Mable John “Bigger & Better” (Stax 215-B, 1967)

She was the first woman signed to Motown, who at her Saturn Return following her brother Little Willie John to secular music has made history for 60 years.

She’s Mable John.

At 84 years old she still gives you all of herself as a performer and more.

Her best regarded solo recording period, and most prolific was the few years she spend dispensing soul sounds at Stax Records. Her efforts there, recorded when she was 35 years old, drip with a rich world weariness and maturity and “done seen it all” that make for some really revealing caressing of lyrics.

So this lovely burner with some subtle tributes (check out that trombone) to Burt Bacharach’s quirks transports her into a realm of giddiness that was rarely found in her recording material. Perhaps the double entendre of the title and the lyrics helped her let her hair down and have some fun. I love it, and I’m sure you will too.