Amsterdam (AP) - Solomon Burke, 70, one of the greatest soul singers of the 1960s, renowned as among music's died early Sunday of natural causes at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, his family said.

Burke died on a plane after arriving early Sunday from Los Angeles. He had been scheduled to perform a sellout show on Tuesday.

Two of Burke's best-known songs reached a wide audience when they were featured in hit movies.

"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" was featured in the Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi movie "The Blues Brothers."

A bare-chested Patrick Swayze danced seductively with Jennifer Grey to Burke's "Cry To Me" in one of the most memorable scenes from the movie "Dirty Dancing."

According to his website, Burke was born March 21, 1940, "to the sounds of horns and bass drums" at the United Praying Band The House of God for All People in West Philly.

"From day one, literally God and gospel were the driving forces behind the man and his music," his website said.

He remained closely linked to the church as a preacher. In 2000, he played for then-Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and won a Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy a year later for "Don't Give Up On Me."

Those honors sparked a renewed interest in the singer and he toured extensively around the world in recent years, including touring with The Rolling Stones.

Burke and his band would play without set lists, instead performing whatever the audience wanted to hear.

"It's like turning back the hands of time instantly," he said on his website. "We can be in the middle of singing something from my recent 'Like A Fire' album, and they'll call out 'Stupidity' from 1957 and we're back 50 years!"

Burke combined his singing with the role of preacher and patriarch of a huge family of 21 children, 90 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

"Loving people," he said at a recent performance in London, "is what I do."

Moody reported from New York; Associated Press Writer Mike Corder in the Hague contributed to this report.