Millie Jackson: Between the Sheets (1999)

Millie Jackson is much more than an entertainment legend. The shapely, charismatic and multi-talented soul diva is without a doubt, a music industry icon whose often criticized career paved the way for many of today's forward female recording artists. Jackson vocal performances are distinguished by her bold sexual content and her honest, often saucy spoken interludes; Between the Sheets however bucks that popular image by compiling 16 tracks of Jackson's more straightforward R&B material. The compilation concentrates on her late-'70s and early-'80s material, balancing hits with lesser-known singles and album tracks. Smooth jams, glossy production, and quiet storm dynamics are the order of the day here, and Jackson's performances hold up surprisingly well without the provocative histrionics, thanks in large part to her beautifully textured, soulful voice. Those seeking a more thorough representation of Jackson's output might want to try some of her studio albums, or Rhino's Totally Unrestricted! anthology, but Between the Sheets is one of the finest Millie Jackson collections ever assembled, largely because it avoids the kitsch of her salacious soul and finds her playing it straight, more or less. Overall, this set offers proof that Millie Jackson is a fine soul singer who doesn't need her bawdy schtick to make an impression and, as such, it's of interest not only to fans, but to doubting Thomases as well. Highlights include 'I Feel Like Walking In The Rain,' 'Loving Arms,' 'All the Way Lover,' 'It Hurts So Good,' 'A Love of Your Own,' 'Special Occasion,' 'If You're Not Back in Love By Monday,' and 'Summer, the First Time.' http://www.cduniverse.com/, http://www.allmusic.com/, http://www.weirdwreckuds.com/

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Millie Jackson singing 'If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right.)' Live footage from 1984:

MEGA POST: Irma Thomas - Chronological (1960 - 2006)

The unrivaled Soul Queen of New Orleans Irma Thomas ranks among Crescent City R&B's greatest and most enduring musical ambassadors, never enjoying the coast-to-coast commercial success of contemporaries like Aretha Franklin and Etta James but nevertheless breathing the same rarified air in the minds of many soul music aficionados. Born Irma Lee in Ponchatoula, LA, on February 18, 1941, she was discovered in 1958 by band leader Tommy Ridgley. Her early records were popular locally, but an R&B hit came in 1960 with '(You Can Have My Husband But Please) Don’t Mess With My Man'. The following year Thomas rejoined producer/writer Allen Toussaint, with whom she had worked on her first recordings. This reunion resulted in two of Irma’s finest singles, 'It’s Raining' and 'Ruler of My Heart' (1962), the latter a prototype for Otis Redding’s 'Pain In My Heart'. After signing with the Imperial Records label in 1963 Thomas recorded 'Wish Someone Would Care' (her biggest national hit, reaching the US Top 20), with its famous flip side, the dynamic 'Break-a-way', while the follow-up 'Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)' also entered the national chart. This single is better recalled for its b-side, 'Time Is on My Side', which was successfully covered by the Rolling Stones. Thomas continued to record excellent singles without achieving due commercial success. Her final hit was a magnificent interpretation of 'Good to Me' (1968), recorded at Muscle Shoals and issued on Chess Records. She then moved to Canyon, Roker and Cotillion, before appearing on Swamp Dogg’s short-lived Fungus label with 'In Between Tears' (1973). Thomas continued to record fine albums for the Rounder Records label throughout the '80s and '90s and she remains a highly popular live attraction. Her career has continued into the new millennium with regular studio albums. After the Rain, released in 2006, was nominated for a Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy, and Simply Grand (2008) featured Thomas in an acoustic setting accompanied by a host of piano players, including Dr. John, Ellis Marsalis, Randy Newman, and others. Here's an gargantuan collection of 256 songs, kindly provided by our dear friend Mike from Florida, spanning all five decades of Thomas' amazing work. It includes different mixes of some of Irma's most notable tracks, live performances and a lot of rarities. Enjoy!! http://www.allmusic.com/, http://www.oldies.com/
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Irma Thomas singing 'It's raining'. Awesome:

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Thomas performs 'I've Been Loving You Too Long' at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, 1989.

