Mable John: Stay Out of the Kitchen (1993)

Relatively unknown outside the circle of soul fanatics, Mable John had one of the sultriest voices in her genre, and co-wrote some of the era's best, yet unheard, soul classics. Most notable of her material was her theme song 'Able Mable,' a finger-snapping piece reminiscent of 'Fever,' a single once recorded by her little brother Little Willie John. It's remarkable that the song 'Able Mable' or her other singles, like the fantastic 'Running Out' or 'I'm a Big Girl Now', never pushed her to greater stardom. Coupling the suave of soul with the smokey physicality of blues, Mable John's vocal approach is virtually unmistakeable. On Stay Out of the Kitchen are John's most notable recordings for the Stax/Volt label, all of them recorded between 1966 and 1968, combining issued sides with a truck load of unissued material. What makes the tracks even more remarkable is the impeccable playing by Stax regulars: Booker T. Jones, backing vocals from staff writer Deanie Parker, members of Jeanne and the Darlings, drummer Al Jackson, Jr. and Isaac Hayes. Hayes also produced and co-wrote several of the songs alongside David Porter, Mable John has several of her own songs and other notable writers include Steve Cropper, who produced several of the tracks (and of course contributes some very tasteful guitar figures throughout), Eddie Floyd and Homer Banks. The final song on the disc is her moving tribute to her brother Little Willie John who had just died, his signature song 'Need Your Love So Bad', written by another brother, Mertis John. We had to wait nearly thirty years to get a chance to hear them, but their power is undimmed by time. Stay Out of the Kitchen is a portrait of a timeless soul singer at her best.~ http://www.cduniverse.com/

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Mable John (second from the right) with the Raelettes and Ray Charles singing 'Shake' in the Dick Cavett Show, 1972:

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Nancy Wilson: Today, Tomorrow, Forever (1964) / A Touch of Today (1966)

A very groovy set of standards and '60s pop tunes, all done by Nancy Wilson in her great soulful swinging style! On Today, Tomorrow, Forever, Nancy lights up a set of the usual pop standards of the era: 'One Note Samba,' 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco,' 'Unchain My Heart,' 'Wives and Lovers' and 'Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life,' among others. They're all good choices for her breathy voice and occasional improvisations, especially 'One Note Samba' and 'Wives and Lovers'. On them, Wilson plays with the notes and rhythm, making a pair of lighthearted songs even more playful and irresistible than they had been previously. Nancy is at the height of her early career here and she is getting backing from a very sympathetic west coast group that includes Jack Wilson on piano and organ, Lou Blackburn on trombone, Bill Perkins on tenor, and Milt Holland on percussion. Considering the dozens of traditional jazz-based singers unfamiliar with their place in the middle of the turbulent '60s, Today, Tomorrow, Forever is an accomplished album that sounds almost effortless. A Touch of Today is another of Nancy Wilson's contemporary dates, comprised of standards from Broadway, Motown, the Beatles, and Bacharach, among other '60s sources. Her voice is as strong and pliable as ever, and most of the songs work just fine. Wilson stamps her versions of familiar pop songs like 'Uptight (Everything's Alright),' 'Call Me,' 'The Shadow of Your Smile,' 'And I Love Him (Her)', 'Yesterday,' and 'Goin' Out of My Head.' The arrangements, handled either by Oliver Nelson or Sid Feller, are occasionally too reliant on period clichés, but A Touch of Today is another solid album adrift in a period of lesser efforts by great singers. http://www.dustygroove.com/, http://www.answers.com/

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Nancy Wilson sings 'Almost In Your Arms,' circa 1963:

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Nancy singing 'Forn Once in My Life' in Sopot (Poland), 1971:

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Inez & Charlie Foxx: The Dynamo Duo (2004)

Inez and Charlie Foxx were a R&B and soul brother and sister duo from Greensboro, North Carolina. Inez was a former member of the Gospel Tide Chorus. Her first solo single, ‘A Feeling’, was issued on Brunswick Records, credited to ‘Inez Johnston’. Charlie was, meanwhile, a budding songwriter and his reworking of a nursery rhyme, ‘Mockingbird’, became their first single together. Released on the Sue label subsidiary Symbol, it was a US Top 10 hit in 1963, although it was not until 1969 that the song charted in the UK Top 40. Their immediate releases followed the same contrived pattern, but later recordings for Musicor/Dynamo, in particular ‘I Stand Accused’, were more adventurous. However, their final hit together, ‘(1-2-3-4-5-6-7) Count the Days’ (1967), was modelled closely on that early style. Solo again, Inez continued to record for Dynamo before signing with Stax/Volt in 1972. Although apparently uncomfortable with their recording methods, the results, including the Inez Foxx ‘In Memphis’ album, were excellent. Make no mistake about it, this track rates among one of the greatest underplayed records on the Northern Soul scene. ~ http://www.oldies.com/

