#fontella bass

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Fontella Bass

[billboard-hotties-tourney]

Fontella Bass (1940-2012) solo Songs: "Rescue Me," "Poor Little Fool" Propaganda: see visual

Nancy Wilson (1954-) Heart - guitars Songs: "Crazy On You," "Barracuda" Propaganda: "listen to the opening guitar riffs of crazy on you or barracuda and tell me you aren’t a little in love"

Visual Propaganda for Fontella Bass:

Visual Propaganda for Nancy Wilson:

[cartermagazine]

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Today In History

Fontella Bass, the singer whose 1965 hit “Rescue Me” was an indelible example of the decade’s finest pop-soul was born on this date July 3, 1940 in St. Louis, MO.

Bass was the daughter of gospel vocalist Martha Bass, a longtime member of the renowned Clara Ward Singers. Her grandmother Navada Carter was also a professional gospel performer, and it was inevitable that Fontella follow suit.

CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #cartermagazine #carter #fontellabass #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #staywoke

[kdo-three]

Fontella Bass - Rescue Me (Stereo) (1965) Raynard Miner / Carl Smith / Fontella Bass from: "Rescue Me" / "Soul of the Man" (Single) "The 'New' Look" (LP)

Soul | R&B | Northern Soul

JukeHostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: Fontella Bass: Vocals Leonard Casten: Piano Pete Cosey: Guitar Gerald Sims: Guitar Sonny Thompson: Organ Charles Stepney: Vibraphone Louis Satterfield: Bass Maurice White: Drums

Backing Vocals: Minnie Riperton*

Arranged by Phil Wright Produced by Billy Davis Carl Smith / Raynard Miner

Recorded: @ The Ter Mar Studios in Chicago Illinois USA during 1965

Single Released: on September 25, 1965

Checker Records Chess Records

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

"… ranks as one of the most explosive, infectious soul singles ever released…" "… one of the best soul singles ever recorded." John Bush (AllMusicCom)

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ * Re: Minnie Riperton She's the mother of actress/comedian Maya Rudolph

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

[howardhawkshollywoodmusic]

51. Rescue Me by Fontella Bass debuted Oct 65 and peaked at number four, scoring 978 points.

Fontella was born in St Louis and had six chart entries 1965-66. This was her only top ten, with two other top 40 hits. Fontella's Rescue Me was Grammy nominated as best contemporary vocal performance, female. She was nominated 30 years later, in 1995, for best traditional soul gospel performance.

Melissa Manchester's 1976 remake missed the top 40.

[manitat]

Fontella Bass - Honey Bee

[paskvilnet]

The Cinematic Orchestra With Fontella Bass - All That You Give

[stacys-mom-has-got-it-goin-on]

"Honey bee, what is wrong with you? Honey bee, what is wrong with you? Well you don’t treat me baby, nothing like you used to do."

[nonesuchrecords]

It was 30 years ago today: Breath of Life, on which World Saxophone Quartet and singer Fontella Bass teamed up for a set of originals and covers, was released. You can hear it here.

“One of the finest ensembles in American music, with a velvety sonic blend and a wild-eyed imagination" —New York Times

[kdo-three]

Fontella Bass - Rescue Me (Stereo) (1965) Raynard Miner / Carl Smith / Fontella Bass from: "Rescue Me" / "Soul of the Man" (Single) "The 'New' Look" (LP)

Soul | R&B | Northern Soul

JukeHostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: Fontella Bass: Vocals Leonard Casten: Piano Pete Cosey: Guitar Gerald Sims: Guitar Sonny Thompson: Organ Charles Stepney: Vibraphone Louis Satterfield: Bass Maurice White: Drums

Backing Vocals: Minnie Riperton

Arranged by Phil Wright Produced by Billy Davis / Carl Smith / Raynard Miner

Recorded: @ The Ter Mar Studios in Chicago Illinois USA during 1965

Released:: on September 25, 1965 Checker Records Chess Records

"… ranks as one of the most explosive, infectious soul singles ever released…" "… one of the best soul singles ever recorded. - John Bush (AllMusicCom)

Fontella Bass: Rescue Me

[rhythmislifeandlifeisrhythm]

[garudabluffs]

Our Day Will Come · Fontella Bass

The New Look ℗ A Geffen Records Release; ℗ 1984 UMG Recordings, Inc.

