Esther Phillips - A Profile

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]

1964 - Some Things You Never Get Used To [Atlantic #45-2265]

1965 - Just Say Goodbye [Atlantic #45-2324]

1965 - And I Love Him [Atlantic #45-2281]

1966 - Fever [Atlantic #45-2370]

1969 - Nobody But You [Roulette #R-7059]

1970 - Don't Let Me Lose This Dream (Live) (Burnin' (Live At Freddie Jett's Pied Piper, L.A.) LP) [Atlantic #SD 1565]

1971 - Catch Me I'm Falling [Atlantic#45-2783]

1971 - Sweet Touch Of Love (From A Whisper To A Scream) [Kudu #KU 05]

1972 - Home Is Where The Hatred Is [Kudu #KU-904]

1972 - Baby, I'm For Real [Kudu #KU-906]

1972 - I've Never Found A Man (To Love Me Like You Do) [Kudu #KU 910]

1972 - I Don't Want To Do Wrong (Alone Again, Naturally LP) [Atlantic #SD 1565]

1973 - Let Me In Your Life [Kudu #KU-915]

1975 - What A Diff'rence A Day Makes [Kudu #KU-925 F]

1975 - Mister Magic (What A Diff'rence A Day Makes LP) [Kud #KU-23]

1975 - One Night Affair (What A Diff'rence A Day Makes LP) [Kudu #KU-23]

1976 - (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher & Higher [Kudu #KU-938]

1976 - I Haven't Got Anything Better To Do (Capricorn Princess LP) [Kudu #KU-31]

1976 - Candy (Capricorn Princess LP) [Kudu #KU-31]

1976 - For All We Know [Kudu #KU-929]

1976 - Going Out Of My Head (For All We Know LP) [Kudu #KU-28]

1977 - In A Soft And Subtle Way (You've Come A Long Way, Baby LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-1187]

1977 - Into The Mystic (You've Come A Long Way, Baby LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-1187]

1977 - I've Never Been A Woman Before [Mercury #73967]

1978 - The Man Ain't Ready [Mercury #74030]

1978 - Native New Yorker (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]

1978 - You Think Of Him (You Think Of Her) (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]

1978 - Pie In The Sky (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]

1978 - S.O.S. (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]

1978 - Ms. (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]

1979 - Our Day Will Come [Mercury #74077]

1979 - Bedtime Stories [Mercury (UK) #6167 822]

1979 - Mr. Melody [Mercury #74077]

1981 - Cry To Me [Mercury #76103]

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]

1981 - We've Got A Good Thing Going (Good Black Is Hard To Crack LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-4005]

1986 - Goin' In Circles (A Way To Say Goodbye LP ) [Muse #MR 5302]

Additional earlier tracks to round up to 50

1963 - You Never Miss Your Water (Till The Well Runs Dry) [Lennox #NX-5565]

1963 - While It Lasted [Lennox #NX-5570]

1966 - When A Woman Loves A Man [Atlantic #45-2335]

1967 - Cheater Man [Atlantic #45-2417]

2020 - Watch Dog (Previously Unreleased Atlantic 1966/67) (Brand New Day (The Lenox/Atlantic & Roulette Recordings 1962-1970)) [SoulMusic #QSMCR-5194BX]

1969 - I'm In The Mood For Love (Moody's Mood For Love) [Roulette #R-7031]

1969 - Too Much Of A Man (To Be Tied Down) [Roulette #R-7059]

Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

Esther Phillips [2022] - Essential Classics, Vol. 80 (Remastered 2022) [Essential Classics]

A compilation released today which I assume is a series on artists and not volume 80 for Esther Phillips as it contains twenty tracks, so 20 x 80 is an awful lot of songs which she couldn't have possibly recorded!

The compilation includes several of her recordings that have been played over the years on the Northern/Rare Soul scene i.e. "Catch Me I'm Falling", "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes", "Home Is Where the Hatred Is", "Just Say Goodbye" (vintage footage included below). A few others not included are "Some Things You Never Get Used To" (1964),  "Nobody But Me" (1969), a cover of Eddie Floyd's I Never Found A Girl retitled "I've Never Found Me A Man (To Love Me Like You Do" (1972) and her version of "Native New Yorker" ("All About" 1978) recorded first by Frankie Valli in 1977 as an album track before Odyssey made it a world-wide hit later that year.

If you're interested in a more in depth article about Esther Phillips then a profile was done last December which includes 50 selected tracks which probably includes many on this compilation as well as many that aren't.

