Esther Phillips
(Esther Mae Jones) (23 Dec. 1935 - 7 Aug. 1984) would have celebrated her 86th birthday yesterday
(23 Dec 2021). She won a talent show in 1949 aged 14 in a club in Watts, L.A. owned by
Johnny Otis (father of Shuggie Otis who wrote and recorded Strawberry Letter 23 which was a later hot for Brothers Johnson) which resulted in her recording her first single with the Johnny Otis Quintette With The
Robins And Little Esther "Double Crossing Blues" in 1950 which got to #1 on R&B chart. She died at a relatively young age of 48 in 1984 due to liver and kidney failure resulting from long-term drug use.
She has recorded far too much material to go into an in depth discography
(around 100 singles and 20 albums), and let's be honest, most of us aren't
interested in much before 1964! So instead, I've cherry picked 50 of her
best recordings, singles and album tracks, from 1964 onwards into a
playlist. At least half a dozen or so of these (bold below) have been played on rare soul dancefloors in the UK, some since the 70s.
I've tagged seven tracks from a 2020 compilation by David Nathan's Soul
Music label which is a very comprehensive 5 CD box set compilation of her output from
1962-70 (Brand New Day (The Lenox/Atlantic & Roulette Recordings 1962-1970) covering most, if not all, of her recordings from those labels. Our man Roger 'Soulsorts' Williams did the artwork.
Playlist of selected tracks
1964 - Mo Jo Hannah [Atlantic #45-2229]
1970 - Don't Let Me Lose This Dream (Live) (Burnin' (Live At Freddie
Jett's Pied Piper, L.A.) LP) [Atlantic #SD 1565]
1975 - Mister Magic (What A Diff'rence A Day Makes LP) [Kud #KU-23]
1977 - In A Soft And Subtle Way (You've Come A Long Way, Baby LP)
[Mercury #SRM-1-1187]
1978 - You Think Of Him (You Think Of Her) (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]
1978 - Ms. (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]
1979 - Bedtime Stories [Mercury (UK) #6167 822]
1979 - Mr. Melody [Mercury #74077]
1981 - Crazy [Mercury #76103]
1979 - I Hope You'll Be Very Unhappy Without Me (Here's Esther...Are You
Ready) [Mercury #SRM-1-3769]
1979 - Philadelphia Freedom (Here's Esther...Are You Ready) [Mercury #SRM-1-3769]
1979 - Love Makes A Woman (Here's Esther...Are You Ready) [Mercury #SRM-1-3769]
1981 - Changin' (Good Black Is Hard To Crack LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-4005]
Additional earlier tracks to round up to 50
2020 - Watch Dog (Previously Unreleased Atlantic 1966/67) (Brand New Day (The
Lenox/Atlantic & Roulette Recordings 1962-1970)) [SoulMusic #QSMCR-5194BX]
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