Influenced by church music, Z. Z. Hill became a singer, imitating Sam Cooke and Bobby Bland. One of his first ballads, "You Were Wrong", in 1963, was a hit in his native Texas and led to his signing with the Kent label in California. Hill appeared sporadically on the charts, but he was above all a favorite on the small bar circuit with its black working-class clientele in the South. A soul singer first and foremost, with a greasy voice and macho posture, he scored the biggest hit of his career in 1981 with a blues, "Down Home Blues".
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