BIG MAYBELLE - IF I HAD YOU

Mabel Louise Smith (May 1, 1924 -- January 23, 1972), known professionally as Big Maybelle, was an American R&B singer and pianist. Her 1956 hit single "Candy" received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.
Born in Jackson, Tennessee, Big Maybelle sang gospel as a child and by her teens had switched to rhythm and blues. She began her professional career with Dave Clark's Memphis Band in 1936, and also toured with the all female International Sweethearts of Rhythm. She then joined Christine Chatman's Orchestra as pianist, and made her first recordings with Chatman in 1944, and with the Tiny Bradshaw's Orchestra from 1947 to 1950. Her debut solo recordings, as Mabel Smith, came for King Records in 1947, backed by Oran "Hot Lips" Page, but she had little initial success. However, in 1952 she was signed by Okeh Records, whose record producer Fred Mendelsohn gave her the stage name Big Maybelle. Her first recording for Okeh, "Gabbin' Blues", was a number 3 hit on the Billboard R&B chart, and was followed up by both "Way Back Home" and "My Country Man" in 1953. In 1955 she recorded "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On", produced by Quincy Jones, two years before Jerry Lee Lewis' version. More hits followed throughout the 1950s, mainly for Savoy Records, including "Candy" (1956), one of her biggest sellers.
She made the stage of the Apollo Theater in New York City; the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival; and she appeared in Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960), filmed at the Newport Jazz Festival, along with Mahalia Jackson and Dinah Washington. After 1959 she recorded for a variety of labels but the hits largely dried up. She continued to perform in person into the early 1960s, when drug addiction and health problems took their toll on her. Her last hit single was in 1967 with a cover of "96 Tears" by Question Mark & the Mysterians.
Big Maybelle died in a diabetic coma in 1972, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her final album, Last of Big Maybelle, was released posthumously in 1973.
The album The Okeh Sessions on the Epic label, won the 1983 W. C. Handy Award, for "Vintage or Reissue Album of the Year (U.S.)
CREDIT INFO: WIKIPEDIA

Category:

Music

Tags:

• BIG
• MAYBELLE
• IF
• HAD
• YOU

[waltonwannabe]

I've found several of her songs on itunes and let me add... I love listening to her. Doesn't matter if it's fast, slow or in-between. It's all good.

[Soulie70]

@waltonwannabe Thankyou so much for your comment....and I would also agree with you!!...one fab artist!! :-)

[Thedanner1000]

Cool song! I'm glad I stopped by

[Soulie70]

@Thedanner1000 Thankyou

[judahlady]

i love this song......thank you soo much

[Soulie70]

@judahlady Your welcome and thanks!

[rayclarkpalmer]

Okay Sooulie70, I have to ask; who are you and how did you develop a taste for such good music (and where do you find them). I am into Nina, Della, Dinah and of course Big Maybel but their music is so hard to find anyplace other than youtube. So when a posting is removed -- as in the case of one which I loved of a live performance by Shirley Brown -- there is no other way to capture the performance. The videos and recordings simply are not available elsewhere so I can not purchase them.

[74souledout]

Lol your both as bad as each other for words in tunes, very nice Ve xxxxxxxx

[MrKITCHENTALK]

She died for days before Mahalia Jackson they both were in Jazz on a summer's day

[Soulie70]

@niteowl147 Thankyou...like the words in this one :-)) xxxx