Candi Staton: Candi (1974)

Candi Staton may not have been as acclaimed as others, but for a time, she was one of the best and most consistent singers of Southern Soul and R&B. Candi sang with the Jewell Gospel Trio as a teenager, touring the traditional gospel circuit in the 1950s with the Soul Stirrers, C.L. Franklin, and Mahalia Jackson. They recorded several sides for Nashboro, Apollo, and Savoy Records between 1953 and 1963. In 1968 Staton launched solo career as a Southern soul stylist, garnering 16 R&B hits for Rick Hall's legendary Fame Studios and gaining the title of First Lady of Southern Soul for her Grammy-nominated R&B renditions of the country tunes ‘Stand by Your Man’ and ‘In the Ghetto.’ What we have here today is a rare 1992 Japanese reissue or her first LP for Warner Bros. Records, ‘Candi’, originally released in 1974, short after she left Fame. This album gave Ms. Staton a top ten R&B hit (#6) with ‘As Long As He Take Care of Home’ and it included fine songs that were recorded at Muscle Shoals in Alabama. However, it was not a huge success and Candi decided to change producers, because she felt that it would be best to move with someone who was producing more in the disco/urban soul area. With that in mind, in 1975 Staton began collaborating with producer Dave Crawford, who propelled her into a disco diva with dance songs such as ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ and ‘Victim.’ Later, in the ‘80s and ‘90s, she would garner considerable acclaim as a gospel star, but her tenure in the early '70s as an R&B belter was arguably her finest period, of which this album is a good example. Again, Candi is one of my favourite soul singers.