Details

Rating:	8.4
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Classic Soul
Format:	Album / Compilation
Media:	Digital
Label:	Essential Classics
Cat No:	None
Date:	12/08/2022
Price:	£12.98

Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

Esther Phillips [1975] - What A Diff'rence A Day Makes [Kudu #KU-925 F]

I couldn't resist the title of this song as we were sweltering in 39C heat here yesterday and today it's a more bearable 22C. Thankfully, touch wood, the desktop is holding up as the laptop was unbearably slow making creating posts absolute purgatory!

I did have a much better laptop and that gave up the ghost only a couple of weeks ago with the graphics chip overheating (unrepairable!). With that, and two hard drive failures only last week, and the desktop playing up in the last few days, I'm beginning to think I must be in the middle of the 'twilight zone'!

Anyway, What A Diff'rence A Day Makes! ... is a jazz song written in 1934 by Mexican songwriter María Grever with the title "Cuando vuelva a tu lado" ("When I Return to Your Side")  and recorded by many including Dinah Washington. An update by Esther Phillips was one of those new releases that got played on the Northern Soul scene back in 1975 from where the term Modern Soul was coined.

Details

Rating:	8.4
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Modern Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	1975
Key/BPM:	3B/136
Price:	£2-£5 (approx.)

Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

Esther Phillips - A Profile...

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]

1964 - Some Things You Never Get Used To [Atlantic #45-2265]

1965 - Just Say Goodbye [Atlantic #45-2324]

1965 - And I Love Him [Atlantic #45-2281]

1966 - Fever [Atlantic #45-2370]

1969 - Nobody But You [Roulette #R-7059]

1970 - Don't Let Me Lose This Dream (Live) (Burnin' (Live At Freddie Jett's Pied Piper, L.A.) LP) [Atlantic #SD 1565]

1971 - Catch Me I'm Falling [Atlantic#45-2783]

1971 - Sweet Touch Of Love (From A Whisper To A Scream) [Kudu #KU 05]

1972 - Home Is Where The Hatred Is [Kudu #KU-904]

1972 - Baby, I'm For Real [Kudu #KU-906]

1972 - I've Never Found A Man (To Love Me Like You Do) [Kudu #KU 910]

1972 - I Don't Want To Do Wrong (Alone Again, Naturally LP) [Atlantic #SD 1565]

1973 - Let Me In Your Life [Kudu #KU-915]

1975 - What A Diff'rence A Day Makes [Kudu #KU-925 F]

1975 - Mister Magic (What A Diff'rence A Day Makes LP) [Kud #KU-23]

1975 - One Night Affair (What A Diff'rence A Day Makes LP) [Kudu #KU-23]

1976 - (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher & Higher [Kudu #KU-938]

1976 - I Haven't Got Anything Better To Do (Capricorn Princess LP) [Kudu #KU-31]

1976 - Candy (Capricorn Princess LP) [Kudu #KU-31]

1976 - For All We Know [Kudu #KU-929]

1976 - Going Out Of My Head (For All We Know LP) [Kudu #KU-28]

1977 - In A Soft And Subtle Way (You've Come A Long Way, Baby LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-1187]

1977 - Into The Mystic (You've Come A Long Way, Baby LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-1187]

1977 - I've Never Been A Woman Before [Mercury #73967]

1978 - The Man Ain't Ready [Mercury #74030]

1978 - Native New Yorker (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]

1978 - You Think Of Him (You Think Of Her) (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]

1978 - Pie In The Sky (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]

1978 - S.O.S. (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]

1978 - Ms. (All About LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-3733]

1979 - Our Day Will Come [Mercury #74077]

1979 - Bedtime Stories [Mercury (UK) #6167 822]

1979 - Mr. Melody [Mercury #74077]

1981 - Cry To Me [Mercury #76103]

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]

1981 - We've Got A Good Thing Going (Good Black Is Hard To Crack LP) [Mercury #SRM-1-4005]

1986 - Goin' In Circles (A Way To Say Goodbye LP ) [Muse #MR 5302]

Additional earlier tracks to round up to 50

1963 - You Never Miss Your Water (Till The Well Runs Dry) [Lennox #NX-5565]

1963 - While It Lasted [Lennox #NX-5570]

1966 - When A Woman Loves A Man [Atlantic #45-2335]

1967 - Cheater Man [Atlantic #45-2417]

2020 - Watch Dog (Previously Unreleased Atlantic 1966/67) (Brand New Day (The Lenox/Atlantic & Roulette Recordings 1962-1970)) [SoulMusic #QSMCR-5194BX]

1969 - I'm In The Mood For Love (Moody's Mood For Love) [Roulette #R-7031]

1969 - Too Much Of A Man (To Be Tied Down) [Roulette #R-7059]