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Ann Peebles Biography
Ann Peebles has one of those rare voices and a style so distinctive that anyone who has heard her once, never confuses her with anyone else.
Through her crossover R&B/pop hit of 1974, I Can't Stand The Rain (featured on female rap sensation Missy Elliott's smash single The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly), Ann Peebles has come to be known as a real "singers' singer" and a "musicians' musician." A strikingly, even classically beautiful woman, Ann Peebles has always been her own person. Perhaps this explains, at least in part, why she has had such an influence on real soul music, R&B, and pop music since her great successes in the early seventies. In fact, her recordings of I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down, Come to Mama, I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home, and even standards like I Pity The Fool and Part Time Love are considered the definitive versions. With the worldwide success of I Can't Stand The Rain (written with her husband Donald Bryant and a local disc jockey), she exploded into the musical mainstream. The song and her singing drew praise from everyone from John Lennon to Bonnie Raitt, who was quoted in a Rolling Stone feature on Ann, as saying, "She's my hero!" And, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Ann Peebles is obviously and widely admired for her artistry, as evidenced by the numerous covers of her own versions own songs have spawned: from English artists like Graham Parker and Paul Young to American rockers such as Bob Seger, Patti Labelle and Tina Turner.
For all the recognizably of her style and songs, Ann Peebles has always deliberately kept a very low profile. Petite, somewhat shy, and still young, Ann was born in the heart of St. Louis known as Kin loc County, where she sang in a family gospel choir with her ten brothers and sisters, performing on St. Louis bills with gospel greats like the Soul Stirrers and Mahalia Jackson. But while her roots are in St. Louis and the church, her greatest success came when she moved to Memphis and embraced rhythm and blues.
Like Al Green, her male counterpart in the Hi Records Memphis Soul revival of the early seventies, she made records with Willie Mitchell. Mitchell produced his trademark funky, yet refined soul sound with the help of a group of studio musicians, the Hi rhythm section. Led by the Hodges Brothers (Teenie on guitar, Charles on organ, and Leroy on bass) and anchored by the MGs Al Jackson and later Howard Grimes, this group played on all of the records to come out of the Hi Studios.
Clearly Ann Peebles was the outstanding female singer in Memphis of this era. She was tiny ("99 pounds of natural born goodness, 99 pounds of soul," she sang in one of her hits) but her voice was remarkably big and overwhelmingly soulful. Her first records were tough rhythm and blues remakes of sides like Bobby Bland's I Pity The Fool and a definitive interpretation of Little Johnny Taylor's Part Time Love. Soon, with the help of her husband Donald Bryant (himself a Hi artist) she penned memorable songs. The biggest was I Can't Stand the Rain, a major 1974 single that was Pebbles most lasting legacy. From it's ominous "drip drop" timbale figure at the beginning, Ann testifies over a slowly percolating Memphis groove.
1997 brought us Ann Peebles' second release on written and produced by Ann herself, Donald Bryant, and music director, arranger; Paul Brown titled Fill This World with Love (BEYE 9564). That album like her last earned much praise from her critics as well as a Handy Nomination, but it also spawned a worldwide tour that featured Ann Peebles in the most captivating live shows of her career. After Ann Peebles left Bullseye in 1998, she embarked on a series of album appearances including duets with soul legends, Don Covay, Carl Weathersby, European superstar Billie Ray Martin and most recently her husband Don Bryant on his brand new release titled It's All In The Word. She and husband Don Bryant continue finding rewards in their involvement with a local therapeutic foster care agency called Omni Vision, Inc.
Still not much more than "99 pounds of soul," Ann Pebbles today is a unique and winning combination of emotional depth and artistic integrity. Graceful and soft-spoken, Ann is an amazing woman, mother and artist of rare depth and great contrast made all the more powerful and extraordinary by the strength of the voice coming from such a petite and restrained singer.
Paul Brown
Through her crossover R&B/pop hit of 1974, I Can't Stand The Rain (featured on female rap sensation Missy Elliott's smash single The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly), Ann Peebles has come to be known as a real "singers' singer" and a "musicians' musician." A strikingly, even classically beautiful woman, Ann Peebles has always been her own person. Perhaps this explains, at least in part, why she has had such an influence on real soul music, R&B, and pop music since her great successes in the early seventies. In fact, her recordings of I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down, Come to Mama, I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home, and even standards like I Pity The Fool and Part Time Love are considered the definitive versions. With the worldwide success of I Can't Stand The Rain (written with her husband Donald Bryant and a local disc jockey), she exploded into the musical mainstream. The song and her singing drew praise from everyone from John Lennon to Bonnie Raitt, who was quoted in a Rolling Stone feature on Ann, as saying, "She's my hero!" And, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Ann Peebles is obviously and widely admired for her artistry, as evidenced by the numerous covers of her own versions own songs have spawned: from English artists like Graham Parker and Paul Young to American rockers such as Bob Seger, Patti Labelle and Tina Turner.
