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Jerry Butler, the graceful singer and songwriter who served as the first leader of the Impressions before launching a long, hit-heavy solo career, died on Thursday at his home in Chicago. He was 85.<\/p>\n
His death was confirmed by his assistant, who said that Mr. Butler had Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
Mr. Butler\u2019s resounding baritone voice, though gritty in timbre, was animated by gentility and charm; he approached a lyric with an almost courtly level of sensitivity. His poise explained, in part, how he came to be known as the Iceman.<\/p>\n
Mr. Butler scored his first hit in 1958 with \u201cFor Your Precious Love,\u201d<\/a> a song he recorded with the Impressions and wrote with two other members of the group. It reached No. 11 on Billboard\u2019s pop chart. Its lyrics stressed perseverance and loyalty, themes Mr. Butler would revisit throughout his career.<\/p>\n Immediately after leaving the group in 1960, he reached the Billboard Top 10 with \u201cHe Will Break Your Heart,\u201d<\/a> which he wrote with his bandmate Curtis Mayfield and Calvin Carter. The song proved durable: A reworked version by Tony Orlando and Dawn, \u201cHe Don\u2019t Love You (Like I Love You),\u201d would become a No. 1 hit more than a decade later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Butler\u2019s version of \u201cMoon River,\u201d the Henry Mancini-Johnny Mercer song from the movie \u201cBreakfast at Tiffany\u2019s,\u201d climbed to No. 11 on the pop chart in 1961. The next year, his interpretation of Burt Bacharach and Hal David\u2019s \u201cMake It Easy on Yourself\u201d<\/a> reached No. 20.<\/p>\n Two years later, he reached the Top 10 again with \u201cLet It Be Me,\u201d<\/a> a duet with Betty Everett. It performed even better than the Everly Brothers’ version, widely considered a classic: The Butler-Everett version reached No. 5, two points higher than the Everlys had reached in 1960.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Butler enjoyed his highest pop chart position in 1968 with \u201cOnly the Strong Survive,\u201d<\/a> which reached No. 4 on the pop chart and No. 1 on the R&B list. In all, more than a dozen of his songs reached Billboard\u2019s R&B Top 10 (three of which went all the way to No. 1). Just as many made it to Billboard\u2019s Top 40 pop list.<\/p>\n Mr. Butler also made a splash, although a smaller one, in politics. In 1985, he was elected as a Democrat to the board of commissioners for Cook County, which encompasses Chicago. He would hold that position for more than three decades before retiring in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Clashes<\/a> with Mr. Mayfield led to Mr. Butler\u2019s early exit from the Impressions. Mr. Mayfield went on to have numerous hit songs, both with the Impressions (\u201cPeople Get Ready,\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s All Right\u201d) and as a solo artist (\u201cSuper Fly\u201d).<\/p>\n Shortly after leaving the Impressions, Mr. Butler was given the Iceman nickname by the Philadelphia disc jockey Georgie Woods. \u201cIt was because I wasn\u2019t like the other guys \u2014 Joe Tex, James Brown and the Isleys \u2014 jumping around,\u201d Mr. Butler told the music critic David Nathan in 1975. \u201cI just used to stand there and sing and Georgie said I was cool. Hence, the Iceman.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Butler shared writing credits on many of his records. He also wrote the wrenching ballad \u201cI\u2019ve Been Loving You Too Long\u201d with Otis Redding, whose recording of the song was a hit in 1965.<\/p>\n \u201cMy approach to recording is somewhat different to what most artists adopt,\u201d Mr. Butler told Mr. Nathan. \u201cI am more involved creatively. While a lot of other artists lean on the producers, I work more with<\/em> the producers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Among the honors Mr. Butler received were an N.A.A.C.P. Image Award and a Rhythm and Blues Pioneer Award. He was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015. Along with the other members of the Impressions, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. He also served for a time as chairman of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Jerry Butler Jr. was born on Dec. 8, 1939, in Sunflower, Miss., in the northwestern part of the state, to Jerry and Arvelia Butler. When he was 3, his family moved to Chicago, where they lived in the Cabrini-Green housing development.<\/p>\n He learned about music in church, where he met Mr. Mayfield when they were teenagers.<\/p>\n \u201cIn church, someone\u2019s going to say \u2018Amen,\u2019 whether you\u2019re good or bad,\u201d Mr. Butler said in a 2011 interview with KPBS Radio in San Diego.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Butler and Mr. Mayfield soon formed a quartet, the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers. In 1957, they joined a doo-wop group, the Roosters, which eventually became the Impressions. The next year, as Jerry Butler and the Impressions, the group was signed by a local label, Vee-Jay Records.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Your Precious Love,\u201d which reached No. 3 on the R&B chart, was based on a poem Mr. Butler wrote when he was 16.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were trying to find a new sound,\u201d he told the weekly newspaper The Chicago Reader in 2011. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to be doo-wop. We wanted to have a different and lasting impression.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cFor Your Precious Love\u201d \u201ccan almost be considered the first soul record,\u201d Joe McEwen wrote in \u201cThe Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In 1961, Mr. Butler became the first singer to put \u201cMoon River\u201d on the charts<\/a>, and the only one whose version made the Top 40, reaching No. 11 in Billboard. (Andy Williams\u2019s more celebrated version<\/a>, which became his theme song, was never released as a single.) The song, originally sung by Audrey Hepburn<\/a> in \u201cBreakfast at Tiffany\u2019s,\u201d won the Oscar for best song in 1962.<\/p>\n Mr. Butler\u2019s smooth vocal on \u201cMoon River\u201d was a nod to Nat King Cole, an early influence. He pivoted to his harder soul side when he collaborated with the writing and producing team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff for two of his most highly regarded albums, \u201cThe Iceman Cometh\u201d in 1968 and \u201cIce on Ice\u201d the next year.<\/p>\n Even after his departure from the Impressions, Mr. Butler continued to work with Mr. Mayfield, who sang backup on \u201cHe Will Break Your Heart,\u201d and co-wrote the songs \u201cFind Another Girl\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m A-Telling You.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Butler reunited with Mr. Mayfield and the Impressions for a national tour in 1983, and he continued to perform as a solo act even after he entered politics. Late in his career, he hosted a series of popular PBS specials celebrating the vintage stars of doo-wop, R&B and soul.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n