Barbara Acklin (born in Chicago on February 28, 1944) came from a musical family. Her grandmother was blues singer Asa Eskridge, and her cousin was keyboardist/arranger Monk Higgins. Barbara's parents always encouraged her to sing.
By age eleven, Acklin was a featured vocalist in the choir of the New Zion Baptist Church. While attending Dunbar Vocational High, she performed secular music at nightspots on Chicago's South Side. When Barbara graduated, Monk Higgins got her a job as a secretary with St. Lawrence Records, where he worked as a producer and recording artist. Acklin also performed background vocals during recording sessions. Higgins waxed one single on her for the Special Agent label as "Barbara Allen," but it did not sell.
Higgins then moved his base of operations to Chess Records, and Barbara followed. At Chess, she sang back-up for Fontella Bass, Etta James, Minnie Riperton, and Koko Taylor. In 1966, Acklin got a job as a secretary/receptionist for Carl Davis at Brunswick Records (home of Jackie Wilson), and started writing songs on the side. She asked Davis to record her, but he kept giving her the runaround.
Acklin wrote a song with David Scott of the Five Du-Tones ("Shake A Tail Feather," 1963) called "Whispers (Getting Louder)." When it became a huge hit for Jackie Wilson, he told Barbara, "If there's anything I can do for you, let me know!" She asked Wilson to persuade Davis to let her record.
Three weeks later, Barbara was in the studio. He first two singles stiffed, but a duet with Gene Chandler called "Show Me The Way To Go" reached #30 on the R&B charts in 1968. Her next single, "Love Makes A Woman," proved Acklin's biggest hit, reaching #15 pop and #3 R&B that summer. While it proved her only successful pop hit, Barbara was a consistent presence in the Billboard R&B top forty through 1970. Her hits included "Just Ain't No Love," "After You," "I Did It," and "Am I The Same Girl." (The latter was the basis of Young-Holt Unlimited's instrumental hit, "Soulful Strut." They simply removed Acklin's vocals and replaced it with a piano.)
Disappointed by her lackluster record sales, Barbara left Brunswick in 1973 and moved on to Capitol. Her biggest hit for the label, "Raindrops," hit #6 R&B in the summer of 1974. Later in the '70s, Barbara stepped out of the spotlight and went on the road with Tyrone Davis as a back-up singer.
Acklin left Capitol in 1979 and signed with the Chi-Sound label the following year, but no records were released. In the '80s, she was the road manager for Ike Turner's occasional "Tina" fill-in Holly Maxwell. Acklin also married Eugene Record of the Chi-Lites and co-wrote songs with him, including the Chi-Lites' hits "Have You Seen Her" and "Stoned Out Of My Mind."
While visiting a friend in Omaha, Nebraska, for Thanksgiving weekend, Barbara Acklin died suddenly on Friday, November 27, 1998.
SOURCE: Wayne Jancik, The Bilboard Book of One-Hit
Wonders; Joel Whitburn, Billboard's Top R&B Singles,
1942-1995
RECOMMENDED CD: Greatest Hits
(Brunswick)
One of the unsung heroes of southern soul.
Born in Florence, Alabama, May 10, 1940. His parents both sang in church while his father, a guitarist, played the blues in juke joints on the weekends. In the sixth grade, Alexander joined a gospel group called the Heartstrings. After high school, he worked as a bellhop at the Holiday Inn.
He first recorded for Judd in 1960, and teamed up with producer Rick Hall for studio work in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Alexander wrote many songs that were covered by others, such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Ry Cooder, Dusty Springfield, Tina Turner, and even the Bee Gees. An entire episode of Married...With Children was built around Alexander's 1962 hit, "Anna." His other seminal recordings included "Soldier of Love," "You Better Move On," "Dream Girl," "A Shot of Rhythm and Blues," and others too numerous to mention.
Alexander dropped out of the music business in 1975. From
1981-93, he worked as a bus driver in Cleveland. After eighteen years out of the
loop, he recorded a new album in 1993. Unfortunately, before Alexander could
make a full-fledged comeback, he passed away on June 9th of that
year.
SOURCE: Joel Whitburn (ibid.); CD liner
notes (see below)
RECOMMENDED CD: The
Greatest (Ace)
In the middle 1960s, with the phenomenal popularity of Motown and Stax, Warner Brothers decided to start up its own R&B subsidiary. Named after the street below the machine-shop building where the record division was first located, Loma Records wholeheartedly gave some stellar recordings to the listening public, and encompassed a host of great, great soul artists. (Loma's biggest single, on its Calla subsidiary, was J.J. Jackson's "But It's Alright" in 1966.)
Loma's main entry into the already heavily populated Girl Group market was the Apollas, an ambitious trio that consisted of Billie Barnum, Ella Jamerson, and Leola Jiles. In the fall of 1965, they debuted on Loma with the Motownesque scorcher, "You're Absolutely Right." Through 1967, the Apollas released subsequent rockers such as "Pretty Red Ballons" and "Mr. Creator," as well as an awesome ballad called "Who Would Want Me Now" (which was written by Don and Phil Everly).
Not one of those records spent as much as one week on the Billboard charts. That undoubtedly was because Warners was a pop label that simply did not know how to market to the R&B audience. That and the fact that so many great soul records came out from 1965-67, the music charts couldn't possibly accommodate them all.
Whatever the case, after eight singles--four on Loma and four on Warners itself--the Apollas faded into the recesses of history. Today, their records are revered on the Northern Soul scene in England, but few others have even heard of this remarkably talented act.
Loma, meanwhile, closed its doors for good in 1968.
SOURCE: CD liner notes, The '60s Girl Groups (Warner Brothers)