It is perhaps apropos that Queenie Marie Lyons\u2019s best known song is titled \u2018See And Don\u2019t See.\u2019 For all the acclaim that song has accrued, and all the times it has been compiled, reissued and, yes, bootlegged \u2014 for all the times it has been seen \u2014 Queenie herself has somehow remained unseen. How did a singer from Ashtabula, Ohio record one of the great female-led soul albums and then simply fall off the map, never to record or perform again?<\/p>\n
Queenie was a natural performer and a gifted singer. At the age of fifteen, she was doing three shows a week at a local venue. In early 1962, Queenie moved to Queens and was soon playing gigs across the city \u2014 an early engagement was with Gene Krupa at the famous Metropole Caf\u00e9 in Times Square \u2014 as well as touring with established acts like Fats Domino and Ray Charles.<\/p>\n
The following year, Queenie made her debut recording, for a subsidiary of RCA called Groove, credited to an entirely fictitious \u201cShelley Shoop and the Shakers.\u201d It remained Queenie\u2019s only presence on wax until early 1968, when a Nashville-based label called Sims gave her her first accurately attributed single, \u201cA Minute Of His Goodtime \/ Good Soul Lovin\u2019.\u201d Although the 45 is now a highly collectible part of the Northern Soul and Lowrider Oldies pantheons, it made no impact at the time, as Sims was focused on more typical Nashville sounds.<\/p>\n
A few months later Queenie was back in New York City, performing R&B and pop covers with her band when a man passed her his business card at a performance. The card read James Brown Enterprises. James Brown \u201cwas my idol,\u201d she says, and someone whose business acumen and stage presence she strove to emulate.<\/p>\n
Although Queenie ended up on tour with James Brown for only a month or so, when the group reached Cincinnati in mid-\u201968 she entered the King Records studio there to record what would become the album you hold in your hands.<\/p>\n
The songs were a combination of covers, some of which she\u2019d been doing in her live shows, like \u2018Fever\u2019 and \u2018Try Me,\u2019 and originals written by producer Henry Glover and pianist Don Pullen, who was the bandleader on the session.<\/p>\n
The album opener, \u2018See And Don\u2019t See,\u2019 was also recorded by the veteran R&B singer Maxine Brown, but Queenie\u2019s version blows hers away. \u201cSoul Fever\u201d is a supremely funky and soulful affair, with Queenie\u2019s powerful and captivating voice magnetically attractive, with an urgency that is impossible to ignore. \u2018Your Thing Ain\u2019t No Good Without My Thing,\u2019 \u2018Your Key Don\u2019t Fit It Anymore,\u2019 and \u2018I Don\u2019t Want Nobody To Have It But You\u2019 are as funky and soulful as the best of Tina Turner and Aretha \u2014 a statement not to be made lightly!<\/p>\n
The album was critically acclaimed \u2014 the October 10, 1970, issue of Billboard listed it as their sole \u201cfour star\u201d pick in the Soul category \u2014 but perhaps due to the tumult at Starday-King, whose stewardship had turned over several times in only a few years, it never seemed to be able to break through to a larger audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A real soul gem from 1970 on the James Brown affiliated Deluxe label, the first and only album by this mysterious singer:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0Marie Queenie Lyons.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n The songs are a combination of funky covers, some of which she\u2019d been doing in her live shows, like \u2018Fever\u2019 and \u2018Try Me,\u2019 and originals co-written by pianist Don Pullen, who was the bandleader on the session.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n Our reissue features an alternative cover photo and includes a booklet with rare photos, extensive liner notes by Andrew \u201cMonk-One\u201d Mason and the first ever interview with Queenie herself!<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":111008,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[67],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-111009","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-soul-en","7":"product_shipping_class-lp-en-3","8":"pa_formato-lp-en","10":"first","11":"instock","12":"taxable","13":"shipping-taxable","14":"purchasable","15":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/111009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=111009"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=111009"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=111009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}