The Very Best of the Staple Singers - The Staple Singers Album Review

The Staple Singers

Album Review

The Staple Singers was a true family affair: Pops, Cleotha, Pervis, Yvonne and Mavis.

Formed by patriarch Roebuck ‘Pops’ Staples they were a unique soul, R&B gospel vocal group who began working in Chicago churches in 1948, signing their first professional contract in 1952. It would be some years later before they made any serious inroads on the music industry.

I’ll Take You There (1972) which brought my attention to them and If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me) in 1974, both making the top 40, were their only commercial UK successes. They failed to chart with albums. In the States it was different story. Fronted by Mavis’ breathy vocals they were considered one of the finest vocal groups in the genre, but made little impact with recordings on Pops’ own label, then United, and Vee- Jay. In the early 60s they made their first secular (pop) record for Epic, again with little success, and then everything changed when they signed to Stax in 1968. They continued with secular music with a message which set them apart from their contemporaries. It was on 1972’s gold Bealtitude: Respect Yourself did they make their approach more commercial with Heavy Makes You Happy (track 6) a weak song by their standards, followed by the understated soulful groove of Respect Yourself with Pops and Mavis rotating the vocal duties. When If You’re Ready hit number one on the USA R&B chart they had successfully meshed Memphis Soul shuffles with their own messages, which might have continued had Stax not gone into mid-70s decline and eventual closure. Apart from the crossover music, while with Stax, they produced magnificent songs such as the stirring and brass heavy Be What You Are, the gospel lament When Will We Be Paid, soaring soul ballad Touch A Hand, Make A Friend, the rasping vocal of Mavis on swing happy Long Road To D.C., though a cover of Otis Redding’s (Sittin’On) The Dock Of The Bay proved less effective. No one was going to match Otis’ original. Undoubtedly their finest moment was the funky brass stylings on the southern soul magic of I’ll Take You There, with Mavis pulling out all the stops, and the hook laden I Got To Be Myself coming a close second. As a soul ballad, The Ghetto showcases Mavis’s masterful singing qualities to perfection – magnificent.

File under: Essential, educational, enlightening.

Elly Roberts