The Unlikely Success And Down-To-Earth Soul Of James Ingram

Legendary R&B singers often have their own iconic signatures — those nifty vocal tricks and embellishments that help distinguish them from the pack. Think of James Brown's high-pitched scream, Ron Isley's tempered "well, well, well," or Luther Vandross' fluttering riff, ascending the musical scale.

James Ingram, who died Wednesday at 66, also had his own idiosyncratic loverman signature: a werewolf-at-midnight falsetto howl that he unsparingly deployed throughout his catalogue. You can hear it 33 seconds into 1983's inspirational synth-funk duet with Michael McDonald "Yah Mo B There" (and again at the four-minute mark); it arrives 19 seconds into his 1986 slow jam "Always"; and it's right at the top of 1989's "I Wanna Come Back" (as well as at the 3:35 minute mark ). If Ingram's iconic croon could occasionally become a crutch, it was merely one powerful weapon in his impeccable vocal arsenal. Influenced by gruff-but-burnished singers like Teddy Pendergrass