Today it's the turn of
Gwen McCrae
(nee Mosley) to be in the spotlight as she is celebrating her 78th
birthday (21 Dec 1943). She was married to
George McCrae who she met in 1963 when he was in the navy and they married within a
week of meeting. They began singing together as a duo and were discovered
in 1967 by Betty Wright, who coincidentally shares the same birthday,
albeit Betty was born exactly ten years later in 1953, who helped secure a
record deal for them with Henry Stone's Alston label. They recorded three singles as a duo between 1966-70. There was an in depth feature on Betty Wright posted after her sudden and
unexpected death in May 2020 Discography and R.I.P. Betty Wright.
Aston leased Gwen's contract to Columbia where she released her first
solo single in 1970 which was a cover of Bobby Bland's "Lead Me On". After her next four singles on Columbia failed to chart (including the
first recording of the song made famous by Elvis "You Are Always On My Mind") Columbia declined to renew the contract so she moved back to T.K.
where her next single was on Glades and also released on T.K.'s Cat
label.
Gwen was scheduled to record the vocals for a song written by Harry Wayne
Casey and Richard Finch of K.C. & The Sunshine Band, as they couldn't
reach the high notes, but she was late for the session and husband George
stepped in with his falsetto vocals and recorded his debut solo single.
That song, "Rock Your Baby", went on to be a worldwide smash hit in July 1974 selling over ten
million copies. It is regarded as one of the earliest disco hits. Having
already released four singles on Cat, Gwen's next recording was an answer
song "Rocking Chair" which also did very well reaching #1 R&B and #9 Hot 100. They
recorded another song influenced by "Rock Your Baby" together in 1976 "I'll Do The Rockin'" which failed to make any impact on the charts. The couple divorced the same year, I wonder if it had anything to do with George 'stealing'
her song?
Neither of them surpassed this success, whilst seven of Gwen's twelve
records on Cat between 1973-79 made the R&B charts, she didn't achieve
another hot 100 hit. George did have another five hot 100 entries, the
highest being #37 with "I Get Lifted" which was the follow up to "Rock
Your Baby". I think it's fair to say that he was more successful in the UK
achieving seven UK Top 40 pop hits in 1975-76 and another two in the Top
100 in the 80s.
T.K. records went bankrupt in 1981 (the co-founder Henry Stone died in 2014 aged
93) and Gwen moved from Florida to New Jersey and signed to Atlantic in
1981. She hit with her first recording "Funky Sensation" followed by the UK club classic "Keep The Fire Burning" in 1983 penned by the great Willie Hutch. In 1984 she returned to
Florida and recorded a one-off single for Black Jack records which got
into the lower reaches on the R&B chart.
It wasn't until 1996 that she recorded again with two albums, one on
GoldWax and another for the UK market on Homegrown which gained a US
release on Ichiban in 1998. A few albums followed in 1999, a gospel
album in 2004, a live album recorded in Paris in 2005 and an album of
covers of TK hits in 2006.
Sadly, after performing on stage in the UK in June 2012, she suffered a
stroke in her hotel room resulting in paralysis to the left side of her
body which rendered her unable to walk.
Her daughter, Leah, continues the
McCrae legacy who is a solo artist and also a member of a group named
Daughters Of Soul which includes Nona Hendryx (LaBelle), Joyce
Kennedy (Mother's Finest), Deniece Williams, Caron Wheeler (Soul II Soul),
Lalah Hathaway (Donny Hathaway's daughter), Indira Khan (Chaka Khan's
daughter), Simone (Nina Simone's daughter).
As always, I've included a playlist of some of her best recordings from
what is available on Spotify and links to sound files for all her singles
(A & B sides) that I can find.
Albums
1974 - Gwen McCrae [Cat #1603]
1975 - Rockin' Chair [Cat #2605]
1975 - Together (with George McCrae) [Cat #2606]
1976 - Something So Right [Cat #2608]
1978 - Let's Straighten It Out [Cat #2613]
1979 - Melody of Life [Cat #2614]
1981 - Gwen McCrae [Atlantic #19308]
1982 - On My Way [Atlantic #80019]
1996 - Psychic Hot Line [Goldwax #4221]
1997 - Girlfriend's Boyfriend [Ichiban #1511]
1999 - Still Rock'in [Phat Sound #0199]
2004 - I'm Not Worried [Lewmar #7154]
2006 - Live in Paris at New Morning [Hi & Fly #HF000 12]
2006 - Sings TK [Henry Stone Music #6001]
2010 - Lay It On Me: The Columbia Years
Singles
NB Links on cat. no. to Discogs, on title to Spotify unless prefixed with
* then to YouTube
Alston
George & Gwen
1969 - *Stranded In This Broken Heart Of Mine
/ Like Yesterday Our Love Is Gone [Alston #4579]
Gwen McCrae
Columbia
1970/08 -
Lead Me On
/
Like Yesterday Our Love Is Gone
[Columbia #4-45214]
1971/09 -
Ain't Nothing You Can Do
/
Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad
[Columbia #4-45448]
1972-09 -
I'm Losing The Feeling
/
Leave The Driving To Us
[Columbia #4-45684]
Glades
1973 -
He Keeps Something Groovy Goin' On
/
Your Love Is Worse Than A Cold Love
[Glades #1708]
Cat
George And Gwen McCrae
1976/03 -
Winners Together Or Losers Apart
/
Homesick, Lovesick
[Cat #2002]
Gwen McCrae
1976-12 -
Damn Right It's Good
/
Love Without Sex
[Cat #2005]
1978 -
Starting All Over Again
/
At Bedtime
[Cat #2011]
1979 -
Melody Of Life
/
The Joy
[Cat #2014]
Atlantic
1981/08 -
Funky Sensation
/ *Have A Good Time
[Atlantic #3853]
1982 -
I Need To Be With You
/
Hey World
[Atlantic #7-89961]
1982/12 -
Keep The Fire Burning
/
Hang In
[Atlantic #7-89910]
Black Jack
1984 -
Do You Know What I Mean
/ Do You Know What I Mean (Dub Version [Black Jack #BJ0021]
1988 - *Eighties Lady
/ *Generate Love
[The Danceyard Recording Corporation #YARD T1]
1995 -
Girlfriend's Boyfriend
/
Funky Sensation (Remix)
[Ichiban #98 486]
1996 - *Loving Peter To Pay Back Paul
(Album Mix) / Pyschic Hot Line [Goldwax (Iciban) #96-370]
The Gwen McCrae soundclip is quite lo-fi but there is another version of
the song by Carol Smith
She did release more singles in the 90s/00s and became known as 'The
Queen of Rare Groove' in the UK, but many of them were house/garage
remixes of her hits which are probably of no interest to soulies, so I've
not included them.
Gwen McCrae & The Blue Daze Tour Band on WSRE Pensicola, FL
There are several more live performances on Woodsong Enterprises YouTube channel
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%20%5BSelf%20Released%5D.webp)
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