Search - Laura Lee :: Laura Lee - Greatest Hits

Gritty soulstress st

11/10/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Original sista Laura Lee shows what true soul singing is about: emotions wrung out of each lyric, unlike so called soul divas today. The titles "Wedlock is a Padlock" and "Woman's Love Rights" should let you know what you're in for - love wars from the front lines, with her gospel, gritty vocals grabbing you where it hurts. Holland Dozier Holland had left Motown when they launched Laura Lee, and the songs here echo some of their late Sixties work with that label. But Laura stamps her mark on each song, even a cover of "Since I Fell for You" where her intro tells it like it is. If Millie Jackson could watch her language, she might sound like this. Glorious"

Best Hit To Short

Robert B. Taylor | Detroit, MI United States | 08/25/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Her Big Hit Since I Fell For You Is Too Short, This Is The Short Short Version. If You Like Laure Find The Long Version."

The Hot Wax Portion Of Her Career

08/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Perhaps some of those import Laura Lee compilations shown here have all 15 of her charted hit singles registered from 1967 to 1976, but at the moment some of the contents are not reflected, and any reviews posted so far are not helpful in that regard. So, the only place you are apt to find the hits are in this volume, which offer the 8 she recorded for Hot Wax from 1971 to 1973, along with 4 B-sides [two were repeated on two releases], and the MCA release That's How It Is - Chess Years.



Laura Lee Newton was born in Chicago on March 9, 1945 and, at a young age, became a member of The Meditation Singers, a gospel group run by her adoptive mother Ernestine Rundless. After striking out on her own in 1965, and recording religious material for the Ric-Tic label in Detroit, Chess Records signed her in 1966.



Hit number one there was Dirty Man which reached # 13 R&B/# 68 Billboard Hot 100 in October 1967 followed by Up Tight, Good Man, a # 16 R&B/# 93 Hot 100 early in 1968. The flipside, Wanted: Lover, No Experience Necessary, also cracked the Hot 100 at # 84. None of her other Chess releases made the Pop Hot 100, but As Long As I Got You [# 31 in May 1968], Need To Belong [# 44 in September 1968], and Hang It Up [# 48 in January 1069] all made the R&B charts.



Two years later she moved over to the Hot Wax label, one of several founded by Detroit icons Holland/Dozier/Holland. Her first there in January 1971, Wedlock Is A Padlock, became a modest # 37 R&B b/w Her Picture Matches Mine [tracks 10 and 4], but the follow-up Women's Love Rights became her best Hot 100 crossover, reaching # 36 that September as well as # 11 R&B b/w the same B-side as on her first Hot Wax release.



Four hits followed in 1972 with Love And Liberty [# 23 R&B/# 94 Hot 100], and a cover of the 1963 Lennie Welch hit, Since I Fell For You [# 24 R&B/# 76 Hot 100] leading off the year in January and April. The version of Since I Fell For You presented here is the single cut. The B-side to both was I Don't Want Nothin' Old (But Money) which is not included here. Her best R&B cut then followed in July when Rip Off soared to # 3 [and # 68 Hot 100] b/w Two Lovely Pillows.



Hot Wax albums were also released in 1972 - Women's Love Rights - Two Sides Of Laura Lee - and Best Of Laura Lee, following which she closed out a successful year with If You Can Beat Me Rockin' (You Can Have My Chair) which reached # 31 R&B/# 65 Hot 100 b/w If I'm Good Enough To Love (I'm Good Enough To Marry).



January 1973 saw Crumbs Off The Table top out at # 40 R&B [# 107 Hot 100 "bubble under"] in January b/w You've Got To Save Me, and her final Hot Wax hit, I'll Catch You When You Fall, struggle to a # 49 R&B in late October. In 1974 I Need It Just As Bad As You fared even worse on the HDH label Invictus, making it to # 55 in August. That is not included here.



After moving over to Ariola America one cut there, Love's Got Me Tired (But I Ain't Tired Of You), continued her downward chart spiral, levelling off at # 61 R&B in December 1976 b/w You're Barking Up The Wrong Tree. Neither of those is included here either. After returning to her gospel roots she released the single Jesus Is The Light Of My Life in 1983, a co-production with Al Green.



This and the MCA release make a nice pairing, although in that one they provide alternate remixes on some rather than the original versions [e.g., Up Tight, Good Man]."