Billy Paul Death

Tennessee executed Billy Ray Irick on Thursday night, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a final request to stay his execution. Convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of 7-year-old Paula Dyer, Irick, 59, is the first state inmate to be put to death since 2009. He was also the first to receive Tennessee's new and controversial three-drug cocktail.

But in a decision that would prove commercially disastrous, Billy Paul followed up the hit not with another smooth soul song but Am I Black Enough For You?, a funky number with allusions to the Black Power movement

Tennessee executed Billy Ray Irick on Thursday night, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a final request to stay his execution. Convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of 7-year-old Paula Dyer, Irick, 59, is the first state inmate to be put to death since 2009. He was also the first to receive Tennessee's new and controversial three-drug cocktail.

But in a decision that would prove commercially disastrous, Billy Paul followed up the hit not with another smooth soul song but Am I Black Enough For You?, a funky number with allusions to the Black Power movement