I am stunned to discover that Marie “Queenie” Lyons’ playful retort to The Isley Brothers — “Your Thing Ain’t No Good Without My Thing” (answer song of sorts to “It’s Your Thing“) and an obvious candidate for an A-side — ended up as an album-only track from 1970’s Soul Fever, originally issued on DeLuxe, an imprint of Starday-King Records (from King’s post-Syd Nathan era):
“Your Thing Ain’t No Good Without My Thing”
Marie ‘Queenie’ Lyons (1969)
Billboard awarded the Soul Fever LP “Four-Stars” (albums with “sales potential within their category of music and possible chart items”) in its October 10, 1970 edition. Soul Fever also saw release that same year in Brazil (and nearly 40 years later, the album would finally be issued in Spain on Vampi Soul in 2018).
Sole King 45:
“Drown In My Tears” b/w “Try Me“
Michel Rupli’s The King Labels: A Discography does not say whether this album was recorded at King’s Cincinnati studios – although many suspect it was. Soul Fever, sadly, would be Marie “Queenie” Lyons’ first and only album release.
‘Soul Fever’ back cover –
with liner notes by WLAC’s Bill “Hoss” Allen
Things I learned about Marie “Queenie” Lyons from reading Hoss Allen’s liner notes:
- Hails from Archibald, Louisiana but moved to Ashtabula, Ohio at a young age.
- First performed professionally in 1963 at the Club Castaway in Geneva, Ohio.
- Served as vocalist in 1964 with The King Curtis Band in New York City.
- Performed with Jackie Wilson, Fats Domino, The Coasters, Jerry Lee Lewis, and – her idol and inspiration – James Brown, among many others.
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One of the funkiest soul LPs ever to drop –
according to Harvard’s Noah S. Guiney
“Fever“
Marie ‘Queenie’ Lyons
Buckeye Beat says that Lyons is still active and that Queenie’s Lounge, her bar in Ashtabula, Ohio (as of 2014) – is/was still open for business.
Soul and Jazz and Funk points out that the official CD release of this high-demand album was surprisingly late in coming – 2008.
Harvard Crimson‘s, Noah S. Guiney, is aghast that Lyons “was left cruelly unappreciated for so long” due to “a combination of small-label politics and a miniscule marketing budget” and demands that music historians sit up and take notice of this miscarriage of justice.
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Link to Funk
Link to Soul
Link to Answer Songs
