Staple Singers (Formed in 1951)

In their four-plus decades of performing as a group, Chicago's Staple Singers travelled a long, artistically rich road from their beginnings as a gospel quartet, through the folk-rock era, and into the mainstream of American popular music. Their "message music" years at Stax Records in Memphis between 1968 and 1974 were a transition period between the sacred and the secular, and gave the group its biggest chart successes. 

Roebuck "Pops" Staples was born on December 28, 1915, in Winona, Mississippi, where he grew up on hard times and the blues. His singing and guitar styles were influenced by such country bluesmen as Big Bill Broonzy and Barbecue Bob. But Staples soon found the Lord and in 1931 joined a gospel jubilee quartet called the Golden Trumpets. In 1936, Roebuck, his wife Oceola, and their two children, Cleotha and Pervis, moved to Chicago, where their daughters Yvonne and Mavis were born a few years later. Singing in a southern quartet style usually performed by all-male, adult groups, the Staple Singers began to appear at local churches from around 1948 onwards. Mavis, then aged seven, handled the bass parts (an indication of the power of her voice, even then!) By 1954, Pops, Mavis, Cleo, and Pervis (replaced by Yvonne in 1970) landed a contract with Chicago's United label and cut a number called 'Sit Down Servant'. Pop's thin, winsome tenor shared the lead with Mavis' deep, throaty tones, though her unique contralto had not yet developed the emotional edge it was soon to have. The record failed to catch on, however, perhaps because Pops down-home reverberating guitar, which would become a trademark of the group's style, was overshadowed by a rinky-tink piano. The Staple sound clicked in a big way in 1957, when their haunting Vee Jay recording of 'Uncloudy Day' became a nationwide gospel hit. Others followed, including 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken', 'Help Me, Jesus', and 'Swing Down Chariot (Let Me Ride)', establishing them as one of America's top gospel attractions. Unusually for artist recordings of this period much of the material is still available, including the two for one CD "Uncloudy Day / Will The Circle Be Unbroken"

They were signed to Bill Grauer and Orrin Keepnews' Riverside jazz label in 1962, when the folk music boom was in full force. The group was beginning to pick up college bookings in addition to their religious dates. While on Riverside, the Staples became the first African-American group to record material by an emerging songwriter named Bob Dylan. Their following continued to expand when they moved to the Epic label, on which they became associated with such protest songs as 'Freedom Highway' and 'Why (Am I Treated So Bad)', both written by Pops, and a cover of Buffalo Springfield's 'For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey, What's That Sound)'. By the time the Staple Singers joined Stax in 1968, they were performing on bills with major rock acts at venues like Fillmore West and East. The group's first two Stax LPs, produced in Memphis by Steve Cropper of Booker T. & The MGs, were still very much in the folk-rock vein but also included imaginative covers of such pop hits as Otis Redding's 'Dock of the Bay' and The Band's 'The Weight'.

Their third Stax album, "The Staple Swingers", offered a bold new direction of hip "message" songs that were neither sacred nor entirely secular. It was produced in Muscle Shoals, Alabama by Stax's new executive vice president, Al Bell, as was their next, "Be Altitude: Respect Yourself". It was the latter LP that broke the Staple Singers wide open in 1971 and many consider it the group's best and most realised single album. 'Respect Yourself', written by Mack Rice and Luther Ingram, reached #12 pop and #2 R&B at the end of the year, while their next single, 'I'll Take You There', hit #1 on both charts in mid-1972. After that, the Staple Singers could do no wrong. Their hit making streak for Stax included 'Oh La De Da', 'If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)' (another #1 R&B single), and 'Touch A Hand, Make A Friend' before they moved on to Warner Brothers, where they scored with Curtis Mayfield's "Let's Do it Again" soundtrack. The title song became the Staples' third #1 R&B and second #1 pop single. Their Stax material is available on an excellent single CD compilation and is a worthwhile introduction for anyone unfamiliar with the Staples work.

Finally adopting a secular image and changing their name to The Staples, the group continued to record sporadically, but few of their sides matched the artistic brilliance and commercial success of their classic Stax sessions. Pops also managed to create something of a solo career for himself at the grand old age of eighty!

(Thanks to Dean Farrell for the majority of this entry).