If you gonna love somebody

Dear friends,

Skip the spoken intro and get right into it. The opening piano, the step up to the mic and the line "I used to cry like a baby." Cue background singers going "Crah-ah-ah-yyyyy." The singer spends the rest of the number assuring us, her lover, that she's all grown up. We've treated her shamefully and that's caused her to grow up. Perversely, she argues that this means she's ready for love at last. Her voice rises, she stamps her feet, she looks at us through tears.

I'm A Big Girl Now/Mable John (mp3)


I heard this song in a movie a long time ago. A character kept playing it over and over on one of those plastic portable turntables. I didn't catch the name of the song in the credits so when I was recently pointed in the right direction by an intrepid colleague, it was like Christmas X 100.

Mable John, younger sister to the awesome Little Willie John, was the first female solo artist signed to Tamla/Motown. Some time later she signed to Stax. Her voice isn't pretty or showy but it has a startling authenticity. She really gives herself over to her songs, giving the sometimes trite stories real depth. I highly recommend I Love You More Than Words Can Say, I Need Your Love So Bad (also recorded by Little Willie John) and I Taught You How. Her performances on those songs are straightforward and sexy. She simply tells you what she wants and that is that.

Purchase Stay Out of The Kitchen by Mable John at Amazon Digital.

Mable John on Wikipedia.

Love, D