For all the recognizably of her style and songs, Ann Peebles has always deliberately kept a very low profile. Petite, somewhat shy, and still young, Ann was born in the heart of St. Louis known as Kin loc County, where she sang in a family gospel choir with her ten brothers and sisters, performing on St. Louis bills with gospel greats like the Soul Stirrers and Mahalia Jackson. But while her roots are in St. Louis and the church, her greatest success came when she moved to Memphis and embraced rhythm and blues.
Like Al Green, her male counterpart in the Hi Records Memphis Soul revival of the early seventies, she made records with Willie Mitchell. Mitchell produced his trademark funky, yet refined soul sound with the help of a group of studio musicians, the Hi rhythm section. Led by the Hodges Brothers (Teenie on guitar, Charles on organ, and Leroy on bass) and anchored by the MGs Al Jackson and later Howard Grimes, this group played on all of the records to come out of the Hi Studios.
Clearly Ann Peebles was the outstanding female singer in Memphis of this era. She was tiny ("99 pounds of natural born goodness, 99 pounds of soul," she sang in one of her hits) but her voice was remarkably big and overwhelmingly soulful. Her first records were tough rhythm and blues remakes of sides like Bobby Bland's I Pity The Fool and a definitive interpretation of Little Johnny Taylor's Part Time Love. Soon, with the help of her husband Donald Bryant (himself a Hi artist) she penned memorable songs. The biggest was I Can't Stand the Rain, a major 1974 single that was Pebbles most lasting legacy. From it's ominous "drip drop" timbale figure at the beginning, Ann testifies over a slowly percolating Memphis groove.
1997 brought us Ann Peebles' second release on written and produced by Ann herself, Donald Bryant, and music director, arranger; Paul Brown titled Fill This World with Love (BEYE 9564). That album like her last earned much praise from her critics as well as a Handy Nomination, but it also spawned a worldwide tour that featured Ann Peebles in the most captivating live shows of her career. After Ann Peebles left Bullseye in 1998, she embarked on a series of album appearances including duets with soul legends, Don Covay, Carl Weathersby, European superstar Billie Ray Martin and most recently her husband Don Bryant on his brand new release titled It's All In The Word. She and husband Don Bryant continue finding rewards in their involvement with a local therapeutic foster care agency called Omni Vision, Inc.
Still not much more than "99 pounds of soul," Ann Pebbles today is a unique and winning combination of emotional depth and artistic integrity. Graceful and soft-spoken, Ann is an amazing woman, mother and artist of rare depth and great contrast made all the more powerful and extraordinary by the strength of the voice coming from such a petite and restrained singer.
Paul Brown
Ann Peebles All Music Guide Biography
A diminutive singer with a powerful voice and an even stronger attitude, Ann Peebles was one of the artists who defined Willie Mitchell's legendary Memphis soul label Hi Records, along with Al Green and, later, O.V. Wright. Easily the best female singer in the Hi stable, Peebles ranked among the finest deep Southern soul singers of the decade, notching an instant classic with her 1973 hit "I Can't Stand the Rain." She co-wrote a generous share of her own material with husband Don Bryant, and while she cut plenty of love and heartbreak tunes, her persona was built on the grit and resilient strength she displayed on songs like "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down." Peebles wasn't always as appreciated on the charts as her work often merited, especially among pop listeners, but her best recordings hold up among the best of their era.
Peebles was born April 27, 1947, in East St. Louis, MO. Her father was a minister and her mother a singer, and naturally Peebles began singing at a young age in her father's church choir. She also sang with the family group, the Peebles Choir, which had been touring the gospel circuit since Peebles' grandfather founded it a generation earlier. As a teenager, she sang secular music on the St. Louis club circuit, supported and accompanied by her father. There she met blues bandleader Oliver Sain, a local legend, and eventually joined his revue. Peebles caught her big break in 1968 on a trip to Memphis, where she asked to sit in on a club set by trumpeter Gene "Bowlegs" Miller. Miller was already signed to Hi Records at the time, and duly impressed with Peebles' voice, he brought her to Hi house producer Willie Mitchell for a tryout. Mitchell, who was still in the process of shifting the label from country to R&B (and had not yet discovered Al Green), immediately offered Peebles a contract; she was still shy of her 21st birthday.
Mitchell teamed Peebles with singer and house songwriter Don Bryant, seeking a bit more seasoning in her R&B phrasing. Peebles and Bryant soon began writing together, and would also end up dating in 1972. In the meantime, Peebles recorded her debut single, "Walk Away," a song written by Sain that just missed the Top 20 on the R&B chart; the follow-up, "Give Me Some Credit," was also a minor hit. Her fourth single, 1970's "Part Time Love," was her first R&B Top Ten, prompting a reissue of her debut album, This Is Ann Peebles, under that title. 1972's Straight from the Heart was her first artistically realized LP, however; it featured several minor R&B hits in "I Pity the Fool," "Slipped, Tripped and Fell in Love," "I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home" (later covered by Bette Midler), and "Somebody's on Your Case," plus the signature album track "99 Lbs." Her hot streak continued with 1973's I Can't Stand the Rain, which many critics still regard as her finest work. "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" was a decent-sized hit, and the brilliant title cut -- written by Peebles, Bryant, and disc jockey Bernard Miller -- became her biggest hit, peaking at number six R&B and famously becoming a favorite of John Lennon. She also charted with "(You Keep Me) Hangin' On" and "Do I Need You," but more importantly married Bryant in 1974.
In the wake of "I Can't Stand the Rain," Peebles was a star on the soul circuit, even if she never duplicated its commercial success. "Beware," "Come to Mama," and "Dr. Love Power" were all charting singles from 1975's Tellin' It, but the rise of disco and the sale of Hi Records in 1977 would conspire against Peebles' career momentum. 1977's If This Is Heaven produced only one single in the title cut, which was more polished than Peebles' usual fare; none of the singles from 1979's The Handwriting Is on the Wall cracked the R&B Top 50. With Mitchell and most of the Hi house band gone, Peebles took a hiatus from the music business to concentrate on her family.
Peebles reunited with Mitchell in 1989 for Call Me, an album released on Mitchell's short-lived new label, Waylo; however, longtime fans generally found it a disappointing comeback overpowered by sterile electronic instrumentation. Peebles returned to a more organic approach by signing with roots label Rounder's Bullseye Blues subsidiary for 1992's Full Time Love. Another effort, Fill This World with Love, followed in 1996, which featured guest spots from Mavis Staples and Shirley Brown. During the '90s, Peebles guested on several albums by Maria Muldaur. Meanwhile, "I Can't Stand the Rain" was covered by numerous artists, including Tina Turner, and revived by Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott via sampling on her 1997 smash "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)." ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Peebles was born April 27, 1947, in East St. Louis, MO. Her father was a minister and her mother a singer, and naturally Peebles began singing at a young age in her father's church choir. She also sang with the family group, the Peebles Choir, which had been touring the gospel circuit since Peebles' grandfather founded it a generation earlier. As a teenager, she sang secular music on the St. Louis club circuit, supported and accompanied by her father. There she met blues bandleader Oliver Sain, a local legend, and eventually joined his revue. Peebles caught her big break in 1968 on a trip to Memphis, where she asked to sit in on a club set by trumpeter Gene "Bowlegs" Miller. Miller was already signed to Hi Records at the time, and duly impressed with Peebles' voice, he brought her to Hi house producer Willie Mitchell for a tryout. Mitchell, who was still in the process of shifting the label from country to R&B (and had not yet discovered Al Green), immediately offered Peebles a contract; she was still shy of her 21st birthday.
Mitchell teamed Peebles with singer and house songwriter Don Bryant, seeking a bit more seasoning in her R&B phrasing. Peebles and Bryant soon began writing together, and would also end up dating in 1972. In the meantime, Peebles recorded her debut single, "Walk Away," a song written by Sain that just missed the Top 20 on the R&B chart; the follow-up, "Give Me Some Credit," was also a minor hit. Her fourth single, 1970's "Part Time Love," was her first R&B Top Ten, prompting a reissue of her debut album, This Is Ann Peebles, under that title. 1972's Straight from the Heart was her first artistically realized LP, however; it featured several minor R&B hits in "I Pity the Fool," "Slipped, Tripped and Fell in Love," "I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home" (later covered by Bette Midler), and "Somebody's on Your Case," plus the signature album track "99 Lbs." Her hot streak continued with 1973's I Can't Stand the Rain, which many critics still regard as her finest work. "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" was a decent-sized hit, and the brilliant title cut -- written by Peebles, Bryant, and disc jockey Bernard Miller -- became her biggest hit, peaking at number six R&B and famously becoming a favorite of John Lennon. She also charted with "(You Keep Me) Hangin' On" and "Do I Need You," but more importantly married Bryant in 1974.
In the wake of "I Can't Stand the Rain," Peebles was a star on the soul circuit, even if she never duplicated its commercial success. "Beware," "Come to Mama," and "Dr. Love Power" were all charting singles from 1975's Tellin' It, but the rise of disco and the sale of Hi Records in 1977 would conspire against Peebles' career momentum. 1977's If This Is Heaven produced only one single in the title cut, which was more polished than Peebles' usual fare; none of the singles from 1979's The Handwriting Is on the Wall cracked the R&B Top 50. With Mitchell and most of the Hi house band gone, Peebles took a hiatus from the music business to concentrate on her family.
Peebles reunited with Mitchell in 1989 for Call Me, an album released on Mitchell's short-lived new label, Waylo; however, longtime fans generally found it a disappointing comeback overpowered by sterile electronic instrumentation. Peebles returned to a more organic approach by signing with roots label Rounder's Bullseye Blues subsidiary for 1992's Full Time Love. Another effort, Fill This World with Love, followed in 1996, which featured guest spots from Mavis Staples and Shirley Brown. During the '90s, Peebles guested on several albums by Maria Muldaur. Meanwhile, "I Can't Stand the Rain" was covered by numerous artists, including Tina Turner, and revived by Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott via sampling on her 1997 smash "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)." ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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