was eventually inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His greatest hit with them was the doo-wop classic "For Your Precious Love" (based on a poem Butler wrote in high school) and he would later co-write “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” with Otis Redding. (Per Butler, "I receive more royalties from Otis’ one recording of that song than I get from everything I ever recorded.") Amazingly, not only did Butler find greater success with a solo career (albeit not immediately), the Impressions without him grew into a monumental act as Curtis Mayfield stepped up and proved himself to be one of the greatest singer-songwriters, producers and guitarists of that era.
But back to Butler, he recorded a series of excellent albums, including quite a few classic singles ("Only the Strong Survive" being the most famous) before his professional life took yet another surprising turn, this time in politics, serving as a Commissioner for Cook County, Illinois, from 1985 to 2018, where he chaired the Health and Hospitals Committee and served as Vice Chair of the Construction Committee. It always blew my mind as a kid that he was the guy on those records before he became a well-regarded public servant. At least he leveraged his fame to help the public good, a virtue that seems exponentially commendable in light of certain people.
