Faye Adams: Shake a Hand - 30 of Her Greatest Hits (2007)

Called by Alan Freed "the little gal with the big voice", R&B pioneer Faye Adams brought a fiery gospel passion and an instinctive toughness to the songs she sang in the ‘50s, paving the way for the great soul singers of the following decade. She was discovered by singer Ruth Brown, who won her an audition with bandleader Joe Morris of Atlantic Records. Changing her name to Faye Adams, Morris recruited her as a singer in 1952, and signed her to Herald Records. Her first release was Morris' ‘Shake a Hand’, (B-side ‘I've Gotta Leave You’), which topped the R&B charts for ten weeks in 1953 and also made # 22 on the pop charts. The song was later covered by many others including Little Richard, LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, and Jackie Wilson. In 1954, Faye had two more R&B chart toppers with ‘I'll Be True’ and ‘Hurts Me to My Heart’. During this period, she left the Morris band and was billed as "Atomic Adams", a tribute to her showmanship on stage. In 1955 she appeared in the movie Rhythm & Blues Revue and in 1957 moved to Imperial Records, but althought she had a minor R&B chart hit with ‘Keeper of My Heart’, her commercial success diminished. By the late 1950s she was seen as an older recording artist whose time had come and gone and, although she continued to record for various smaller labels until the early ‘60s, by 1963 she had retired from the popular music scene. She returned to her gospel roots and family life in New Jersey, and was reportedly unwilling to discuss her classic secular R&B recordings. Faye was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1998. This 30 song anthology collects her earliest recordings with Joe Morris and his orchestra, including 1952's sarcastic and sassy ‘That's What Makes My Baby Fat’ (which was recorded for Atlantic Records when Adams was being billed as Fay Scruggs) and all of her hits for Herald and Imperial. http://en.wikipedia.org/, http://secure.swapacd.com/, http://www.billboard.com/

Faye Adams' performance of 'Everyday', taken from Rhythm & Blues Revue, 1955: