Such a Much R&B Girls of the 50s & 60s / Various

2014 release, a crunching collection of R&B girls, with coyness in short supply. In fact, the sassy singers gathered here on this collection of rockers, wailers, and neo-popcorn favorites tend not to be girls, exactly. Highlights include Blanche Thomas' 'You Ain't So Such a Much', written as a response to 'Hound Dog' - faster, tougher, and easier on it's feet. Ruth Brown's atmospheric 'Sure 'Nuff' includes King Curtis on sax and Phil Spector on piano, with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller producing. Doris Payne went on to become better known - and to score a sizeable hit with 'Just One Look' in 1963 - as Doris Troy. Like Doris, both Marie Knight and Big Maybelle are better known for their sixties soul sides than they are for their fifties R&B ravers, but 'I've Got a Feelin' and 'I Thought I Told You Not to Tell Them' are jukebox-ready classics.