Barbara & The Browns: Can't Find Happiness - The Sound of Memphis Recordings (2007)

A four-girl family group out of Memphis, led by Barbara Brown, was first known as the Brown Sisters, but by the time they enjoyed their first and only charted single, ‘Big Party’, in 1964 (first on Wil Mo, then leased to Stax; peaked at # 97-pop) they had become Barbara & the Browns, and later on it would be only Barbara Brown on a couple of labels (Atco and Tower). Barbara has got a deep, rich voice that is clearly schooled in gospel, but pointed towards more secular ends; an approach that is very much in keeping with the best late ‘60s wave of soul from Atlantic Records, and which is carried off here with a sharpness and precision simply mindblowing. Why Brown never scored bigger is a real mystery, because these tunes come off like the cream of the crop of southern soul at the end of the 60s: not just obscurities for obscurity sake, but some of the highest level of soul a female soul singer could hope for at the time! This 20-track compilation has eight previously unreleased cuts, and it can roughly be divided into two parts. The first one covers releases on such labels as Cadet, Atco and Tower between 1966 and '68 - including most of the unreleased songs, too - and the second one offers singles on XL and Sounds of Memphis from 1971 and '72. If you're into raw and horn-heavy Memphis sound with intense and gospel-infused singing, then this set is for you. Barbara's six Stax sides (from '64 and '65) are not originally included in the set (though I added myself their 1964 version of ‘Big Party’ as a bonus), but there is more than a fair share of big-voiced deepies to satisfy your soul – ‘Can't Find No Happiness’, ‘It Hurts Me So Much’, ‘If I Can't Run to You I'll Crawl’, ‘I Don't Want to Have to Wait’ (this one has appeared on a number of compilations before), ‘Pity A Fool’, ‘Big Party’ (the 1972 version), ‘Play Thing' and 'Great Big Thing’, among others. Most of them are placed in the first part of the compilation, but starting from track # 7 there are also some toe-tappers, dancers and stompers on display. The '68 Tower single contains two country-soul sides, the touching ‘Things Have Gone to Pieces’ and the bluesy ‘There's a Look on Your Face’. Can't Find Happiness was well worth the wait. http://www.soulexpress.net/, http://www.dustygroove.com/
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Jackie Lee Special: End of a Rainbow - A Pye Anthology + 23 Bonus! (1961-1973)

