Dorothy Moore: Misty Blue (1976) ...plus

Dorothy Moore was one of the last great Southern Soul singers to find success in the late ‘70s, when disco and funk were making deep soul an increasingly marginalized form limited to the south. She began her career at Jackson State University where she formed an all-female group called the Poppies with Petsye McCune and Rosemary Taylor. The group recorded for Columbia Records' Date subsidiary, reaching number 56 in the pop charts in 1966 with ‘Lullaby of Love’. Abortive solo singles for the Avco, GSF and Chimneyville labels followed, before her career took off with a series of remarkable ballads for Malaco Records. ‘Misty Blue’ was a number two R&B and number three pop single and a sizzling piece of heartache soul, while ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ wasn't as definitive a soul recasting of Willie Nelson's composition as Joe Hinton's version, but it did better on the charts, reaching number seven R&B. Moore's recordings in the next few years were not nearly as successful as she succumbed increasingly to the disco trend. She left the business for several years, but in 1986 recorded the fine gospel set, ‘Giving It Straight to You’, in Nashville for the Rejoice label. It yielded a masterful remake of Brother Joe May's ‘What Is This’ that became a Top 10 gospel hit. Moore returned to secular music in 1988, recording, in a deep soul style, two albums for the Volt subsidiary of Fantasy Records. In 1990 she returned to her original label, Malaco, for whom she recorded several high class albums during the ensuing decade and into the new millenium. Here is her third album for Malaco 'Misty Blue', from 1976, containing the title track hit, plus three of her late-'70s singles 'I Believe In You' (1977, U.S. #27, R&B #5, UK #20), 'With Pen in Hand' (1978, R&B #12) and 'Special Occasion' (1978, R&B #30), as bonus tracks. http://www.answers.com/, http://www.oldies.com/

Dorothy Moore performing her classic 'Misty Blue':