Marva Whitney - I've Lived The Life (1977)

At the end of an article about Marva Whiney in this month's Record Collector, the writer noted that 'a compilation of her 60's and 70's singles is long overdue'. Well, your wish is my command, and so here is a companion album to her sole 60's long-playing release, 1969's 'It's My Thing', which contained a lot of her early singles and their b-sides. This post collects every other song that she recorded in her decade long career, including the extremely rare 1968 single 'All My Love Belongs To You', which I've had to subtly edit to remove some talking at the beginning. It also features both the Federal Records and King Records versions of 'Your Love Was Good For Me', plus an unreleased 1969 duet with James Brown. 
Marva Ann Manning (a.k.a. Marva Whitney) was born on 1 May 1944 in Kansas City, and her performing career started as early as three years old while touring with her family's gospel group, the Manning Gospel Singers. At the age of 16 she joined the Alma Whitney Singers and two years later she married Harry Olander Whitney with whom she had a daughter Sherrie Whitney. She began singing R&B music for the first time in 1963 at a Kansas City venue, while studying music at college, and when she left she continued performing in nightclubs and at local talent competitions while working in a garment factory. By the mid-1960's she'd joined local group Tommy (Gadson) & The Derbys as their lead singer, and they opened for many leading performers passing through Kansas City, but in 1967 she left the group, and turned down offers to tour with Bobby Bland and Little Richard before joining the James Brown Revue as a featured vocalist. Her first solo single, 'Your Love Was Good To Me', was recorded for Federal Records in mid-1967, but was unsuccessful, as were her two follow-up singles for new label King Records. She toured Europe, Asia and Africa with James Brown, with whom she was in a relationship, and in early 1968 he produced her fourth solo single, 'Unwind Yourself', in a more funky style. Although the record was not a chart hit, it was later sampled numerous times, and her first chart hit came with 'It's My Thing (You Can't Tell Me Who to Sock It To)', which was an answer record to The Isley Brothers' hit 'It's Your Thing', and which reached number 19 on the Billboard R&B in 1969. She followed up with two smaller hits, 'Things Got To Get Better (Get Together)' and 'I Made A Mistake Because It's Only You (Part 1)', as well as releasing her sole album 'It's My Thing' the same year. Later that year, after about 13 singles with James Brown as producer and writer or co-writer, an exhausted Whitney left the Brown stable in 1969/1970 and returned to Kansas City. 

Clarence Cooper and Allan Bell took over her management, and initially struggled to get Whitney into major venues, but a trip to Chicago in 1970, and a visit to producer Floyd Smith, resulted in a contract with the Isley Brothers' T-Neck label for one single, after which she married Ellis Taylor, who ran Forte Records. She recorded further singles for his label, including 'Daddy Don't Know About Sugar Bear', her most successful post Brown single that was picked up for national distribution by Nashville's Excello records. She retired from recording for several years, making only local appearances in Kansas City, returning to the studio in 1977 for a Forte single with her brother Melvin Manning, as Marva & Melvin, and after another short break she briefly joined the group, Coffee, Cream & Sugar. In 2006, she collaborated with German born DJ/collector/manager DJ Pari and Japanese funk orchestra Osaka Monaurail to produce a new single, 'I Am What I Am', which was very much in the James Brown style, and the single was produced to sound like an authentic release of the type that she produced with Brown in 1969. Two successful tours of Japan and a full-length album release followed, and between 2007 and 2009 the tour was also brought to Europe where she maintained a cult following. In December 2009, she suffered a stroke on stage during a concert in Lorne, Australia, after which the remaining dates of her tour were cancelled, but after a partial recovery she was able to perform again in 2010. In December 2012, Whitney died from complications of pneumonia at her home. She was 68. I hope that this collection is a fitting tribute to an artist who was known during her early days as Soul Sister #1. 

Track listing

01 Your Love Was Good For Me (Federal single 1967)
02 Saving My Love For My Baby (b-side of 'Your Love Was Good For Me')
03 All My Love Belongs To You (b-side of 'I'll Work It Out' 1968)
04 What Do I Have To Do To Prove My Love To You (single 1968)
05 Your Love Was Good For Me (b-side of 'What Do I Have To Do To Prove My Love To You')
06 Tit For Tat (Ain’t No Taking Back) (b-side of 'In The Middle (Part 2)' 1968)
07 Ball Of Fire (b-side of 'It's My Thing (You Can't Tell Me Who To Sock It To)' 1969)
08 Sunny (unreleased single with James Brown 1969)
09 I Made A Mistake Because It's Only You (Parts 1 & 2) (single 1969) 
10 This Girls In Love With You (single 1969)
11 He's The One (b-side of 'This Girl's In Love With You')
12 This Is My Quest (single 1970)
13 Giving Up On Love (b-side of 'This Is My Quest')
14 Daddy Don't Know About Sugar Bear (single 1972)  
15 We Need More (But Somebody Gotta Sacrifice) (b-side of 'Daddy Don't Know About 

                                                                                         Sugar Bear' with Ellis (Gripey) Taylor)
16 Live And Let Live (single 1972)
17 Don't Let Our Love Fade Away (b-side of 'Live And Let Live')
18 (Hey, You And You And You And You) I've Lived The Life (single 1975)
19 Nothing I'd Rather Be Than Your Weakness (b-side of '(Hey, You And You And You 

                                                                                                      And You) I've Lived The Life') 
20 (Get Ready For) The Changes (single as Marva & Melvin 1977)
21 All Alone I've Loved You (b-side of '(Get Ready For) The Changes')