One of my all-time favorite Brit Girls, Jackie Lee was a sadly underrated vocalist who enjoyed a long career in the music business, but only received great success for a pair of television theme songs. Born in North Dublin as Jacqueline Norah Flood on May 29, 1936, Jackie was raised in a household of music lovers — her mother played piano and her father was a trained baritone vocalist — and as a girl she won a scholarship to Dublin's Municipal School of Music, where she studied voice. By the age of 14, Flood was already singing professionally, appearing regularly with local dance bands and performing on Irish radio. In the early '50s, Flood relocated to London, England, to pursue her career and soon landed a prestigious gig as vocalist with Ronnie Aldrich's Squadronaires, a successful British dance band, where she took the professional name Jackie Lee. In 1955, Lee left the group to work as a solo act, and released her first single, 'For So Long as I Live' b/w 'I Was Wrong.' In 1959, Lee and her manager Len Beadle (who was also her first husband) formed a vocal combo known as the Raindrops, who recorded for Parlophone/EMI, Oriole, and Philips, specializing in covers of American pop and rock hits. While the group made frequent radio and television appearances and can be seen in the film Just for You (aka Disk-O-Tek Holiday), they never scored a major hit, and the members parted company in 1965. That year, Lee relaunched her solo career with a new single for Decca, 'I Cry Alone' b/w 'Cause I Love Him.' Two further singles, 'Lonely Clown' b/w 'Love Is Gone' and 'I Know, Know, Know I'll Never Love, Love, Love Anyone Else' b/w 'So Love Me', issued on the Columbia label, also failed. One of her finest moments came with her third single for Columbia, released in November 1966, 'The Town I Live In,' which was a wry comment on the suburban nature of the Buckinghamshire new town. The hitless Jackie was renamed Emma Rede for her next single, 'Just Like a Man'. (The excellent beat ballad 'I Gotta Be with You' appeared on the flip.) The move resulted in a place in pirate station Radio London's Fab forty charts in February 1967, and the record remains much in demand with collectors. Later that year, Jackie recorded 'Born to Lose' for the movie Robbery! The song was released as a single by Decca in September of that year, but also failed. In 1968, she was hired to sing the theme song for a BBC television series for young people, White Horses, and when the show became a hit, Lee's recording of the signature tune became a major chart success, though it was credited simply to Jacky. A follow up, 'We’re off and Running' b/w 'Well That's Loving You', proved inappropriately titled, though Jacky did get to release an album off the back of her hit single, which featured piano work from Dudley Moore. She also got to record for the soundtrack to Roger Vladim’s classic movie Barbarella. However, her material never made it into the film. Undeterred, she worked on a second soundtrack, this time for the film Loving Feeling, and released the single 'Love Is Now' b/w 'Never Will I Be', a fan favourite, on the Page One label. In 1969 she began a contract with the Pye label, and issued the great 'Love Is a Gamble' b/w 'Something Borrowed, Something Blue'. In 1970, another one of Lee's television recordings brought her back to the pop charts when she sang the theme song for the children's show The Adventures of Rupert Bear, which became a Top Ten hit for Pye Records. Pye took Lee into the studio to cut an album to capitalize on 'Rupert''s success, 1971's Jackie's Junior Choice, and a handful of fine singles followed, including the awesome 'Black Country' (a B-Side) and one of her best releases, which turned out to be her last, 'You Make My Head Spin' (1973). That same year, due to a throat problem, Lee retired from the music business, and after several years in the United States she settled in Canada. This collection gathers together for the first time Jackie's later solo recordings from her time with Pye Records (1969-1973). I also included 23 bonus tracks from her wonderful Decca, Columbia, Page One and Philips earlier catalogue, (most part of the aforementioned and all of the highlighted). These will surely be much more appealing to you than some of the 1970-'71 children's tunes. There are as well six cuts recorded with her group the Raindrops between 1961 and 1964; 49 tracks in all! I hope you enjoy Jackie as much as I do! http://www.readysteadygirls.eu/, http://www.allmusic.com/

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A rare performance by Jackie Lee on German TV in 1967. A couple of months later she became simply Jacky and recorded 'White horses':

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Cinebox reel of Jackie & The Raindrops from 1963, adapted for the American movie Disk-o-Tek Holiday:

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'I Gotta Be with You', the song that made me absolutely fall in love with Jackie's voice, ten years ago, when I first heard it on the first volume of Dream Babes:

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A super-rare 16mm film reel of Jackie Lee & The Raindrops, recorded at De Lane Lea in 1963. The Raindrops were signed to Oriole at the time, but this particular song never made it onto vinyl:

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And, finally, Jackie performing 'Rupert' (as in Rupert the Bear). She scored her second and final hit with this children’s TV theme, which made #17 in the UK charts in 1971:

Eydie Gormé: Eydie Swings the Blues (1957) / Eydie in Love (1958)

Although most of her career was conducted during the rock era, traditional pop singer Eydie Gormé carved out a place for herself in several areas of entertainment. For 20 years, from the mid-'50s to the mid-'70s, she consistently scored in the pop charts, with a parallel place in the Latin pop field from the '60s on. For most of her career, she worked both solo and in a duo with her husband, Steve Lawrence. Soon before she married him, in 1957, Eydie released Swings the Blues, where we find her spreading her jazz wings and digging into a nice selection of pop/jazz/blues-style material. Paired here with her usual conductor and good friend Don Costa, it's one swingin' tune after the next. From the opening 'I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues,' right to 'A Nightingale Can Sing the Blues', the theme is obvious; the sentiment apparent. Costa and Gorme would go on to record many more albums together, as would Costa and Steve Lawrence. This album was, undoubtedly, a precursor for great things to come from Costa's baton and Gorme's pipes. Standouts here include Harold Arlen's 'When the Sun Comes Out,' with its torchy, soaring vocals and blazing brass all around Miss Gorme, and the sly underlying of 'I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart' in the arrangement of another Duke Ellington classic 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore.' Listen how effortlessly Eydie glides over vocal triplets on the tags of the old standards 'After You've Gone' and Gershwin's 'The Man I Love'. A year after this release, in 1958, Eydie recorded Eydie in Love, a heartfelt, deeply sincere collection of love songs and ballads that's sweet but never saccharine, thanks as much to her poignant vocals as to the impeccable backings of Costa. Gormé manages to articulate both girlish infatuation and world-weary resignation with authority and understanding, all rendered with the signature warmth that makes her records so appealing. From the opening strains of the poignant 'When the World Was Young,' sung here by young Eydie from a woman's point of view, to the classic, simple reading of 'In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,' to Eydie's soaring vocals on the torchy 'Love Letters,' it's just one beautiful song after another. It is interesting to note that Steve Allen wrote the lovely 'Impossible'. Let's not forget Eydie recorded this in the earlier days of her career at age 27, just after she married Steve Lawrence, whom she met on the original Tonight Show hosted then by Steve Allen himself. A labor of love from one of the classiest female vocalists ever. http://www.amazon.com/
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Eydie Gormé singing 'Ma He's Making Eyes At Me':

