Esther Phillips (Esther Mae Jones) (23 Dec. 1935 - 7 Aug. 1984) would have
celebrated her 87th birthday today. 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]
Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment