SHIRLEY BROWN - WOMAN TO WOMAN

WOMAN TO WOMAN

SHIRLEY BROWN

SONGWRITERS: HOMER BANKS; EDDIE MARION & HENDERSON THIGPEN

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: WOMAN TO WOMAN

LABEL: STAX

GENRE: CLASSIC SOUL

YEAR: 1974

Shirley Brown(born January 6, 1947, West Memphis, Arkansas) is an American R&B singer, best known for her million-selling single "Woman to Woman", which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1975.

Brown was born in West Memphis, but was raised in Madison, Illinois, where she started singing in church at the age of nine. Early experience singing gospel gave her a powerful but expressive voice likened to that of Aretha Franklin. Albert King discovered her when she was aged 14, singing in the Harlem Club in Brooklyn, Illinois. Young Shirley went on the road with King for nine years. While King made sure she had a tutor, Brown often cut her classes to work with the band.

By 1972, Shirley was living in East St. Louis, Illinois, where she made her first record for the Abet label called, "I Ain't Gonna Tell" and "Love Built on a Strong Foundation". Bandleader Oliver Sain produced the record; Sain worked with King on his first hit record ten years earlier. By 1974, King recommended Brown to Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had been one of the label's stars for some time.

Her 1974 hit, "Woman to Woman" spent two weeks at #1 in the Billboard R&B chart and climbed to #22 in the Billboard Hot 100. It sold over one million copies by December 1974, and was awarded a gold disc. It was to prove to be Stax's final major hit record (the song was later covered by Barbara Mandrell in 1978 and became a top-five country hit).

A moderately successful debut album, Woman to Woman, was released by Stax on their Truth label, but by 1975, the company was struggling financially and also facing litigation. A follow-up single, "It Ain't No Fun" was only a moderate success, and Stax closed soon afterwards.

Her signing to Arista Records in 1977 resulted in the album Shirley Brown, produced by the former Stax owner Jim Stewart and writer-producer Bettye Crutcher, who provided most of the songs. These included "Blessed Is The Woman" which reached #14 R&B (#102 pop).

Brown continued to record for several labels since then, including Fantasy, on the re-formed Stax label, and Sound Town. She has been with the Mississippi based blues label, Malaco Records since 1989. She remains a popular live performer, mainly in southern states of the US, without having found the recording success of her earlier years.

"Woman to Woman" is the title of a 1974 deep soul single recorded by Shirley Brown for whom it was a #1 R&B hit.

The song was written by James Banks, Eddie Marion and Henderson Thigpen, who had previously written hits for Little Milton, the Bar-Kays and other Stax Records artists. According to Thigpen, he and Banks were brainstorming ideas for songs at Stax Studio (quote:)"trying to come up with...something different. When people get serious, they say: 'Hey, let's talk man to man'...We thought it would be interesting to have a song with somebody coming up [with]: 'Hey, let's talk woman to woman'." Thigpen had recently overheard his wife on the phone arguing with a friend about an involved couple of their acquaintance, and - with Eddie Marion - Thigpen and Banks completed their "Woman to Woman" song structuring it as a phone call from a wife to her husband's mistress.

"Woman to Woman" was first offered to Inez Foxx, then signed to Stax's Volt label, who turned it down because - according to Banks - she didn't want to do the spoken intro, feeling that format could only work for a male singer. Around this time Shirley Brown was introduced to Stax president Jim Stewart by Albert King in whose live revue she'd performed while a teenager: Stewart was impressed enough by Brown to himself produce her Stax debut recording - Stewart's first production task in two years - of "Woman to Woman" (Stewart co-produced the track with Al Jackson Jr.) with Brown cutting her vocal in a single take. Brown would state in a 1975 interview (quote:)"The guys who wrote ['Woman to Woman'] sang it through to me and I felt it needed a rap to begin it, so I wrote one off the top of my head"; however the song's co-writer James Banks has stated that the spoken intro was part of the song when it was offered to Inez Foxx, whose dislike of the "rap" caused her to turn the song down.

Reportedly selling a million units in its first eight weeks of release, "Woman to Woman" spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard magazine's Hot Soul Singles chart in November 1974 and crossed-over to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking there at #22. The song is notable for being the last big hit for Stax Records.

[Shirley Brown]

Hello, may I speak to Barbara

Barbara, this is Shirley

You might not know who I am

But the reason I am calling you is because

I was going through my

Old man's pockets this morning

And I just happened to find your name and number

So woman to woman

I don't think it's being anymore than fair

To call you and let you know

Where I'm coming from

Now Barbara

I don't know how you're gonna take this

But whether you be cool

Or come out of a bag on me

You see it doesn't really make any difference

But it's only fair that I let you know that

The man you're in love with

He's mine

From the top of his head

To the bottom of his feet

The bed he sleeps in

And every piece of food he eats

You see, I make it possible

The clothes on his back

Ha ha, I buy them

The car he drives

I pay the note every month

So I'm telling you these things

To let you know how much I love that man

And woman to woman

I think you'll understand

How much I'll do to keep him

Woman to woman

If you've ever been in love

Then you know how I feel

And woman to woman

Now, if you were in my shoes

Wouldn't you have done the same thing too

Oh, oh, woman to woman

Can't you see where I'm coming from

Woman to woman

Ain't that the same thing you would've done

Woman to woman

Now should I just step aside

And let her take what's rightfully mine

Oh, oh, woman to woman

Was I right or was I wrong

I ain't gonna let you break up my happy home

Now woman to woman

Now you see I don't want no trouble now

I hope you understand

I love that man and he's mine

I'm talking to you

Woman to woman

You should be woman enough to understand

That man, I love that man

Woman, woman

Woman to woman, he's mine

And I ain't gonna give him up

My baby, I ain't lying, now.