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Eydie's rendtion of 'I Wanna Be Around', 1966:

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LaVern Baker: See See Rider (1963) / Blues Ballads (1959)

A versatile vocalist, LaVern Baker proved capable of melding blues, jazz and R&B styles in a way that made possible the emergence of a new idiom: rock and roll. The niece of blues singer Memphis Minnie, Baker had a stunning voice that, with little effort, could crack walls, and yet her ballad singing was wonderfully sensitive. During her time at Atlantic Records (1953-62), she cut half a dozen singles that rose to high positions on both the pop and R&B charts, including 'Tweedle Dee' and 'Jim Dandy.' Here are two of her best albums from the vaults of that label: ‘Blues Ballads’ and ‘See See Rider’, released in 1959 and 1963, respectively. The tracks are not presented in the original sequence, but the ones dating from 1963 are easily identifiable as they are in stereo and tend to feature prominent bass guitar, then something of a novelty. While the former is not all blues or ballads, there are some great sides here, all sung with the intensity and energy that made Baker's material so memorable, like 'I Cried a Tear', a major hit for her late in 1958. It also includes a solid version of the Edith Piaf hit 'If You Love Me' plus 'Love Me Right', 'I Waited Too Long', 'Humpty Dumpty Heart', 'St. Louis Blues' and others. "Rider" has a more pop oriented feel with strings on many cuts. Besides the hit 'See See Rider', it includes 'He's a Real Gone Guy', 'You Said', 'Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes' and more. LaVern fans will enjoy this, since it contains so many fine recordings that aren't available anywhere else. http://www.oldies.com/

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LaVern Baker performing 'Love Me Right in the Morning' (1957):

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Marie Laforêt: L'Intégrale Festival (1960-1970)

Popular throughout the '60s and '70s, Marie Laforêt is a French pop singer who garnered fame initially as a film actress during the early to mid-'60s. Born Maïténa Doumenach to parents of Armenian heritage on October 5, 1939, in Soulac-sur-Mer, Aquitaine, France, she made her film debut in 1960 in the René Clément drama Plein Soleil, a big-screen adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. Plein Soleil not only launched the acting career of Laforêt; it also made a cinema star of actor Alain Delon. In the wake of her showbiz breakthrough, Laforêt was offered one role after another, notably beginning with Saint Tropez Blues (1961) and La Fille aux Yeux d'Or (1961). Her onscreen performance of the title song from the former film, 'Saint Tropez Blues,' essentially launched her singing career while La Fille aux Yeux d'Or, on the other hand, earned her the nickname the Girl with the Golden Eyes. In the mode of a folksinger, Laforêt's recording career took flight in 1963 in association with the label Disques Festival; among her more notable early recordings was a cover of Bob Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind.' She made her full-length album debut in 1964 with a self-titled album comprised of her recording output to date. Successive self-titled full-length albums were released throughout the remainder of the '60s and were likewise comprised of previously released EP material. In the '70s Laforêt more or less abandoned acting and focused instead on a series of recordings released in association with the Polydor label. She returned to the cinema in the '80s and left music behind. This outstanding compilation of Laforêt's complete Festival '60s recordings has plenty of variety in the songs and is equally brilliant at up-tempo cuts and tender ballads. There are covers of international songs here translated into French, such as 'Viens Sur La Montagne' ('Tell It on the Mountain'), 'Marie Douceuer, Marie Colere' ('Paint It Black'), 'Qué Calor la Vida' ('Red Balloon'), 'La Flute Magique' ('El Condon Pasa') and 'Qu'est-Ce Qui Fait Pleurer les Filles' ('What Makes Little Girls Cry'). Marie sings all those songs superbly, but the real appeal of this collection lies in the many delightful original French songs including 'Les Vendagnes de l'Amour', 'Katy Cruelle', 'Mon Amour Mon Ami', 'Qu'y a-t-il de Change', 'La Bague Au Dogit', 'Manchester et Liverpool', 'Julie Crevecouer', 'Les Noces De Campagne' and many others. http://www.allmusic.com/, http://www.amazon.co.uk/

