Barbara Lynn released a whole slew of singles in the 60s & 70s – how come I only just became aware of her? Yeah, what’s my problem?
Her 1962 debut single for Jamie was a #8 Pop & #1 R&B hit “You’ll Lose a Good Thing.” Lynn would hit the Billboard Top 100 and R&B Top 40 a couple handfuls of times between 1962-1971.
Does sister rosetta tharpe know about this?
In 1966 Barbara Lynn would appear on TV’s The !!!! Beat hosted by Bill “Hoss” Allen (who wrote the liner notes for “Queenie” Lyons’ Soul Fever LP) – for a live performance of 1965 Jamie A-side, “It’s Better to Have It”:
“It’s Better to Have It” Barbara Lynn 1966 TV Performance
Lynn would also gain renown for having recorded the original “You Left the Water Running” in 1966. Am I the first to be tickled by the discovery that only the year prior, King Records would release a 45 by Wayne Cochran bearing the same song title!
“You Left the Water Running” Wayne Cochran 1965
MTV has a surprisingly decent biographical profile of Barbara Lynn that begins thusly:
“Singer/guitarist Barbara Lynn was a rare commodity during her heyday. Not only was she a female instrumentalist (one of the very first to hit the charts), but she also played left-handed — quite well at that — and even wrote some of her own material. Lynn’s music often straddled the line between blues and Southern R&B, and since much of her early work – including the number one R&B hit ‘You’ll Lose a Good Thing’ – was recorded in New Orleans, it bore the sonic imprint of the Crescent City.”
Wikipedia points out that Moby sampled Lynn’s “I’m A Good Woman” on his album 18.