The Shirelles: Happy and in Love (1971)

The Shirelles were one of the first, and among the best, of the female vocal groups of the rock era. Smoothly blending pop, soul and rock influence, their sweet harmonies led to a great deal of chart success. They had plenty of hits during the first part of the '60s, including the classics 'Soldier Boy', 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' and 'Mama Said' but, despite the admiration of British Invasion groups like the Beatles and Manfred Mann, the foreign fad had claimed the Shirelles' thunder by the end of the decade. The group scraped the lower reaches of the charts a few more times, making their last appearance, ironically, with 1967's 'Last Minute Miracle.' Doris Kenner left the following year to concentrate on raising her family, and the remaining Shirelles, Shirley Owens Alston Reeves, Addie "Micki" Harris McPherson, and Beverley Lee, continued as a trio, cutting singles for Bell, United Artists, and RCA through 1973. They released a couple of albums for the latter label, the first of which gives its title to this post. Happy and in Love, from 1971, is a rare LP, which features a decent, if not superlative, collection of songs with a warm Motown-esque feeling, including 'No Sugar Tonight', 'Take Me', 'Go Away and Find Yourself', the outstanding 'Strange, I Still Love You', a version of the Royalettes' 'It's Gonna Take a Miracle', plus a re-recording of their big hit 'Dedicated to The One I Love', among others. It has never been reissued on cd as far as I know, so I am sure you will appreciate it! ;-) For the classic days of the girls, go here.

Janice Barnett: Janice (1975)

Nicknamed the Queen of Beach Music, Janice Barnett is a former beauty queen, center fold in Jet Magazine, who has been entertaining for decades many audiences across the USA with her astounding vocal abilities, similar to those of Gladys Knight. In 1971, Janice became the opening act for Tina Turner who, after seeing her perform, sent for Janice to come to her dressing room where she offered her a job to become one of the Ikettes. Janice father Linton said "No Way!"; so she took a record deal instead with Fantasy Records out of New York City opening for Kool and The Gang. She eventually moved to Los Angeles, California, where she met Richard Pryor. Richard heard her and immediately she became his protege'. He introduced her to Joe Hubbard at Maverick Flats, which later spinned off into Soul Train. They sent her to Tokyo, Japan and Geneva, Switzerland to develop her act. After returning to the United States, Joe took Janice to meet Harvey Fuqua, the well-known music producer of Motown Records. He produced an album for her on Fantasy Records, which has become a treasured collector's item among beach music fanatics. Her tunes are also featured on some of the best of collector's sets, including the ever so popular 'I Told You So' on Ripete Records Beach Beat Volume IV. The album, simply titled Janice, was recorded in 1975 and has got a sound which is almost in a Salsoul mode at times - not totally disco, but with some uptempo elements - mixed in with some warmer harmonies provided by Janice and her group, of the sort you might find on records by Double Exposure, although with the obvious female difference. The musicians playing with Barnett are Reggie Sadler: lead guitar & baritone background; Freddie Morrison: bass, second tenor; Norman Ferrington: drums & percussion & William Acosta. Other titles include 'Goody Two-Shoes', 'I Should Have Left You', 'Love on the Line', 'If I Had Known', 'Take Me Away' and 'Wake Up Smiling'. http://janicebarnett.net/, http://www.dustygroove.com/

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VA: All the Ladies Need Funk - All Girl Funk and Soul Riot (2002)

