Erma Franklin – Piece Of Her Heart The Epic And Shout Years(2009)Shout - Rare R&B/Soul

Though it's reasonably well known that Erma Franklin did the original version of "Piece of My Heart," the prime body of recordings by Aretha's older sister was still pretty ill-served by CD compilations until this 2009 release. Its 26 tracks contain everything she recorded for the Epic and Shout labels between 1961 and 1968. That includes her 1962 Epic LP Her Name Is Erma, various early-'60s non-LP Epic singles, and the seven tracks she recorded for Shout in 1967-68 (among them the 1967 Top Ten R&B hit "Piece of My Heart"). Like Aretha Franklin's pre-Atlantic work for Columbia during the same era, Erma's Epic output in particular was pretty uneven, with too much emphasis on orchestrated popular standards. Yet mixed in with those were some gutsy early soul and girl group-style sides, a few of which  especially "Don't Wait Too Long" (penned by sister Carolyn Franklin) and the downright terrific "I Don't Want No Mama's Boy"  were arguably grittier and stronger material-wise than anything Aretha was doing in a similar vein in the early '60s. More suitable soul tunes became less of a problem in her short but impressive stint with Shout, which included the down'n'dirty, bluesy Carolyn Franklin composition "Don't Catch the Dog's Bone" and the obscure Carole King-Gerry Goffin number "Don't Have the Right to Cry." To repeat an unavoidable comparison, Erma's voice wasn't quite as amazing as Aretha's, but it was really good, and deserving of more success than it got at Epic or Shout (or her subsequent time at Brunswick, unrepresented on this compilation). This package is a fine commemoration of her underrated talent, though audiophiles should be aware that two of her Epic singles had to be remastered from vinyl here as the master tapes are missing. This far-too-long-in-waiting compilation album reveals this artist’s quality in her own right. To have to be compared to her younger sister, Aretha, never allowed Erma the degree of admiration her vocals deserve. This album is mostly a tale of pairings, in the sense that the best tracks can be paired with regards to the artist covered, or the songwriter in question. Two undervalued tracks are two of Erma’s lost singles, ‘Abracadabra’ and ‘Love is Blind’. Another pair of standout tracks are her exceptional R&B covers of two of bluesman Jimmy Reed’s classic tracks, where her voice absolutely comes into its own  ‘Big Boss Man’ and ‘Baby What You Want Me To Do’. while the album highlight is Erma’s first recording of ‘Piece of My Heart’, which twelve months later became a massive hit for Janis Joplin. A fitting testimony to a great vocalist who, if not eclipsed by her sister’s shadow, would have enjoyed a much more illustrious career. A Vastly under rated talent!

AMM

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