Artist:Lorraine Ellison
Song:Stay with Me
Album:Stay with Me: The Best of Lorraine Ellison
The 1966 single Stay with Me was Lorraine Ellison's only big hit. When folks hear it today, they can't believe it wasn't a bigger hit and that Lorraine wasn't a superstar. I will attempt to explain the reasons for that. Lorraine was born Mar. 17, 1931 in Philadelphia. She started out in her family gospel group The Ellison Singers followed by The Golden Chords. After The Golden Chords made a high profile music festival appearance in Spain, Lorraine released a couple of singles for Mercury Records. The 1965 single I Dig You Baby reached #22 on the R&B Singles chart. Lorraine wrote that song with producer Dennis Lambert who would go on to great success in the 70s with partner Brian Potter. Mercury chose not to keep Lorraine and she signed with Warner Bros. The success of I Dig You Baby should have given Warners a clue about how to handle Lorraine. Just pair her with a top producer and they can write songs together. Well, they did the first part by bringing in Jerry Ragavoy to produce. He wrote Time Is On My Side for Irma Thomas and The Rolling Stones scored a big hit with it. Then he wrote A Piece of My Heart for Erma Franklin and Janis Joplin scored a hit with it. Instead they stupidly had her record standards with Oliver Nelson conducting the orchestra. I guess they were aiming at an older audience. The Ragavoy song Stay with Me was only recorded because Frank Sinatra didn't show up for a recording session. With Nelson and the orchestra in the studio, Warners asked Ragavoy and Lorraine to fill in. Then Stay with Me reached #11 on the R&B Singles chart and #64 on the Billboard Hot 100. Other singles from the 1966 album Heart & Soul went nowhere. Warners corrected this mistake with the 1969 album Stay with Me by giving Ragavoy more control. But it was too late. The album was not successful. She also released a third unsuccessful album in 1974. Stay with Me was rediscovered when Bette Midler performed it in the 1979 film The Rose. And since then Lorraine's recording has gained a cult following asking what happened. I think I explained it. Warners messed up. This comp from Ichiban has Lorraine's first two Warners albums plus odds and ends like a song Lorraine recorded for the 1970 film The Landlord. I Dig You Baby is not on this album. Lorraine never recorded again though she had some success as a songwriter. She retired from the music business and died from ovarian cancer on Jan. 31, 1983 at age 51. Here's a video for Stay with Me by Lorraine Ellison.
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