Katie Love & The Four Shades Of Black [1971] - It Hurts So Good [ Muscle Shoals Sound #100]

You may need to put this one on repeat as this is the outstanding original version of the Phillip Mitchell song (credited on this release as Leroy Mitchell) made famous by Millie Jackson two years after Katie Love & crew recorded it. 

Don't be deceived by the 'gentle' intro as Katie Love gets deeper as the song progresses, although her voice sounds quite young.

It was originally released on Muscle Shoals Sound and then got a national release on Specter.

It never ceases to amaze me the injustice of the music business, whilst Millie Jackson's version is good, Katie Love's to my ears is a better arrangement. Jackson's version featured in the blaxploitation movie Cleopatra Jones. 

The song did far better in the UK, albeit interpreted as a reggae version, by Susan Cadogen who had a #5 hit with it after Jackson's version in 1973. Jimmy Sommerville covered Cadogen's reggae version in 1996 and reached #15. Neither Millie Jackson's nor Katie Love's versions charted in UK but Jackson's got to #23 Hot 100 and #3 R&B in US.

There are, surpisingly, only a few other versions, but none of them are particulary good, so not worth posting.

Katie Love released only one further single: 'How Can You Mistreat The One You Love' /  'You Made Your Bed' (a George Soule & Terry Woodford song recorded a year earlier by Eddie Bradford on Quinvy/Chess) on Stax in 1973.