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Marie Laforet singing 'Mon Amour, Mon Amie', 1967:

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Manchester et Liverpool (1967):

Rhetta Hughes: Re-light My Fire (1969)

A decent, if derivative, soul vocalist, Chicagoan Rhetta Hughes seemed about ready to move into the spotlight in 1969, when her remake of the Doors' ‘Light My Fire’ made the R&B Top 40. Later, in 1983, she would have a hit on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart with ‘Angel Man (G.A.)’. But she never sustained any momentum, and Hughes was soon on the supper club circuit. She starred in the Broadway musicals Dreamgirls, Don't Play Us Cheap, and Amen Corner, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award in the category Best Actress in a Musical in 1984. She appeared in the films Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, The Wiz (as a member of the choir), as well as the film version of Don't Play Us Cheap. She was also seen in the TV version of the musical Purlie, and appeared in an episode of Law & Order. This 1969 album, with arrangements by Mike Terry and lots of tasty original tracks written by Jo Armstead, includes that Rhetta’s funky cover of ‘Light My Fire’, but there are lots of other nice ones, like ‘You're Doing It With Her’, ‘Gimme Some Of Yours (I’ll Give You Some Of Mine)’, ‘Giving Up My Heartaches’, ‘Sooky’, ‘I Can’t Stand Under This Pressure’, and ‘Cry Myself To Sleep’. Hard to find, too! .~ http://www.dustygroove.com/, http://www.answers.com/

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Bobbie Gentry: Ode to Billie Joe (1967) / Touch 'em With Love (1969)

Bobbie Gentry's eerily beautiful, ornate, and almost gothic approach to country music means there's never really been another artist quite like her, and this disc, which pairs 1967's Ode to Billie Joe, her debut album, with 1969's more pop and polished Touch 'Em with Love, offers plenty of that uniqueness. The opener, 'Mississippi Delta,' is raw, energetic, and raggedly funky. 'I Saw an Angel Die' is an effective mating of Gentry's country-blues guitar riffs and low-key orchestration, while 'Papa, Won't You Let Me Go to Town with You' is so desperately bright that it's easy to overlook the fact that Gentry, who is a wonderful songwriter, has painted an amazingly detailed portrait of a young girl's hopes and dreams. Then there's the creepy, eerie, and absolutely fascinating 'Bugs' and, last but not least, 'Ode To Billie Joe,' a storytelling tune about a secret love affair whose doom is related over a Sunday dinner. The song’s enigmatic question - what was it that Billie Joe and his lady friend threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge? - was the topic of conversation in supermarkets and over dinner. It even became the subject of church sermons. The tune itself was irresistible, a four minute audio book with an unforgettable acoustic guitar hook, bass, and occasional strings swooping into and out of the mix. Released in the summer of 1967, it almost immediately shot to #1 on the strength of sales and radio play. Touch 'Em With Love is Bobbie Gentry's finest studio effort, a fascinatingly eclectic and genuinely affecting record that broadened her musical horizons far beyond the limitations of the Nashville sound. Gentry's husky, sensual delivery proves as ideally suited for the Southern-fried funk of the opening title track as it does for the bluegrass-flavored 'Natural to Be Gone,' deftly moving from genre to genre to encompass everything from faux-gospel ('Glory Hallelujah, How They'll Sing') to lushly orchestrated pop ('I Wouldn't Be Surprised'). Even more eye-opening is that Gentry's originals stand tall alongside material from composers including Burt Bacharach ('I'll Never Fall in Love Again,' which earned her a chart-topping single in the U.K.) and Jimmy Webb ('Where's the Playground, Johnny') — her folky 'Seasons Come, Seasons Go,' an acute tale of lost love, offers Touch 'Em With Love's most profoundly beautiful moment. I have added as bonus tracks EIGHT duets with Glen Campbell from the lone album the two did together. http://www.answers.com/
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Bobbie Gentry's live performance of her classic 'Ode to Billie Joe', from the Smothers Brothers show:

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