Sharan McMahan may not be a name familiar to many other
than die hard rare soul followers. She is possibly best known to them
for her 1973 Columbia single "Get Out Of My Life" which was a modern soul spin and reissued by Expansion in 2011. However, prior to that she released
two singles for Ollie McLaughlin's Karen label.
A side from each of them has been reissued together on the latest 7"
release by Mark Bicknell's Big Man Records. The A side is her 1966
single "Got To Find Another Guy" which was originally flipped with a version of Barbara Lewis'
"Hello Stranger 66". The B side being her earlier 1964 single "Love Is Wonderful". She wrote both songs.
Sharon began writing songs from the age of 12 and auditioned for
Ollie McLaughlin who, as well as Karen, owned a number of Detroit
labels in the 60s and early 70s, Ruth named after his wife and Karen,
Carla and Moira named after his daughters.
Only three singles are listed for the Ruth label released between
1959-62 and the last consisted of two songs written by McMahon
recorded by Gracie Darnell which I believe may have been her
first recorded song.
Other McMahon songs have been recorded by Barbara Lewis, Deon
Jackson, Johnnie Mae Matthews and even a song posted in The Three
Degrees playlist last week, "You're The Fool", which was on their 1970 Roulette album and the B side of the
single "I'd Take You" and was also recorded by Etta James and Mavis
Staples the same year and Madeline Bell in 1971.
Popular Mersey Beat group, The Searchers, had a UK #11 pop hit with
one of her songs "Someday We're Gonna Love Again" in 1966, also recorded, and was a big Northern Soul tune, by Barbara Lewis.
The song recorded by Johnnie Mae Matthews is a rare record, "I Have No Choice", that is huge on the UK rare soul scene (reissued by Hit And Run in 2020). I was also later recorded
on an album "Talking To The People" by Matthew's son's band Black
Nasty in 1973. An unreleased recording of the song turned up which was
thought to be at the time her daughter Audrey Matthews. A 1967 demo version recorded by Sharon McMahan has subsequently
been released on 7" by Hayley Records around 2015/16. Audrey claims that it is not her singing, rather Sharon, and Sharon also claims it is not her on the first version, and both version are different so it's still a mystery who recored the one attributed to Audrey. You can listen to all four versions HERE.
In the 70s one of her songs, 'Love Is The Key", was recorded by Benny Golson on his "I'm Always Dancin' To The Music", and Norhern Soul followers may be interested to know that one Jodi Mathis was the female vocalist on this track under the name Mortonette Jenkins (she also went by Mortonette Stephens). We did an article about Ms Mathis HERE.
More recently McMahon had a song, "Do Over", included on a Preston Glass CD "Soul In The Rear View Mirror" in 2014
The single is available now from out friends at Simply Soul with picture sleeve.
| Rating: | 8 |
| Explicit: | N |
| Genre/Style: | Northern Soul / 60s Soul |
| Format: | Single / Reissue |
| Media: | 7" Vinyl |
| Label: | Big Man Records |
| Cat No: | BMR 1011 |
| Date: | 12/2022 |
| Key/BPM: | N/A |
| Price: | £20 |
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