Soul singer known as the Iceman was 85

Jerry Butler, the soul singer-songwriter and hit maker known as the Iceman, died Thursday at his home in Chicago. He was 85.

His assistant confirmed his death to The New York Times, sharing that Butler had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Butler began his storied career as the original lead singer of the Impressions, formed in 1958 with a combined repertoire of soul, gospel, and R&B. The group — inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and coined the “sound of the Civil Rights Movement” — scored the first of many hits with 1958’s “For Your Precious Love.”

Nicknamed the Iceman for his cool and smooth baritone voice, Butler left the group in 1960 to pursue a solo career, topping Billboard charts with such hits as “He Will Break Your Heart,” He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You).” “Let It Be Me,” a duet with Betty Everett, and, of course, “Only the Strong Survive,” the latter from his Grammy-nominated album The Ice Man Cometh.

“He’s one of the great voices of our time,” fellow R&B and soul legend Smokey Robinson, who has collaborated with Butler, told The Chicago Sun Times, citing his love for the Impressions’ hit song “For Your Precious Love.” He said, “It [swept] through the hood. I have known Jerry Butler way back, since the Miracles and I first got started, around 1958. He’s a great person, and I love him.”

Inspired by the election of Chicago’s first Black Mayor Harold Washington, Butler forayed into politics in the 1985, and was elected as a Democrat to the board of commissioners for Cook County. He held the position for over three decades, retiring in 2018. He published an autobiography, Only the Strong Survive: Memoirs of a Soul Survivor, in 2000.

Butler is survived by two sons, four grandchildren, and a great-grandchild. His wife of 60 years, Annette, died in 2019.