With no liners or other info of any kind, the purveyors of this collection presumably prefer the music to speak for itself and it does that very well indeed. Any would-be funkster needs to have this on their shelf. Twenty funky soul 45s by largely unknown female artists clearly from the late '60s and early '70s (the most recognizable are Jean Wells, Thelma Jones, Ruby Andrews, Pauline Chivers and Kim Tolliver). These sassy ladies strut their stuff across 54 minutes during which they alternately praise or diss their men. Although dubbed from vinyl, the sound quality is very good throughout. And if none of these numbers hit on the JB 'one', they do all groove with a vengeance! You know what you're in for with tracks like The Genies' 'Know What to Do When You Get It', Martha Turner's 'Dirty Old Man', Kim Tolliver's 'Cop My Stuff' and Gloria Taylor's 'Born a Woman'. Other grooviliceous confections include Rene Faye & The Teddy Bear Company's slinky 'Thank You Baby' and Jenny's Daughters 'Dirty Feet' (as in fishing in more than one pond or any number of other soul metaphors for cheating on your partner) and Thelma Jones's 'Mr. Fix It', guaranteed to make you ride your pony! http://www.shindig-magazine.com/ Here's the complete track list:

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01 Yvonne Daniels - Super Soul Music
02 Drummettes - Funky Soul
03 Susan King - I Got a Good Thing
04 Ruby Andrews - Let's Get a Groove Goin' On
05 Martha Turner - Dirty Old Man
06 Rena Faye - Thank You Baby
07 Gloria Taylor - Born a Woman
08 Thelma Jones - Mr Fix It
09 Pauline Chivers - Tough Stuff
10 Kris Peterson - Mama's Little Baby
11 Miss Soul - Payback
12 Sarah Simpson - Never a Dull Moment
13 Katie Briggs - Green Power
14 Kim Tolliver - Cop My Stuff
15 Nancy - Trying to Keep From Crying
16 Franceola - Mighty Good Man
17 Jenny's Daughters - Dirty Feet
18 Jean Wells - Keep Doin' It
19 The Genies - Know What to Do When You Get It
20 Diane Johnson - Queen Bee

Honey & The Bees: Come Get It - The Complete Josie Recordings (1970-1971)

Honey & the Bees were a talented soul group out of Philadelphia, originally named the Yum Yums, and comprised of Nadine Felder White, Cassandra Ann Wooten, Jean Davis and Gwen Oliver. They changed their name to Honey & the Bees before signing with Arctic (the great soul imprint that was also home to the Soul Ambassadors). The quartet recorded around five sides with Arctic, including a few choice and expensive Northern soul pieces. In 1970, Honey & the Bees went over to Josie (best known as the home of the Meters' first three albums) and knocked out an LP for them plus another half dozen or so singles. With both labels the group had the backing of musicians that played on classic ‘70s Gamble-Huff productions. These included Leon Huff himself on piano, and Ron Baker, Earl Young, Bobby Eli, and Norman Harris in the rhythm section; Harris and Thom Bell were among those who contributed to the songwriting. As such, though the Supremes are an obvious point of comparison, they had far better production that the vast majority of girl group aspirants from the same era. Honey & the Bees spent years on the club circuit, opening for bigger soul acts in Philadelphia and throughout the East Coast before disbanding in 1973. Group member Gwen Oliver married Fred Wesley of the JB's, whom she met when Honey & the Bees opened for James Brown in 1971 (rumour has it that their headstrong, take-no-b.s. attitude eventually came into conflict with Brown's own strong-armed control over his players and he had Wesley remove the group off tour). This set compiles the material released by Honey & the Bees on Josie from 1970-1971. Most of the thirteen songs here are from their 1970 album Love, the remaining being releases in 1971. Titles include ‘Make Love to Me’, ‘Please Have Mercy Baby’, ‘Now That I Know’, ‘We Got to Stay Together’, and ‘Medley: It's Gonna Take a Miracle/Goin' Out of My Head/Hurt So Bad’ and ‘Help Me (Get Over My Used to be Lover)’. http://soul-sides.com/, http://www.allmusic.

