Marie Knight: The Story of Marie Knight

The recording career of Marie Knight spans an impressive fifty years; spells cutting gospel bool-endings a decade-plus in the service of R&B and soul music. Marie’s vocal talents were recognized early on. When she was five years old, Marie -who was born in Sanford, Florida, but raised in Newark, New Jersey- sang the gospel number 'Doing All the Good We Can' at her parents' church, where the congregants marveled at her poise. A member of the youth choir, she was soon elevated to soloist and taught herself to play piano. That joy soon became a professional calling for Marie, who by her early twenties had gained experience touring the national gospel circuit with evangelist Frances Robinson; she even recorded a few early sides with the quartet The Sunset Four. In 1946, she met Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the nationally famous gospel singer-guitarist, who recognized something special in Marie's compelling contralto and her elegant stage presence. The two became gospel's preeminent duo of the ‘40s, recording some hits for Decca Records. By the late ‘40s, Marie and Rosetta had split to pursue separate musical projects: Marie to do solo gospel work on Decca. In the '50s to mid-'60s , Marie cultivated a R&B career, touring with the likes of Brooke Benton, the Drifters, and Clyde McPhatter. This is the most comprehensive collection ever released of her fantastics sides of that era. There are some straight gospel and R&B-styled numbers, but Knight is at her best on the more elaborate early soul cuts, which sometimes have a adult pop, torch song bounce. ‘Come Tomorrow,’ covered by Manfred Mann in 1965, is an obvious highlight, and not that similar to the cover version, with a soaring string-laden production. ‘A Little Too Lonely’ sounds a lot like, and stands up very well to, the Bacharach-David songs recorded by Dionne Warwick at the beginning of her career. The dramatic ‘I Don't Want to Walk Alone’ has an absolutely commanding vocal performance the equal of (or better than) many a cult soul singer. A very interesting collection by an impressive, powerful singer deserving of wider recognition, recommended to soul collectors who think they've run out of things to discover. http://secure.swapacd.com/, http://www.marieknight.com/. Many thanks to Lohmax for passing me this!!

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Sister Marie Knight sings 'Up Above My Head (There Is Music in the Air)' on a recent live concert:

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A short clip of Marie Knight's story (contains rare footage capturing a young Marie in some of her classic performances):