"The Chess Collection" by LAURA LEE - US Singles from 1967 to 1969 and a 1972 US LP "Love More Than Pride" on Chess Records (June 2006 UK Universal/Chess CD Compilation with Gary Moore Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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Cheap, cheerful and chockfull of goodies - at under a five spot brand new - this CD is the way I like 'em.

Perhaps better known for her sexy and sassy Hot Wax 7" single stingers with ex-Motown heavyweights Holland-Dozier-Holland - Laura Lee's sides on Chess Records (recorded at Rick Hall's Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama with Bobby Miller and Billy Davis) offer up a lighter but nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable brew. Soul dancers, ballads and social comment tunes - Detroit's Laura Lee took them all on. And as this brilliant little CD compilation proves - nailed the damn lot with ease. Here are the good lady's particulars...

UK released June 2006 - "The Chess Collection" by LAURA LEE is on Universal/Chess 983 229-4 (Barcode 602498322949) and is housed in a gatefold card digipak (53:01 minutes):

1. Mama's Got A Good Thing
2. Another Man's Woman
3. It Ain't What You Do (But How You Do It)
4. It's All Wrong, But It's All Right
5. I Need To Belong To Someone
6. Dirty Man
7. But You Know I Love
8. That's How It Is
9. It's How You Make It Good
10. Love More Than Pride
11. Are You Doing Me Wrong
12. As Long I Got You
13. She Don't Love You [Curtis Mayfield's "He Will Break Your Heart"]
14. A Man With Some Backbone
15. Wanted: Lover, No Experience Necessary
16. Hang It Up
17. It's Mighty Hard
18. Up Tight Good Man
19. You Need Me (As Much As I Need You)
20. Stop Giving Your Man Away

This CD compilation will allow fans to sequence her American 7" singles and lone album for the label as follows:

SINGLES
1. Stop Giving Your Man Away [20] b/w You Need Me (as Much As I Need You) [19]
Released USA January 1967 on Chess 1989
2. Dirty Man [6] b/w It's Mighty Hard [17]
Released USA July 1967 on Chess 2013
3. Wanted: Lover, No Experience Necessary [15] b/w Up Tight Good Man [18]
Released USA November 1967 on Chess 2030
4. As Long As I Got You [12] b/w A Man With Some Backbone [14]
Released USA March 1968 on Chess 2041
5. Need To Belong [5] b/w He Will Break Your Heart [13]
Released USA July 1968 on Chess 2052
6. Hang It Up b/w [16] It's How You Make It Good [9]
Released USA November 1968 on Chess 2062
7. Love More Than Pride [10] b/w Mama's Got A Good Thing [1]
Released USA April 1969 on Chess 2068

ALBUM
"Love More Than Pride" - released 1972 on Chess Records CH 50031
Side 1:
1. Mama's Got A Good Thing [1]
2. Another Man's Woman [2]
3. It Ain't What You Do (But How You Do It) [3]
4. She Don't Love You ["He Will Break Your Heart" by Curtis Mayfield - 13]
5. It's All Wrong, But It's All Right [4]
6. I Need To Belong To Someone [5]
Side 2:
1. Dirty Old Man [6]
2. But You Know I Love You [7]
3. That's How It Is [8]
4. It's How You Make It Good [9]
5. Love More Than Pride [10]

Compiled and annotated by LOIS WILSON (then of Mojo Magazine) - the 8-page oversized inlay provides a short but detailed history of her stay at Chess and onwards. GARY MOORE from Universal carried out the remasters and they're kicking.

With a voice as gritty and pain-soaked as Etta James and a delivery akin to the deep down inside passion of Aretha Franklin at her fiery Atlantic Records best - Laura Lee's 11-track lone album "Love More Than Pride" seems like a Sixties classic that got shamefully lost (it was eventually a mixture of Sixties and 1972 cuts). Recorded at Rick Hall's Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama with Hall's great band - it was finally issued in 1972 with some new tracks - but years after the event (she had seven singles in the late Sixties, three of which did well on the American Billboard R&B charts). Yet you can't help but think that had it been given an outing in 1967 or 1968 - it would have rivalled Etta's "Tell Mama" or Aretha's monumental "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" as a classic of the period.

Her voice on the hurt-fest ballad "It's All Wrong, But It's All Right" is fantastic - a song penned by two Muscle Shoals heroes - Eddie Hinton and Marlin Greene. Her passion also shines through on her cover of Curtis Mayfield's "I Need To Belong To Someone". When she sings "I want to be missed on a cold and lonely night..." - you know she means it. "Dirty Man" became her signature tune (unfortunately I would say) but better is the mid-tempo brass class of "That's How It Is" or the 1969 belter "Love More Than Pride".

Cheap as chips and as cool as a Chess Records label bag - this is a fabulous little CD by Laura Lee - that like the album it contains from 1972 - is criminally ignored. Dig in right away and enjoy... 

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