Belatedly, the legendary Dan Penn alerted OffBeat of the passing of the Southern soul great Joe Simon, who died on December 13, 2021, at his Chicago home. He was 86.

Born in rural Simmesport, Louisiana, on September 7, 1936, Simon became one of the biggest names in Black music and was constantly in the charts from the mid-1960s to 1980. During his heyday, Joe Simon sold more records, eight-track tapes, cassette...