![]() ![]() It was eventually decided to play up her more sophisticated side and accordingly, Phillips cut a blues-tinged album of jazz and pop standards her string-laden remake of the Beatles song "And I Love Him" (naturally, with the gender changed) nearly made the R&B Top Ten in 1965 and the Beatles flew her to the U.K. Thanks to her recent success, Phillips was able to catch on with R&B giant Atlantic, which initially recorded her in a variety of musical settings to see what niche she might fill best. Back in the public eye, Phillips recorded a country-soul album of the same name, but Lenox went bankrupt in 1963. In the wake of Ray Charles' groundbreaking country-soul hit "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Release Me" was a smash, topping the R&B charts and hitting the Top Ten on both the pop and country charts. Phillips recorded a country-soul reading of the soon-to-be standard "Release Me," which was released as a single late in the year. Too old to be called Little Esther, she re-christened herself Esther Phillips, choosing her last name from a nearby Phillips gas station. ![]() In 1962, she was rediscovered while singing at a Houston club by future country star Kenny Rogers, who got her signed to his brother's Lenox label. Short on money, Little Esther worked in small nightclubs around the South, punctuated by periodic hospital stays in Lexington, KY, stemming from her addiction. She re-signed with Savoy in 1956, to little avail, and went on to cut sides for Federal and (in 1960) Warwick, which went largely ignored. In 1954, she returned to Houston to live with her father, having already developed a fondness for the temptations of life on the road by the late '50s, her experiments with hard drugs had developed into a definite addiction to heroin. Furthermore, she and Otis had a falling out, reportedly over money, which led to her departure from his show she remained with Federal for a time, then moved to Decca in 1953, again with little success. Billed as Little Esther, she scored her first success when she was teamed with the vocal quartet the Robins (who later evolved into the Coasters) on the Savoy single "Double Crossin' Blues." It was a massive hit, topping the R&B charts in early 1950 and paving the way for a series of successful singles bearing Little Esther's name: "Mistrustin' Blues," "Misery," "Cupid Boogie," and "Deceivin' Blues." In 1951, Little Esther moved from Savoy to Federal after a dispute over royalties, but despite being the brightest female star in Otis' revue, she was unable to duplicate her impressive string of hits. So impressed was Otis with the 13-year-old that he brought her into the studio for a recording session with Modern Records and added her to his live revue. It was while she was living in Los Angeles in 1949 that her sister entered her in a talent show at a nightclub belonging to bluesman Johnny Otis. When her parents divorced, she split time between her father in Houston and her mother in the Watts area of Los Angeles. Esther Phillips was born Esther Mae Jones in Galveston, TX, on December 23, 1935, and began singing in church as a young child. Phillips' career began when she was very young and by some accounts, she was already battling drug addiction during her teenage years whenever her problems took root, the lasting impact on her health claimed her life before the age of 50. An acquired taste for some, Phillips' voice had an idiosyncratic, nasal quality that often earned comparisons to Nina Simone, although she herself counted Dinah Washington as a chief inspiration. Magic's In the Air/ Boy I Really Tied One OnĮsther Phillips was perhaps too versatile for her own good, at least commercially speaking while she was adept at singing blues, early R&B, gritty soul, jazz, straight-up pop, disco, and even country, her record companies often lacked a clear idea of how to market her, which prevented her from reaching as wide an audience as she otherwise might have. (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher & Higherġ0. Title: Capricorn Princess (Expanded Edition)Ġ6. ![]()
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