Format Details: Jewel Case
Format Details: Single Sleeve Vinyl Album_Printed Inner Sleeve
Release Date: 29 January 2007
Label: Southbound
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 029667026123
Release Date: 26 July 2024
Label: Southbound
Packaging Type: Slip Sleeve (CD or Vinyl)
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 029667023214
Description
Had Millie Jackson not had the nerve to jump on stage for a bet during a Harlem talent contest when she was twenty years old in 1964, her career might have followed a far different trajectory. Certainly, until that time, it seemed that she harboured few aspirations to make something of herself in the music business. Born in a quiet Georgia town called Thomson, half an hour's drive from Augusta, Jackson's first taste of public exposure came after she'd moved to Newark, New Jersey, at the age of fifteen and began modelling for teenage magazines. But the impulse that made her take part in a talent contest a few years later proved instantly fruitful, resulting in club engagements that validated her newfound ambition to be a vocalist. Successful gigs at the Crystal Ballroom, Club Zanzibar and 521 Club in the Big Apple led to a year-and-a-half stint on the road doing background vocals for Sam Cooke's younger brother, L C Cooke, after which she eventually landed a recording deal in 1969, where she cut a debut 45, A Little Bit Of Something that was initially licensed to MGM. Although the record bombed, a couple of years later Jackson joined the roster of the newly created Spring label. Her inaugural single for the label, A Child Of God, made the Top 30 on the US R&B listings, followed by an eponymous debut LP in 1972. Another track from the album, Ask Me What You Want, broke into the R&B Top 5. Her strong follow-up LP, "It Hurts So Good,"� yielded a Top 3 R&B title song - which gained valuable exposure by being on the soundtrack to the black action movie, Cleopatra Jones - and catapulted Jackson into the big time. In 1974, Jackson in tandem with producer, Brad Shapiro, masterminded her magnum opus, "Caught Up."� A bold, imaginative song-cycle chronicling the vicissitudes of a menage-a-trois and featuring frank confessionals, risque raps and plenty of raunchy attitude, "Caught Up"� proved a landmark album for soul music, transforming Jackson into a bona fide star. Its sequel, 1975's "Still Caught Up,"� pushed the envelope further. Feeling she needed to break away from concept albums rather than become typecast, Millie took a more relaxed approach to music making with with "Free And In Love"� (1976) and "Lovingly Yours"� (1977), two solid and often overlooked albums that kept her name out there and flew the flag for real soul in the face of disco's seemingly unstoppable popularity. Towards the end of 1977, though, Jackson returned to conceptual album making with"FEELIN' BITCHY, which became her biggest-selling long player, spending 38 weeks on the Stateside R&B charts. Recorded in Muscle Shoals, the Mecca of 70s Southern Soul, the album also spawned two big hits in the shape of the Latimore-penned All The Way Lover (#12 US R&B) and If You're Not Back In Love By Monday (#5 US R&B), a poignant, heart-rending ballad. Following on from several recent critically-acclaimed reissues of Jackson's earlier Spring albums on Southbound, Ace has just revamped
Description
In the spring of 1977, Millie Jackson was down in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, laying down tracks for what became "Feelin' Bitchy"� with co-producer Brad Shapiro. Released in August 1977, the album reached #4 and #34 in America's Billboard's R&B and Hot 100, going gold with over 500,000 copies sold. Jackson's cover of 'If You're Not Back In Love By Monday' - already a hit for Merle Haggard in March 1977 - also reached #5 R&B and #43 in the Hot 100 in August. Although the album did not chart in the UK, "Feelin' Bitchy"� sold strongly to a dedicated fanbase who had voted her the #1 female singer in the Blues & Soul magazine annual poll. Jackson also performed much of the material on her sold-out UK dates in early 1978. "Feelin' Bitchy"� was not only a commercial success, cementing Jackson's no-nonsense reputation, but is now considered an all-time classic. Her rap on Benny Latimore's 'All The Way Lover' stretched the original out like chewing gum to 10 minutes. "'Back In Love By Monday' is a great song an' that,"� she told Black Echoes,"but it didn't sell the album. 'All The Way Lover' sold the album."� Indeed it did, but other tracks like 'A Little Taste Of Outside Love' 'Lovin' Your Good Thing Away', 'Cheatin' Is' and 'Feelin' Like A Woman' show that while Jackson's tongue - front and centre on the LP cover - was always ready to hand out a lashing, it also helped her sing beautifully. Ace are delighted to reissue "Feelin' Bitchy' on vinyl and Millie Jackson spoke to Ian Shirley about the recording of the album. This interview runs on an inner sleeve along with classic photographs of Jackson from this period.
Tracklisting
Tracklisting
Various Artists
Various Artists
Two Tons O' Fun
The Players Association
The Mike Theodore Orchestra
The Fatback Band
The Fatback Band
The Fatback Band
Millie Jackson
Millie Jackson
Millie Jackson
Millie Jackson
Millie Jackson
Millie Jackson
Millie Jackson
Millie Jackson
