Esther Phillips - And I Love Him - 1966

Esther Phillips was born Esther Mae Jones in 1935 in Galveston Texas. She divided her time between divorced parents in L A California and Houston Tx. At 14 she was a mature singer and was added to the Johnny Otis group.She changed her name to Phillips after seeing a Phillips 66 sign for petroleum products in a gas station! With Otis she had a string of RnB number ones but these stopped after she left his group. She became addicted to heroin and that did not help. After spending some time with her dad to recuperate she restarted her career with Atlantic Records and had a big hit with the Beatles number in this clip. They flew her to England where she was in a Beatles film.She did return to Otis to sing at the Monterey Jazz festival. One of her biggest hits in this latter period was Home Is Where The Hatred Is, a song about her drug addiction. One of the saddest songs I've heard in a long time. She was nominated for a Grammy for this but lost out to Aretha Franklin. Franklin magnanimously handed her the trophy and said it should have been hers. A very productive period ensued with Kudu Records and she hit the charts for the last time in 1985 with Turn Me Out. Very sadly this was posthumous as she had died in 1984 from kidney failure in a California clinic, induced by her earlier drug addiction. I really like her style in this clip, sitting down and singing as though she is having a quiet conversation about her love. She reminds me a bit of Bettye Swann in style here, a lady I regard as the Queen of Soul and who I've featured some time back.