MILLIE JACKSON-MILLIE JACKSON

dereksmusicblog ♦ June 22, 2023 ♦ 1 Comment

Millie Jackson-Millie Jackson.

Growing up, life wasn’t easy for Millie Jackson. She was born in the city of Thomson, in Georgia, on July the ’15th’ 1944. Her father was a sharecropper and worked long hours for little reward.

Life was tough for the Jackson family, and got tougher when Millie Jackson’s mother became ill and passed away while her daughter was still a child.

The family was devastated and Millie Jackson and her father decided to move to Newark, New Jersey, where they lived with an aunt. This was a new chapter for the Jackson family.

By the time Millie Jackson was in her mid teens, she had moved to Brooklyn, and was working as a model for Jive and Sepia magazine. At last, her luck was starting to change.

One night in 1964, a friend dared Millie Jackson to enter the talent contest at Small Paradise nightclub in Harlem. Aged just sixteen, she entered the talent contest and won. Little did she know that this was the start of long career as a singer.

Five years later, in April 1969, Millie Jackson released her debut single A Little Bit Of Something on MGM Records. After the single failed to trouble the charts, she signed to Spring Records in 1970. This was the start of a long association with the label.

At Spring Records, Millie Jackson was paired with the label’s in-house producer, Raeford Gerald. He produced the twenty-seven year olds 1971 single A Child of God (It’s Hard to Believe). On its release, it reached twenty-two in the US R&B charts and became Millie Jackson’s first single to chart.

The following year, 1972, Millie Jackson released Ask Me What You Want which reached twenty-seven in the US Billboard 100. Soon, two became three, when My Man, A Sweet Man reached forty-two in the US Billboard 100 and seven in the US R&B charts. Both these songs featured on Millie Jackson’s eponymous debut album.

It featured ten songs, with Raeford Gerald writing If This Is Love, I Miss You Baby,  My Man, A Sweet Man and Strange Things. He cowrote You’re The Joy of My Life with Reginald Spruill, I Gotta Get Away (From My Own Self) with Dock Price Jr. The Pair teamed up with Joe Simon to write I Ain’t Giving Up. Meanwhile, Millie Jackson cowrote Ask Me What You Want and I Just Can’t Stand It with Billy Nichols and A Child of God (It’s Hard to Believe) with Don French. These ten tracks were recorded in two studios in two cities.

The recording sessions took place at Mediasound in New York and Track Recorders in Maryland, Silver Springs. Bert DeCoteaux and Tony Camillo arranged the tracks while Raeford Gerald took charge of production. Backed by a talented and experienced band Millie Jackson’s eponymous debut album was complete.

When Millie Jackson was released later in 1972, it featured a collection of songs which seemed to have been influenced by the Motown sound. However, this proved popular and Millie Jackson reached 166 in the US Billboard 200. Millie Jackson’s career was underway.

Despite it being her debut, Millie Jackson was a remarkably mature album that showcased a sound that had been inspired by classic soul. This include sixties Stax, early Philly Soul and the classic Motown sound that was still popular in 1972. That’s apparent on My Man, A Sweet Man with its bass as handclaps punctuate the arrangement.

The quality is apparent from the opening track if This Is Love. Millie Jackson sounds unsure if it is, and is yet to be convinced.  Two of the best tracks follow, the defiant I Ain’t Giving Up and I Miss You Baby where the vocal is mixture of sadness, hurt and regret. This gives way the cinematic sounding A Child of God (It’s Hard to Believe), which is a tale of hypocrisy that’s brought to life by a vocal masterclass.

Closing side one is Ask Me What You Want. Strings dance and set the scene for Millie Jackson. She combines power and passion and is complimented by backing vocalists as a Hammond organ adds a Southern Soul sound on an irresistibly catchy track that swings.  It was released as a single in 1972, reaching number twenty-seven in the US Billboard 100 and four in the US R&B chart

Elsewhere, the album is an emotional roller as Millie Jackson takes centrestage and lays bare her soul. She gives thank for love she’s found on You’re The Joy of My Life as she delivers a heartfelt and impassioned vocal. The tempo drops on the soul-baring ballad I Gotta Get Away (From My Own Self). It features an emotional vocal full that’s a mixture of hurt, heartache and despair on what’s akin to a soulful confessional. Strange Things closes the album and Millie Jackson and her band kick loose. She delivers a vocal powerhouse as she struts her way through the lyrics. In doing so, she closes the album on a high.

By the end of 1972, the three singles taken from Millie Jackson had charted. In 1973, three became four when I Miss You Baby was released as a single. It reached ninety-five in the US Billboard 100 and twenty-two in the US R&B chart. This was just the start of a long and successful career.

This included three albums that were certified gold. The first was 1974s Caught Up, with Feelin’ Bitchy in 1977 and Get It Out’cha System in 1978. It was the ninth album that Millie Jackson released for Spring. However, the her eponymous debut album launched her career in 1972.

Drawing inspiration from Stax, Motown, early Philly Soul, R&B and Souther Soul, Millie Jackson was an emotional roller coaster where the twenty-eight year unleashed vocals that veered between heartfelt and impassioned to soul-baring and tender. Sometimes, the vocals are full of drama and despair, other times hurt and heartache. During some songs, there’s a degree of uncertainly and even disappointment at hypocrisy and love gone wrong. Often it’s as Millie Jackson has lived the lyrics and survived to tell the tale. In doing so, one of the finest female soul singers of her generation brings the lyrics to life.

This Millie Jackson would continue to do during her time at Spring. During the seventies she released a string of successful albums and critically acclaimed albums including several future soul classics. However, the album that launched a long and illustrious career was Millie Jackson which was recently reissued on vinyl by Ace Records.

Millie Jackson-Millie Jackson.