I'm a serious Motown aficionado (I own most of the Complete Motown Singles box sets in addition to hundreds of other CDs by Motown artists and Motown collections), yet I wasn't familiar with Yvonne Fair until I heard her "It Should Have Been Me" from the Introduction to Tamla Motown British box set (I also had a few of her Motown tracks on other British pressings like the Cellarful of Motown series). The intro to the song didn't really get my attention, but when Yvonne launches her soulful growl into the chorus, I couldn't get enough of her voice.

Yvonne got her start as a member of the Chantels and the James Brown Revue. She was signed to Motown in the early 1970s after working with Chuck Jackson and also appeared in Lady Sings the Blues. Producer Norman Whitfield recorded a series of singles with Yvonne that culminated in 1975's The B!tch Is Black, her only album for Motown. Some of these singles also appear on Hip-O Select's comprehensive The Complete Motown Albums (Vol. 10). It's also possible to find a few other stray Yvonne tracks on Cellarful of Motown releases like the powerful I Can't Let Him Go. 

There's a number of solid tracks here that showcase Yvonne's powerful chops, including her cover of Funky Music Sho' Nuff Turns Me On, the soulful ballad Stay A Little Longer, the uber-funky Tell Me Something Good, and the bluesy Walk Out the Door If You Wanna, which evoked Koko Taylor and Wilson Pickett.  Yvonne's voice has that gritty edge that brings to mind Aretha and Gladys Knight.

Despite the era of these recordings (this was after Berry Gordy relocated Motown to LA in 1972) and the funk leanings, there's a lot of classic "Motown sound" courtesy of the peerless Funk Brothers. The Funks provide impeccable backing as usual; bassist James Jamerson, whose signature basslines grace some of Motown's most memorable hits like Bernadette, puts in another stellar performance here, as do Eddie "Bongo" Brown and Earl Van Dyke.

This is the first time that Yvonne's album has been available in more than 30 years, and it also features a 20-page booklet with an essay by A. Scott Galloway with interviews by Chuck Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Sammy Strain (Yvonne's husband and member of Little Anthony and the Imperials), and more. It's a fitting tribute to one of Motown's underappreciated talents who died all too young at 51.

Recommended: Yes