Joann Garrett: Just a Taste (1969) ... plus

As a 15-year-old student at Chicago's DuSable High School, Joanne Garrett (aka Joann Garrett and Jo Ann Garth) won a recording contract with Chess Records for finishing first in a Regal Theater talent show, no small feat considering Chicago's vast talent pool. The deal produced 'Stand By My Side,' a huge local hit, in 1966. She followed with Dee Clark's 'You Can't Come In' (March 1967) and a remake of the Heartbeats' 'Thousand Miles Away' (1968), with the Dells (uncredited) providing backing vocals on the A-sides. Garrett left Chess in 1968 to record for Duo Records. With Andre Williams producing, she cut 'That Little Brown Letter' backed with 'I've Gotta Be Loved' in 1968; later in 1968 she cut 'I'm a Now Girl (Do It Now)' b/w 'One Woman,' arguably her most popular recording, and and another two singles. In the meantime, Chess emptied their vaults and released 'It's No Secret' and 'Unforgettable' b/w 'We Can Learn Together', which came from her album Just a Taste, released a year before, in 1969. In 1970 she also recorded 'Goin' Man Huntin'', for the short-lived Twinight label. Despite her age, Chi-town producers recorded Garrett in a Dinah Washington-esque vein, but that changed on her sole release for Don Robey's Duke/Peacock setup in Houston, TX, where she waxed Barbara Hammonds' 'I'm Under Your Control' b/w 'Sting Me Baby', in 1973. A final single, 'Don't Abuse Your Faithful Love' b/w 'Charlie Boy (We Got to Love One Another),' credited as The Rock with Joanne Garrett, appeared on Scorpio Records; it flopped, and sadly, after a good start, Garrett rarely saw the inside of a recording studio again. Her tunes became popular Northern soul items. On Just a Taste (1969) Chess omitted Garrett's first three singles but added two excellent replacements: Aretha Franklin's 'Ain't No Way' and Dionne Warwick's 'Walk on By.' Garrett's pretty soprano soars on the Heartbeats' 'Thousand Miles Away' and is spunky on 'Soul Town.' Local hits 'It's No Secret,' 'Depend on Me,' and 'Unforgettable' are tasteful Chicago soul. I included here the three singles Garrett released on Chess between 1966 and 1967, as well as others she recorded for different labels througout her career, EIGHT bonus tracks in all (two of them are just low quality samples, I'm afraid). http://www.allmusic.com/

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