Tina Britt: Blue All the Way ...plus (1965-69)

Tina Britt is an obscure R&B singer with a rather peculiar vibrato voice, of whom very little is known, even when she had two memorable Top 40 R&B hits. Apparently, she was one of Sue Records founder Henry "Juggy Murray" Jones's favourite artists and, listening to this great selection of tracks, it is easy to understand why. Blue All The Way is her 1969 album for Minit records, which is bolstered here by 8 bonus tracks, three of them previously unreleased: ‘It's My Thing’, an answer to the Isley Bros., ‘He Put the Hurt on Me’, the finest of her three Otis Redding covers and a cool version of ‘Doctor Feel Good’. It also includes her biggest hit, the standout single penned by Ashford & Simpson and Jo Armstead ‘The Real Thing’, which climbed sure-footedly to #20 on Billboard's R&B chart. The song, like most of her early work, apes Motown arrangements and production and sounds like a thinly disguised knock-off of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas' ‘Heatwave’. It was also recorded in 1965 by The Chiffons, British singer Kim D. and Betty Everett (who made the original version); but Tina’s rendition adds a lot more pep and dancefloor groove than those. Most of the twelve tracks on the original Blue All The Way album are covers, featuring the blues of Jimmy Reed (‘Bright Lights Big City’) and Big Bill Broonzy (‘Key to the Highway’), Memphis Soul from Otis Redding (‘My Lover's Prayer’) and Don Covay (‘Sookie Sookie’), jazz from Billie Holiday (‘God Bless The Child’) and the current rock hit, Credence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Born on a Bayou’. Under the guidance of Juggy Murray, Tina takes all these classics and beats the hell out of them. Listen how Juggy captures the sound of the Memphis brass on ‘Sookie Sookie’ and delivers a huge slab of punchy funky Northern Soul! The album might have been too much of a mixture to be a commercial success, but the world has been a poorer place without any further Tina Britt recordings. Look out for the unusual album cover of Tina seated on a chair: that must have been quite futuristic in 1969! http://designermagazine.tripod.com/, http://www.rootsandrhythm.com/

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