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Barbara Mason: Yes, I'm Ready (1997)

Barbara Mason came from Philadelphia with a giant hit in the mid-'60s that outsold some of the records made by the Beatles at the height of their popularity. She was born in Philadelphia in 1947 and used to sing in impromptu talent shows as a child. They were held at a playground near where she lived. Barbara could sing well, and her reputation as a good singer began to grow around Philadelphia. Producer/talent scout Weldon Arthur McDougual caught her act and brought her to the studio. She started with a small local label called Charger, then moved on to the Arctic label in Philadelphia, which had a better shot at distributing her records. Jimmy Bishop founded and owned Arctic and was a disc jockey at a large Philadelphia radio station. Barbara wrote all of her own songs while with Arctic and recorded in a small back room there. One of those records, originally titled 'Are You Ready?', would propel her into stardom. Barbara had been a big fan of Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, who were making some good music in Chicago in the late '50s and early '60s. One song that Curtis had written and given to Major Lance, 'The Monkey Time', had particularly impressed her and became her inspiration for her own tune, which was re-titled 'Yes, I'm Ready'. In the Spring of 1965 it was recorded by Barbara in the back room at Arctic in two takes, and the next day Jimmy Bishop began to play it on his radio show. More and more requests came in, and other DJ's that Jimmy knew picked up on the song. Before too long, it reached the top forty and stayed there for ten weeks, peaking at the number five position. With her voice sounding young and innocent in its thinness and flatness, Barbara Mason became an international recording sensation before she was out of her teens. After that, she still cut some excellent follow-ups on Arctic, like 'Sad, Sad Girl' (R&B number 12/pop Top 30, 1965), 'I Need Love' (R&B number 25, 1966) and 'Oh, How It Hurts' (R&B number 11, 1968). This compilation of 27 songs gathers these early sides for the label; it's not complete, but the rest of her Arctic stuff appears on Oh How It Hurts, also on Bear Family, posted here half a year ago. With both volumes you should have everything she recorded at Arctic. She cut as many remakes and originals, some were standards, which suggests Arctic had hopes of crossing her over to the pop market, which never happened to any significant degree. The remakes run the gamut from Archie Bell's 'Tighten Up' to the Supremes' 'Come See About Me', a perfectly suited vehicle for Mason's innocent, sweet, aching voice. Other highlights include 'Come to Me', 'Keep Him', 'Trouble Child', 'Bobby Is My Baby', 'Change Me If You Can', 'Hello Baby', '(You Can) Depend on Me', 'Don't Ever Want to Lose Your Love', 'You Never Loved Me at All', and 'Half a Love'. http://www.answers.com/, http://www.tsimon.com/.

LaVern Baker: Saved (1961) ... plus

LaVern Baker was one of the sexiest divas gracing the mid-'50s rock & roll circuit, boasting a brashly seductive vocal delivery tailor-made for belting the catchy novelties 'Tweedlee Dee,' 'Bop-Ting-a-Ling,' and 'Tra La La' for Atlantic Records during rock's first wave of prominence. Born Delores Williams, she was singing at the Club DeLisa on Chicago's south side at age 17, decked out in raggedy attire and billed as "Little Miss Sharecropper". She changed her name briefly to Bea Baker when recording for Okeh in 1951 with Maurice King's Wolverines, then settled on the first name of LaVern when she joined Todd Rhodes' band as featured vocalist in 1952. LaVern signed with Atlantic as a solo in 1953, debuting with the incendiary 'Soul on Fire.' The coy, Latin-tempo 'Tweedlee Dee' was a smash in 1955 on both the R&B and pop charts, although her impact on the latter was blunted when squeaky-clean Georgia Gibbs covered it for Mercury. An infuriated Baker filed suit over the whitewashing, but she lost. By that time, though, her star had ascended: Baker's 'Bop-Ting-A-Ling,' 'Play It Fair,' 'Still,' and the rocking 'Jim Dandy' all vaulted into the R&B Top Ten over the next couple of years. Her Atlantic records remained popular throughout the decade: she hit big in 1958 with the ballad 'I Cried a Tear,' adopted a pseudo-sanctified bellow for the rousing Leiber & Stoller-penned gospel sendup 'Saved' in 1960, and cut two more albums before leaving Atlantic in 1964. I included here the first, also titled Saved, from 1961, which consisted basically on early-'60s jazz, pop-tinged soul and R&B material. There was an interesting crew of guest stars on these sessions, among them Phil Spector on guitar, Sticks Evans on bass drums, and Taft Jordan on trumpet. Baker had a hit with a single from some earlier sessions, 'You're the Boss', with Jimmy Ricks. I added this song as a bonus track, along with six more which where released on a 1997 cd reissue by Sequel Records, the only one existing of this album, as far as I know. All these songs where recorded between 1959 and 1962 and include 'Bumble Bee', 'Shake a Hand', 'Shadows of Love' and 'Hey Memphis'. http://www.allmusic.com/

