Song What A Man
Album:Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration
One of the recurring themes of my Song Of The Day feature is to unearth original versions of popular covers. Most of you should be familiar with the 1993 hit Whatta Man by Salt-n-Pepa & En Vogue. But I bet you've never heard the 1968 original by Linda Lyndell. Linda was a white soul singer and recorded at Stax. Linda sang in balck and white churches growing up in Gainesville, FL and sang in R & B groups as a teen. She was a local opening act for James Brown. She met Atlanta DJ Dave Crawford and also the legendary Otis Redding and both guys hooked her up with Stax Records producers Isaac Hayes and David Porter. Crawford produced her debut single Bring Your Love Back To Me but it wasn't a hit. Crawford also wrote and produced What A Man and Booker T & The MG's cut it in two takes. It reached #50 on the R & B Singles chart in 1968. The increased visibility called attention to a white woman singing black music triggered threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Linda moved back to Gainesville and retired from music. When she started getting royalty checks for the 1993 cover, Linda returned to music and performed What A Man in public for the first time at the May 2003 opening of the Stax Museum in Memphis. You can get What A Man and plenty of other Stax hits on this 2CD comp. Here's a video of What A Man by Linda Lyndell.
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