Arthur “Pooch” Tavares was the lead singer for Grammy Award-winning R&B group Tavares, known for “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” and “More Than a Woman” from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.
- Died: April 2024
- Details of death: Died at the age of 81.
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Arthur “Pooch” Tavares’ legacy
Tavares was one of five brothers from New England who came together to form Tavares, an R&B group also known as The Tavares Brothers and, for a short time, Chubby and the Turnpikes. They got their start in 1959 while still kids and, in the 1960s, even briefly welcomed future stars into the band, including Bernie Worrell (1944–2016), a founding member of P-Funk, and Joey Kramer, who went on to drum with Aerosmith.
In the 1970s, Arthur and his brothers changed the band name to Tavares and landed their first hit on the charts, “Check it Out.” In 1974, they went to No. 1 on the R&B charts with their cover of the Hall & Oates song, “She’s Gone.” The following year, “Remember What I Told You to Forget” and “It Only Takes a Minute” were big hits, and 1976 saw one of their best-known songs land on the charts, “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel.” They also had a big hit in 1977 with “Whodunit.”
In 1979, “More Than a Woman” appeared on the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The song was specifically written for Tavares by The Bee-Gees.
The final Tavares LP was 1983’s “Words and Music,” but the band continued to tour and perform well after they stopped releasing new material, proving to be a draw with fans with or without chart hits. Arthur Tavares retired from the group in 2014 after suffering from a stroke. He and his brothers are in the Cape Verdean Museum Hall of Fame and the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame and were given a lifetime achievement award at the The National R&B Music Society Black Tie Gala.
Tributes to Arthur “Pooch” Tavares
Full obituary: The Standard Times
