Artist: Gwen McCrae Genre(s):
funk
R&B: Soul
Discography:
The Best of Gwen McCrae Year: 2004
Tracks: 19
Private compilation Year: 1985
Tracks: 10
Something So Right Year: 1976
Tracks: 8
Best remembered for her number matchless R&B score "Rockin' Chair" from 1975, Gwen McCrae was a gutsy Southern soul prima donna with a particular affinity for dance tracks. Along with her hubby George ("Rock Your Baby"), Gwen was office of the Miami-based T.K. Records stable, which laid a great make do of base for the disco explosion. Born Gwen Mosley in Pensacola, FL, in 1943, she grew up singing in her Pentecostal church building and afterwards discovered secular singers like Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin. She began playing in local clubs as a teenager, as well singing with local groups like the Lafayettes and the Independents. In 1963, she met a youth Navy panama named George McCrae, whom she matrimonial inside a workweek. When George was fired, he re-formed an sooner grouping he'd sung dynasty with called the Jivin' Jets, and invited Gwen to conjoin as well. Soon, however, George and Gwen split off to form a duette -- aptly dubbed George & Gwen -- and affected to West Palm Beach to perform in clubs all over South Florida.
George IV & Gwen were discovered in 1967 by singer Betty Wright, wHO helped get them signed to Henry Stone's Alston label. Their debut single, "Three Hearts in a Tangle," was released in 1969; the follow-up, "Like Yesterday Our Love Is Gone," marked the number one time they worked with the composition team of Clarence Reid (world Health Organization would by and by morph into the bawdry comic Blowfly) and Willie Clarke. Both were regional hits, as was third base exclusive, "No One Left to Come Home," although none of those records stony-broke across the country; in the meantime, the McCraes and Wright were conjointly earning a reputation as astral academic session vocalists. In 1970, one of Gwen's solo recordings, the Bobby "Blueish" Bland cover "Track Me On," was picked up by Columbia and became her first Top 40 attain on the R&B charts. In the wake of that breakthrough, George temporarily retired from telling to become her manager, and Alston leased her shrink to Columbia; she recorded several more singles over the side by side few years, just without corresponding chart success.
Columbia declined to reincarnate McCrae's get in 1973, and she was signed to a different Henry Stone label, the T.K. underling Cat. She had a regional hit with "He Keeps Something Groovy Goin' On" that yr, and then her arcsecond national hit with the R&B Top 20 "For Your Love" (originally recorded by Ed Townsend). However, her minor 1974 hit "It's Worth the Hurt" was overshadowed by George's encompassing smash "Tilt Your Baby," a song originally intended for Gwen that heralded disco's arrival on the pop charts. It was Gwen's turn in the spotlight the following year, when she took the aphrodisiacal Reid/Clarke opus "Rockin' Chair" all the agency to the top of the R&B charts, not to citation the pop Top Ten. In the wake of its success, McCrae released her first-ever album (as well called
Rockin' Chair) and scored further R&B hits with "Love Insurance" and "Cradle of Love."
By this time, the separate successes were taking their toll on the McCraes' matrimony (Gwen has since so-called that her married man beat her frequently). A 1976 pair single, "Winners Together, Losers Apart," hide short of the R&B Top 40, and a full album of duets failed to assuage matters. The duo rip later that year, and Gwen scored what turned out to be her lowest chart hit for Cat, "Damn Right It's Good." Despite a o.k. sweat with the 1978 LP
Let's Straighten It Out, McCrae's commercial momentum was stalled, and although 1979's "All This Love That I'm Giving" afterwards became a darling on Britain's Northern soul scene, it didn't attract much tending upon its firing. With the T.K. label family in serious fiscal hassle, McCrae stirred to New Jersey and signed with Atlantic in 1980, a stretch that produced deuce albums (
Gwen McCrae and On My Way) and several chart singles still prized by collectors: "Low-down Sensation," "Poyson," and "Observe the Fire Burning." Feeling underpromoted, McCrae stirred back to Florida, hack a one-off exclusive for the small Black Jack label in 1984 called "Do You Know What I Mean," and retired from the music byplay.
McCrae was rediscovered by the British Northern soul and rare vallecula scenes during the '80s, and she traveled to England to criminal record a duo of singles for Rhythm King in 1987. Pleased with her enduring popularity in the U.K., McCrae finally recorded an entire album for the British Homegrown judge in 1996, titled
Girlfriend's Boyfriend. Upon returning to America, she gestural with the revived Goldwax judge, distributed by Ichiban, and recorded some other record album after that year,
Psychical Hot Line. In 1998, Ichiban reissued
Girlfriend's Boyfriend in the U.S. McCrae returned in 1999 with
Still Rockin', which received well-disposed reviews in blues and authoritative individual circles.