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LaVern Baker performing 'Jim Dandy Got Married':

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Doris Allen: A Shell of a Woman - The Legendary Playground Sessions

Doris Allen is a powerhouse soul from singer who made a bit of a splash in the late ‘60s southern soul scene with duet partner Big John Hamilton, but whose own work from that time and a couple decades later have been under acknowledged in the digital era until now. The first half of this compilation features her wonderful late-‘60s work. Produced by Finley Duncan at Duncan's Playground Studios, it features a couple of the Hamilton duets, but it's Doris' show. She can both shout out soulfully to the heavens and reign it in for more delicate numbers, and the often gritty soul backing of drums, organ and horns are of the finest caliber. The second half of the set jumps to the mid-‘80s, and the cleaner, smoother sounds of that era. This later work was still produced by Duncan and Allen's voice as impeccable as earlier. Titles include ‘A Shell of a Woman’, ‘Kiss Yourself For Me’, ‘Let a Little Love In’, ‘Hanging Heavy In My Mind’, ‘A Place in My Heart’, ‘Them Changes’, ‘Bright Star’, ‘Candy from a Baby', ‘Treat Me Like a Woman’, ‘Full Time Fool’, ‘Night Time Is the Right Time’ and more, plus 9 previously unreleased tracks, including ‘Clean Up Woman’, ‘Birmingham Jail’, ‘Ashes Won't Burn’ and more. 23 tracks in all! http://www.dustygroove.com/

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Etta James: Come a Little Closer (1974) ... plus

Etta James was fighting serious substance-abuse problems when this album was recorded, commuting to the sessions from a rehab center. It was a triumph simply to complete the record at all. But although James' life may have been in rough shape outside of the studio, she delivered a fairly strong set that fused forceful '70s soul arrangements with some rock, jazz, and New Orleans R&B, making even more evident that she was one of the most versatile vocalists of her era.. Helmed by Gabriel Mekler, who'd produced Steppenwolf and Three Dog Night, the record features Etta James supported by a slew of hotshot L.A. session men, including Little Feat's Lowell George. The song selection ranges from ‘St. Louis Blues’ to Randy Newman's perverse ‘Let's Burn Down the Cornfield’ to the dramatic, melismatic ‘Feeling Uneasy,’ in which James improvised wordlessly over a suitably languorous, melancholy blues-jazz arrangement. The liner notes tell that she recorded this song while being sick with severe withdrawal symptoms. The result is simply harrowing and it counts, in fact, as one of the unsung highlights of her career. Other strong cuts here are the rousing ‘Sookie Sookie’, the upbeat ‘Gonna Have Some Fun Tonight’ and ‘Out on the Street Again,’ with its slightly sinister funk groove. This reissue adds a couple of interesting bonus tracks: the 1975 single ‘Lovin' Arms,’ a good rootsy ballad, and a single edit of one of the tracks from the album, ‘Out on the Street Again.’ http://www.allmusic.com/, http://www.amazon.com/, http://rateyourmusic.com/.