LINDA GEORGE THE BEST OF MISS LINDA GEORGE (FANFARE RECORDS 2019)
It’s a sad fact but Linda George’s classy oeuvre has been largely lost to the world through the absence of her back catalogue on CD. Fanfare Records rectifies this oversight with the 2019 twenty song compilation The Best Of Miss Linda George that cherry picks off her two studio LPs and a couple of non-album 45s. Signed to Image Records in 1972, George’s second single, a striking cover of Gladys Knight & The Pips Neither One Of Us, announced a voice of rare depth. Although only in her early twenties at the time, George’s wise- beyond- her- years vocal tapped into writer Jim Weatherly’s vignette of adult heartbreak and grabbed the song’s deep emotional core. Not surprisingly, her version outsold the Knight original here in Australia. Proving she was no one trick pony, George followed up with a sultry rendition of Ruby And The Romantics’ standard Our Day Will Come and then delivered her debut album , Linda, in 1974 which introduced a singer of real versatility but, perhaps, a singer still in search of a niche. There were forays into smart Country-Pop (Memphis Nights, Give It Love), a fine Country meets Soul reading of Larry Murray’s Hard To Be Friends while an elegant take on Jim Weatherly’s Between Her Goodbye and My Hello suggested a torch singer waiting to happen. However, the album’s standout track was easily Mama’s Little Girl. Written by LA songsmiths and producers, Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, and originally recorded by Dusty Springfield, Mama’s Little Girl more or less became George’s calling card. Pop-Soul in Australia never sounded this good as George’s charming and emotive tone took the song into the nation’s top ten while effortlessly making it all her own. The big time seemed inevitable. Seasoned American, Jack Richardson, who oversaw production of Linda was brought back for George’s second album, Step By Step, and opted to roughen up the sound and exploit the singer’s inherent feel for R&B and Soul idioms. The punchier arrangements did nothing to
MICHAEL MACDONALD
diminish George’s always smooth and assured delivery as evidenced by a tough makeover of Stevie Wonder’s Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-DooDah- Day .Owing more to Memphis than Motown, George wrapped her forceful vocal around a fat horn section and a greasy slide guitar while transforming Wonder’s tune into something of a Blue-Eyed Soul tour de force. A big voiced rendition of Dobie’s Gray’s anthem Drift Away and the like-minded original I Wanna Hear Music kept the soul flame burning while Mike Settle’s California Free revealed an affinity for downhome Country Funk. A singer who was never afraid to mix up genres, George also used Step By Step to explore some Bacharach slanted Pop in the breezy New York City which had all the sleek charm of middle period Dionne Warwick. Step By Step should have established George as a genuine album artist but, as one of life’s great mysteries, it didn’t quite happen. Nonetheless, of the twenty tracks that make up The Best Of Miss Linda George, the one that really reinforces George’s status as a keen and classy interpreter is the rousing, rocksteady workout on Jimmy Cliff’s Sitting In Limbo. George’s vocal, all soul and passion, drives the song into the mystic and, in some ways, nicely caps the legacy of a gifted singer and dignified presence. We should have heard a lot more of her.
