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Wednesday 21 December 2022

Gwen McCrae - A Profile


Gwen McCrae (nee Mosley) was born on 21 Dec 1943 in Penscola, FL, and is 79 today. 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. 
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]
1969/06 - *Three Hearts In A Tangle / *One Of These Days [Alston #4576]

Gwen McCrae
Columbia
1970/08 - Lead Me On / Like Yesterday Our Love Is Gone [Columbia #4-45214]
1971/01 - Lay It On Me / Been So Long [Columbia #4-45320]
1972-03 - He's Not You / You Were Always On My Mind [Columbia #4-45578]

Glades

Cat
1974/04 - It's Worth The Hurt / 90% Of Me Is You [Cat #1992]
1975/03 - Rockin' Chair / It Keeps On Raining [Cat #1996]
1976-02 - Cradle Of Love / *Easy Rock [Cat #2000]

George And Gwen McCrae

Gwen McCrae
1976-12 - Damn Right It's Good / Love Without Sex [Cat #2005]
1979 - Melody Of Life / The Joy [Cat #2014]

Atlantic
1981/08 - Funky Sensation / *Have A Good Time [Atlantic #3853]
1981/12 - Poyson / *All My Love [Atlantic #3881]
1982 - I Need To Be With You / Hey World [Atlantic #7-89961]
1982/12 - Keep The Fire Burning / Hang In [Atlantic #7-89910]
1982 - Doin' It / Hey World [Atlantic (UK only) #A 9901]

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]


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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