Betty Harris – Mojo Hannah
Miss Betty Harris
Listen/Download Betty Harris – Mojo Hannah
Greetings all
The conclusion of another week is close at hand, so I must remind you of the weekly celebration of soul known as the Funky16Corners Radio Show. Yours truly whips the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove (all on vinyl) upon the airwaves of the interwebs each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. As always, if you canot be there at the time of broadcast, you can always pick up the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes, or grabbing an MP3 download here at the blog.
We’re still in the midst of post-hurricane chaos, i.e. no power, no wifi (publishing prepared posts from the iphone) and no idea when things might get better.
Right now I have another week or so of posts left until I run out. If the power isn’t back by then we may have to relocate.
The record I bring you today is one of those atomic hotfoot, get off your ass and dive into the weekend things I like to drop on a Friday.
If you drop by here with any regularity, or back in the old Funky16Corners web zine days, you already know that Miss Betty Harris is a huge favorite of mine.
The remarkable sides she recorded in New Orleans with Allen Toussaint (for Sansu and SSS Intl) are rightly regarded as classics and ought to be included in any respectable survey of female soul singing of the classic era.
Oddly enough, though her NOLA-based sides are incredible, none of them (with the exception of 1967s ‘Nearer To You’, which was R&B Top 20) came close to the success of her 1963 cover of Solomon Burke’s ‘Cry To Me’, which made the R&B Top 10 and very nearly the Pop Top 20.
Harris recorded three 45s (an another unreleased track) for the Jubilee label in 1963 and 1964, the last of which was today’s selection, her version of the oft-recorded ‘Mojo Hannah’.
Produced by none other than the mighty Lieber and Stoller, Harris’s version of ‘Mojo Hannah’ is just this side of completely fucking nuts (and I mean that in the best way possible).
She takes the song at a breakneck pace, so fast that there area couple of points where she appears to run short of breath.
The arrangement is very cool, marked by a deep, twangy lead guitar, Ikette-esque backing vocals and horn accents.
It is one of the greatest vocals that Betty Harris ever laid down, and ought to be much better known.
I hope you dig it (and if you haven’t explore Miss Harris’s discography), and I’ll see you on Monday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Themocracy
Per Ardua ad Soul ! Our thoughts are with you all.
Great track! Hope life gets back to normal for you all real soon.
Stu
Completely fucking nuts is an understatement. That is one hot ass song. Thanks tons.
You can really hear Big Maybelle’s influence and tutelage on this track. Damn that’s funky.