Mavis Staples

Genres:	Blues • Christian & Gospel • Documentaries • Jazz • Musicals & The Arts • Pop / Rock • R&B / Soul
Descriptive "tags":	soul • blues • gospel • female vocalists • rhythm and blues
Decades Active:	1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	MySpace • Official Homepage • Wikipedia

Biography

10 July 1939, Chicago, Illinois, USA. The exceptional lead voice of the Staple Singers began a simultaneous solo career when the group was signed to the Stax Records label in 1968. Here she began recording distinctly secular material including songs by Otis Redding (‘Good To Me’, ‘Security’), Sam Cooke (‘You Send Me’) and Joe Simon (‘The Chokin’ Kind’). The singer’s gospel fervour enhanced such compositions, although her first R&B hit came with an original song, ‘I Have Learned To Do Without You’. This progress was waylaid in the wake of the Staple Singers’ own success with ‘Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)’ and her career was only resumed in 1977. ‘A Piece Of The Action’ was a fine soundtrack collaboration with Curtis Mayfield, but later releases swamped her magnificent voice in disco and electro pop beat.

In 1987 Staples was signed to...

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