Released on: 1966-01-01

Producer: Billy Davis Composer Lyricist:

Mort Garson Composer Lyricist: Bob Hilliard

[the-paper-apricot]

John, Paul & the Shangri-Las

Whatever happened to The life that we once knew?

It's fairly well known that these lines from the bridge of 'Free as a Bird' are adapted from the lyric of 'Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)', written & produced by Shadow Morton and performed by the Shangri-Las. Where the Beatles, in lyrics begun but not completed by John, call up shared memories, Mary Weiss sang of "the boy that I once knew". That John reused these lines to voice his own preoccupation with an unresolved past adds much tenderness to 'Free as a Bird'. Being a Shangs fan, there are a couple of other connections that I just wanted to write about.

The Shangs looking dangerous.

Today I love you more than yesterday

'I Know (I Know)' from Mind Games (1973).

Although the melodies are completely different, the Shangri-Las song 'Love You More Than Yesterday' seems to find an echo in the most emotive lines in the bridge of John Lennon's 'I Know (I Know)'. The song was a B-side to their 1966 spoken-word ballad 'Past, Present & Future' (which, incidentally, took Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' as its theme, like the Beatles' song 'Because' after it). Quite rightly the nod to 'Yesterday' is what strikes us most, but I'm not at all sure that the similarity to the Shangri-Las title is pure coincidence. We saw in Get Back how easily song titles and lyrics were used by John and Paul in the current of their talk.

It proved difficult to find John speaking about the Shangri-Las, despite the Beatles' enjoyment of records by other girl groups like the Shirelles, and they're not among the artists on John's famous 40-disc mobile juke box that he brought when the Beatles went out on tour. (Only one woman, Fontella Bass, appears among the discs. The juke box doesn't even include 'Angel Baby' by Rosie and the Originals, whose fresh, unrefined first-love sentimentality appealed to him so much he covered it.) It's a little easier to find something from Paul on the subject however.

Mary and Betty Weiss from the Shangri-Las, photographed by Jini Dellaccio in 1966 (left: screenshot by @ohhellno on tumblr*; right, my screenshot, both from the documentary Her Aim is True, about the photographer).

Of course he calls out "Shangri-Las versus The Village People!" at the beginning of 'Mr. H. Atom'. But glorious as that is, perhaps more informative are the occasions where Paul has spoken of his enjoyment of the Shangri-Las' style, and the way he appreciated Linda's voice in this mode.

If she’s a singer, she’s very much a Shangri-Las type singer; I don’t think any of them could get into opera, but I prefer them to opera. Linda wouldn’t put herself up as a great vocalist, but she’s got a great style. I think anyway.

'McCartney Gets Hungry Again', Musician, Feb. 1988

I've always maintained that she has a kind of Shangri-Las type of appeal.

'Can Paul McCartney Get Back?' Rolling Stone, June 1989

When you know how warmly Paul regarded their style, you can't miss the similarity of Linda's spoken intro and closing of 'Wide Prairie' ("I was in Paris, waiting for a flight..."), answered by Paul, to the chat in Shangri-Las songs like 'Give Him a Great Big Kiss', where the other girls ask Mary Weiss whether her guy is tall ("Well, I gotta look up!") or if he's a good dancer.

Did they meet?

On the 20th September 1964, the Shangri-Las performed on the same bill as the Beatles, at a benefit concert in New York for a cerebral palsy charity. Mary Weiss explained that Mary Ann Ganser was jostled backstage as one of the Beatles sought them out:

“She turned around and it was Ringo. So that was some contact, anyway. I almost wanted her to take his drumsticks.”

'Weiss Leads Again', the New York Sun, September 2007.

This seems to be the only documented contact between the groups, although if you know of others, or further instances where John or Paul spoke about the Shangs, I'd love to hear about them. The music that the Beatles listened to has been written about extensively, and there's almost a canon of influences that's become pretty standard. Given their admiration of their performance, and seemingly in John's case, of Shadow Morton's words**, I hope for some recognition of both Lennon and McCartney's creative responses to the Shangri-Las.

