Hurricane Linda
Linda Jones is probably the top contender for the title of Greatest Singer No One Has Heard Of. Despite both Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight calling her their favourite singer, she only had the one hit - "Hypnotized" in 1967. Sadly, she didn't only struggle with chart success either, she had diabetes which caused her to collapse after a show at the Harlem Apollo in 1972. She was rushed to hospital but died a few days later at the young age of 28.
With her voice that went all the way up to 11, she may have been just a tad too intense for your average record buyer. Like most (all?) great soul singers of the 60s she started out singing gospel and brought such hurricane force energy to her vocals you imagine her collapsing in a pool of sweat at the end of the song. She's generally credited with really bringing the art of melisma into popular music. In case you don't know, melisma is the singing technique of stretching a word out over several notes in a display of wailing vocal athleticism. I guess that means she's the person to blame for Mariah Carey, but don't hold it against her.
Her lack of success might also have been because she released records on no less than 8 different labels in her career and there isn't really what I would call a definitive collection of her work. The recently re-issued and remastered Greatest Hits comes close, though it omits the stunning "That's When I'll Stop Loving You" and the uptempo "My Heart Needs A Break" which was released as a single in 1968. On this beauty you can hear what the critic Robert Christgau meant when he said that Jones "likes to dispense with formality and just start at the climax," 20 seconds in and she's already hit fifth gear. This is a great, great, great record which you can get on volume one of the terrific After Hours series. But it was on ballads that Linda really shined though, and she brings all her considerable powers to bear on "Ooh, Baby You Move Me" (which is on the Greatest Hits) from 1970. I promise, this will make you rush out and buy every Linda Jones record you can get your hands on.
[Download]
My Heart Needs A Break - Linda Jones
Ooh, Baby You Move Me - Linda Jones
5 Comments:
WOW! Akin to being run over by a runaway Sherman Tank. Champion post geezer.
You taught me some things there alright; a. She's the best thing since bread came sliced - and yes, I'd never heard of her!
b. I thought melisma was a human medical condition (like having webbed feet or something).
This lady deserves to sell by the million.
much appreciated.
My aunt made me 8 CD's of oldies. Some I heard before and some I had never heard. Linda Jones was one of them. Of course, I knew "Hypnotized." It came out the year I was born. This lady sung like she was truly in love. Listening to her sing "Not on the Outside" let you know she loved this man so much, but could never show it. I heard this while waiting to board a flight to DC. This song sent chills up my spine, because even though she was gone, I felt every word, I understood everything she was going through. What a shame all the great ones die young, because don't doubt that had she lived, she would have been a huge success. To all you young kids out here, get smart and appreciate real music, a time when the artist actually could sing and felt what they were singing about.
My story with the music of the greatest soul singer of all time goes back to about 1986 when on a radio show avery early on a saturday morning play her rendition of Ben E. King's "I (Who Have Nothing)" Let say that not only it woke me out of my sleep, I scrambled to find a tape to record what i could. A few months later in celebration of her birthday, they play the entire Hypnotized album - I had been on a quest since then to finding every single recording made by Linda Jones.
I wanted to thank you for creating a dedicatation about my favorite singers.
- and yes I am listening to her live album as I am writing this - to hear her do the Falcon's "I found a love" is something that can only be described as AMAZING
She was such a good person, Can you please re-upload the 2 songs of hers because the links are not working.
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