Customer Reviews

It's My Thing

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3 star:		(1)
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FUNKY. INTENSE. SEARING. You want me to go on? I can. This album contains nary a weak track, and we are lucky it's available on CD.

Marva Whitney was one of the greatest vocalists Mr. James Brown worked with. Her voice is a force of nature; raw, gutsy, passionate. Mr. Brown wrote or co-wrote most of this album, in addition to producing and arranging it. He's also evident throughout on backing vocals and organ. If you love James Brown and you don't know about this, it's time to order it. In fact, if you love the music of James Brown it is literally impossible to not love this. Guaranteed.

The band works these grooves like a well-oiled machine; every instrument has a distinct purpose, nothing is out of place. It's almost supernatural how funky this music is. Even the slower tunes are funky. Leave it to James Brown to take a classic song like the Isley Brothers "It's Your Thing", re-write it, and basically obliterate it. Don't get me wrong, "It's Your Thing" is a great track, but when you hear Marva Whitney declare "It's MY Thing" you will believe her!

Two of the tracks are intrumentals, and they kick. "Shades Of Brown", in particular, is a stanky slab of nastiness.

One of my favorite moments on the whole record: In "If you Don't Work, You can't Eat", when James Brown instructs Ms. Whitney to call for Maceo to blow a solo. She calls for him, but even after Maceo is into his solo, James can't stop screaming out "Call him!!!!" It's just one of the many mindblowingly funky moments that defines this album.

There's a bunch of Bonus Tracks at the end of the album tracks. In all but one case, they equal the quality of the previous material. That one track that doesn't quite cut it (second to last track) is a Burt Bacharach tune. By no means an embarrassment, it just kinda comes across awkwardly, feels out of place.

The sound quality is less than perfect, though considering it's age, it's more than listenable. A few tracks have some audible distortion that can be a bit distracting. But thankfully, the bottom end is full and deep, the bass and drums really kick.

This album is one of those reminders of how good life can be. Fans of funk, r&b, and soul shouldn't even think twice about snagging this one.

Marva Whitney recorded some of the funkiest and soulful tracks ever recorded by the James Brown machine. It is too bad that Polygram has made them unavailable on CD.
Soul Brothers Records of England put this record out. While I commend them for their effort to make this music available, the remastering job reveals the use of phonograph records. They got careless in the process leaving some tracks with noisy phonograph clicks and pops.(an audiophiles nightmare) The selection of tracks is excellent and some tracks such as "It's My Thing" and "I Made A Mistake" are remastered very well where rare recordings like the duet "Sunny" are scratchy and unnerving.
If You are a Marva Whitney Fan like me, you will probably buy this record. Audiophiles, Stay clear of this record.

This is really very good. I mean that with a pained funky look on my face that says so much more than words ever could. There is more on here than on any compilation of breaks, beats, or whatever. Get this.

Marva Whitney, born May 1, 1944 in Kansas City, Kansas, began her career at the tender age of three while performing with members of her family under the billing The Manning Gospel Singers. After studying voice and composition at the University of Missouri in Kansas, she landed a job singing lead with Tommy Gadson & the Derbys, whose main claim to fame was being the opening act for the likes of The Drifters, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Rufus Thomas, Ike & Tina Turner, and even Little Richard and Etta James among others.

In 1967 she embarked upon a solo career when signed by James Brown Productions and King Records, traveling far and wide with The James Brown Revue, including one memorable visit to U.S. troops in Vietnam where, according to Brown, "she dodged just as many bullets as I did" - an act of heroism that earned her recognition by the U.S. Defense Department and the U.S. Ninth Infantry Division's brass.

In June 1969 she scored her first hit single for King when the answer song to The Isley Brothers' It's Your Thing, called It's My Thing (You Can't Tell Me Who To Sock It To), reached # 19 R&B and # 82 Billboard Pop Hot 100. Here they give you Parts 1 and 2 of the song, although the original King single had Ball Of Fire on the flipside, and that's not included here. In September, Things Got To Get Better (Get Together) made it to # 22 R&B and # 110 on the Hot 100 "bubble under" charts b/w Get Out Of My Life, and in November came her third (and last) hit single, I Made A Mistake Because It's Only You Pt. 1, which topped out at # 32 R&B b/w Part 2. All were produced by James Brown and all are in this collection.

Although a lucrative singles career avoided her, simply because she was far too funky to have made an impact on the more uptight, conservative pop charts, she did continue to perform with the Revue until the start of the 1970s, and also recorded the well-received King albums It's My Thing and Live and Lowdown At The Apollo before moving on to the Isley Brothers' T Neck label and, later, Nashboro Records [her sides with NAshboro have been re-released on CD by Ace of London so you know THAT'S a good buy].

From 1988 to 1993 she performed throughout Europe with the James Brown All-Stars [aka James Browns' Funky People] along with Vicki Anderson, Alfred Ellis, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Maceo Parker, and Fred Wesley, and in 2000 Soul Society Records re-released the LPs It's My Thing and Live and Low Down at the Apollo on both CD and Vinyl.

A dynamic, exciting singer who often out-funked the king of funk and who maybe arrived on the scene about a decade too early.