Mable John
b. 3 November 1930, Bastrop, Louisiana, USA. The elder sister of Little Willie John, author of Leave My Kitten Alone, Mable John was an early signing to Berry Gordy's Tamla- Motown label. She appeared on the first Motortown Revue (1959) and recorded four singles for the company. After an interlude running a small Chicago outlet, she signed to Stax in 1966. Here Mable specialized in ‘deep’ ballads, pitting her emotive pleas against a complementary Booker T. And The MGs/ Mar-Keysbacking. 1966's Your Good Thing (Is About To End), a tale of infidelity and the consequences thereof which Lou Rawls later took into the pop chart, was the first of seven releases. In 1968 she joined Ray Charles’ Raelettes, and ceased performing as a solo artist. Her distinctive voice is nonetheless audible on several of the group's Tangerine recordings. Mable John subsequently worked as an advisor on LADY SINGS THE BLUES, Berry Gordy's film biography of Billie Holiday.