WHITNEY, MARVA
IT’S MY THING (2LP)
LP

BIO :

Marva Whitney, born May 1, 1944 in Kansas City, Kansas, began her career at the tender age of three while performing with members of her family under the billing The Manning Gospel Singers. After studying voice and composition at the University of Missouri in Kansas, she landed a job singing lead with Tommy Gadson & The Derbys, whose main claim to fame was being the opening act for the likes of The Drifters, Bobby « Blue » Bland, Rufus Thomas, Ike & Tina Turner, and even Little Richard and Etta James among others. In 1967 she embarked upon a solo career when signed by James Brown Productions and King Records, touring far and wide with The James Brown Revue, including one memorable visit to U.S. troops in Vietnam where, according to Brown, « she dodged just as many bullets as I did » – an act of heroism that earned her recognition by the U.S. Defense Department and the U.S. Ninth Infantry Division’s brass.

In May-June 1969 she scored her first charting single when the answer song to The Isley Brothers’ March-April 1969 smash # 1 R&B/# 2 Billboard Pop Hot 100 It’s Your Thing, titled It’s My Thing (You Can’t Tell Me Who To Sock It To), reached # 19 R&B and # 82 Billboard Pop Hot 100 as King 6229 b/w Ball Of Fire. Not a huge hit as the charts go, but good enough to earn her the 1969 stereo LP of the same name (King KSD-1062) containing: A1. It’s My Thing – Part 1 (2:50); A2. It’s My Thing – Part 2 (2:02); A3. Things Got To Get Better (Get Together) (2:55); A4. What Kind Of Man? (2:10); A5. If You Love Me (2:40); A6. In The Middle (instrumental – 2:45); B1. Unwind Yourself (2:45); B2. You Got To Have A Job (If You Don’t Work, You Can’t Eat) (4:15); B3. I’ll Work It Out (2:58); B4. Get Out Of My Life (2:55); B5. I’m Tired, I’m Tired, I’m Tired (Things Better Change Before It’s Too Late) (2:30); B6. Shades Of Brown (instrumental – 2:30).

From the album was culled the single Things Got To Get Better (Get Together) which peaked at # 22 R&B and # 110 Hot 100 Bubble Under in Aug-Sept b/w Get Out Of My Life as King 6249, and in November she scored her third and last nationally-charting single when the non-LP side I Made A Mistake Because It’s Only You – Part 1 (3:02) topped out at # 32 R&B b/w Part 2 (2:59) as King 6268. All were produced by James Brown, and that’s the album (same cover) that you see here reformatted for CD in 2000 by Soul Brothers with the addition of 6 “bonus” sides including both sides of that last charting single at tracks 13 and 14.

At track 15 is the failed 1968 single King 6201 “What Do I Have To Do To Prove My Love To You?” (2:27) which had as the flipside Your Love Was Good For Me (omitted here), track 16 is “He’s The One” (2:33) which emerged in 1970 as King 6283while at track 17 is the flipside, “This Girl’s In Love With You” (2:58), and the CD concludes with a James Brown & Marva Whitney duet rendition of the Bobby Hebb 1966 smash hit Sunny (3:18) from the 1969 album “Live And Lowdown At The Apollo” (King KS 1079).

Although a lucrative singles career avoided her, simply because she was far too funky to have made an impact on the more uptight, conservative Pop charts, she did continue to perform with the Revue until the start of the 1970s before moving on to the Isley Brothers’ T Neck label and, later, Nashboro Records. From 1988 to 1993 she performed throughout Europe with the James Brown All-Stars (aka James Browns’ Funky People) along with Vicki Anderson, Alfred Ellis, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Maceo Parker, and Fred Wesley.

In this excellent compendium of her King material you will hear a dynamic, exciting singer who often out-funked the king of funk and who perhaps arrived on the scene about a decade too early. It’s just too bad for completist hits collectors that they could not have included Ball Of Fire as one of the “bonus” sides, and for that key omission I had to deduct one star.