Smith & Co

Denise is undoubtedly one of the longest serving Ladies of soul having made her first recordings in the 60’s for the legendary Chess label and she hasn’t stopped singing yet.Her initial successes were in the 1970’s when she was signed to the Westbound label and was being produced by the inimitable Willie Mitchell. During this period she had 10 R&B hits, 4 of which, “Trapped By a Thing Called Love”, “Now Run and Tell That”, “Man Sized Job”, and “Married, but not to each other” crossed over to the billboard pop charts. These are of course featured on this album. After leaving Westbound she had a relatively quiet period at ABC Dunhill, before signing 1982 to Malaco Records in her home state of Mississippi. There her success was re-established and in fact it was with this record company that she scored her major international hit “My Toot Toot” (a.k.a “My Tu Tu”). This anthology, compiled by the guru of black music Ian Dewhirst, brings together all the great recordings from Denise Lasalle and for anyone who like to here their music performed with passion, intensity and soul is going to love this collection of her best works.

Dorothy Moore is one of those exceptions; a loyal artist who spent almost her entire career signed to Malaco Records in Jackson, Mississippi. In fact it was her international hit "Misty Blue" which provided the impetus for Malaco to move from a production company to a bona fide record company. Ironically the fact that they couldn’t place the recording of Misty Blue with an established label led them to press and distribute the record themselves. Of course it went onto to become an international hit reaching no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the U.K. charts. Dorothy then went on to have another 10 R&B hits  with “Funny How Time Slips Away” (the Willie Nelson song,) “”I believe you” and “With Pen in Hand” all crossing over to give her pop hits. These hits are all on this double album, once again compiled by Ian Dewhirst the founder and compiler of the Master Cuts series, who has brought together a wonderful collection of her most beautiful soul ballads from the Malaco archives. Her pure emotion is just a joy to listen to and “Misty Blue” has to one if the songs of the century.

Written and produced by Frederick Knight, Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell" was one of the most distinctive disco sounds of 1979 (and one of the first records to feature a synth drum), played in clubs around the world throughout that summer and becoming an international smash hit. Ironically it had been recorded as a last-minute filler for an album of considerably different sounding mid-tempo songs and ballads and so, at the time, Anita's turn in the spotlight more or less began and ended with that one hit.  In retrospect, it is perhaps fortunate that the 15 other pleasing southern soul recordings on this compilation are of varied moods and tempos, displaying a broader aspect of Ms Ward's singing talent.

29 track double CD anthology of a true southern soul diva who unfortunately is most often cast as a 'one-hit wonder', in the USA for "Groove Me" (1979), in the UK for "Together We Are Beautiful" (1980), both included here.  As this collection, compiled by soul buff Ian Dewhirst, demonstrates however, there was more to Kinney than met the charts. Here are her complete recordings for Malaco Records, featuring several sultry covers of familiar songs such as Sylvia Robinson's "Pillow Talk", Frederick Knight's "I've Been Lonely For So Long" and Toussaint McCall's "Nothing Takes The Place Of You" as well as all of Fern's subsequently released singles, which include "I Want You Back", "Beautiful Love Song", "I'm Ready For Your Love", "Movie Show" and "Sweet Music".