(* Many thanks to @ohhellno for letting me use this great screenshot.)

(** The interest was of course mutual, as Morton produced the Beattle-ettes single 'Only Seventeen', supposedly a response to the Beatles from the girl's perspective, with hand claps and cries of "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" The single, by an untraced group, was released in 1964. In summer the same year his first songwriting hit, 'Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)' was the breakout success for the Shangri-Las. It was racing up the Billboard Hot 100 as the Beatles toured the States in the second half of August. By the time they had a day off in Key West, on the tenth of September, it had reached the top ten, one place below 'A Hard Day's Night'. If John or Paul tuned to a pop radio station, they'd have heard it. The song peaked at number five.)

from the Billboard Hot 100, week ending 12th September, 1964.

[kemetic-dreams]

Minnie Julia Riperton Rudolph (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979) was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You" and her four octave D3 to F♯7 coloratura soprano range. She is also widely known for her use of the whistle register and has been referred to by the media as the "Queen of the Whistle Register."

Minnie Riperton grew up in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side. As a child, she studied music, drama and dance at Chicago's Lincoln Center. The youngest of eight children in a musical family, she embraced the arts early. Although she began with ballet and modern dance, her parents recognized her vocal and musical abilities and encouraged her to pursue music and voice. At Chicago's Abraham Lincoln Center, she received operatic vocal training from Marion Jeffery. She practiced breathing and phrasing, with particular emphasis on diction. Jeffery also trained Riperton to use her full range. While studying under Jeffery, she sang operettas and show tunes, in preparation for a career in opera. Jeffery was so convinced of her pupil's abilities that she strongly pushed her to further study the classics at Chicago's Junior Lyric Opera.

The young Riperton was, however, becoming interested in soul, rhythm and blues, and rock. In her teen years, she sang lead vocals for the Chicago-based girl group the Gems. Eventually the group became a session group known as Studio Three and it was during this period that they provided the backing vocals on the classic 1965 Fontella Bass hit "Rescue Me".

After graduating from Hyde Park High School (now Hyde Park Academy High School), she enrolled at Loop College and became a member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority. She dropped out of college to pursue her music career.

Her early affiliation with the legendary Chicago-based Chess Records afforded her the opportunity to sing backup for various established artists such as Etta James, Fontella Bass, Ramsey Lewis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. While at Chess, Riperton also sang lead for the experimental rock/soul group Rotary Connection, from 1967 to 1971.

On April 5, 1975, Riperton reached the apex of her career with her No. 1 single "Lovin' You". The single was the last release from her 1974 gold album titled Perfect Angel. Riperton's third album, Adventures in Paradise was released in 1975. Despite the R&B hit "Inside My Love", some radio stations refused to play "Inside My Love" due to the lyrics.

Her fourth album for Epic Records, titled Stay in Love (1977), featured another collaboration with Stevie Wonder in the funky disco tune "Stick Together".

In 1978, Richard Rudolph and Riperton's attorney Mike Rosenfeld orchestrated a move to Capitol Records for Riperton and her CBS Records catalog. In April 1979, Riperton released her fifth and final album, Minnie. "Memory Lane" was a hit from the album.

Riperton provided backing vocals on Stevie Wonder's songs "Creepin'" from 1974's Fulfillingness' First Finale and "Ordinary Pain" from 1976's Songs in the Key of Life. In 1977, she lent her vocal abilities to a track named "Yesterday and Karma", on Osamu Kitajima's album, Osamu.

In January 1976, Riperton was diagnosed with breast cancer and, in April, she underwent a radical mastectomy. By the time of diagnosis, the cancer had metastasized and she was given about six months to live. Despite the grim prognosis, she continued recording and touring. She was one of the first celebrities to go public with her breast cancer diagnosis but did not disclose she was terminally ill.

In 1977, she became a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society. In 1978, she received the American Cancer Society's Courage Award, which was presented to her at the White House by President Jimmy Carter.

Riperton died of cancer on July 12, 1979 at the age 31.

During the 1990s, Riperton's music was sampled by many rap and hip-hop artists, including Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, A Tribe Called Quest, Blumentopf, The Orb