Irma Thomas - Till My Tears Run Dry (1960-1966)

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Irma Thomas is an American soul singer.

Between 1960 and 1966 Irma Thomas recorded for the Ron, Minit and Imperial labels, scoring two notable hits with "Don't Mess With My Man" on Ron in 1960 (#22 R&B) and "Wish Someone Would Care" on Imperial in 1964 (#17 pop). There were were only ever two albums released under her name during this period (and indeed the whole decade), the Imperial LPs Wish Someone Would Care and Take A Look. Her Minit recordings can be found on this compilation. Those three collections still leave a number of loose ends, which I have gathered together into this thirteen-song compilation.

The first four songs are her Ron recordings from 1960, both singles "Don't Mess With My Man" and "A Good Man" (the latter didn't chart), including their b-sides. The next two songs are the A and B sides of a single on the Bandy label. I can't find much information about this small New Orleans label, but it seems it released a lot of stuff originally on Minit, and could in fact just have been a Minit subsidiary. Indeed both these songs were written Allen Toussaint, and it certainly sounds like his piano playing on "Look Up". Whether this single was released before or after her other Minit singles, I am not sure. The last seven tracks are all from her Imperial years, mostly  b-sides but with a couple of a-sides which weren't featured on the albums. One of these, "I'm Gonna Cry Till My Tears Run Dry", is surely one of her very best recordings, and "It's A Man's Woman's World", produced by James Brown, was her very last Imperial release.

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Irma Thomas - Take A Look (1966)

Irma Thomas is an American soul singer. 

1964's "Wish Someone Would Care" had given Irma Thomas her one and only national pop hit. Between '64 and '66 she released several more fantastic singles on Imperial Records, but none of them came close to repeating its success, the highest charting being "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)", which only got to #52. Her second Imperial album came out in 1966, and was mostly made up of the recent singles. It made for an excellent soul album, featuring songs written by Allen Toussaint, Jerry Ragavoy, Randy Newman and Van McCoy. Compared to her earlier Imperial recordings, most of the songs had a bigger, fuller sound that at times hinted at a Motown influence. 

Indeed it had plenty of potential for a big crossover commercial success (the title track in particular), so it remains a bit of a mystery as to why none of the singles sold well. There was one last single on Imperial, produced by James Brown of all people, before the label let her go. Not much was heard from Irma Thomas for a few years afterwards. 

Wish Someone Would Care (1964) <|> In Between Tears (1973)
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Irma Thomas - Wish Someone Would Care (1964)

Irma Thomas is an American soul singer. 

In the early 60s Irma Thomas had recorded in New Orleans for Joe Banashak's Minit Records under the guidance of producer/songwriter Allen Toussaint, and had scored some local hits. In 1963 Minit was acquired by Imperial Records, which was subsequently itself sold to Liberty Records the same year. Luckily Thomas was kept on board, and in 1964 she recorded new material in L.A. The L.A. sessions produced what would turn out to be her breakthrough hit, the self-penned soul ballad "Wish Someone Would Care", which charted nationally at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Her debut album quickly followed, some excellent soul music, featuring covers of Percy Mayfield's "Please Someone To Love" and Little Willie John's "Need Your Love So Bad". It also featured "Time Is On My Side", by Jerry Ragavoy, which The Rolling Stones would cover in an almost identical arrangement later the same year (it gave them their first Top 10 hit in the US). Though not technically the original (it had been recorded the previous year by jazz trombonist Kai Winding as an almost-instrumental), Irma Thomas's take is generally seen as the definitive version of this song.

|> Take A Look (1966)
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Irma Thomas - The Minit Singles (1961-1963)

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Irma Thomas is an American soul singer.

Irma Thomas was born Irma Lee in Ponchatoula, Louisiana in 1941. Her family made the move to New Orleans when she was a child, and growing up she sang in choirs at church whilst listening to R&B on local radio stations and jukeboxes. By the age of 19 she already had three children and had been married twice - she kept her second husband's name. She got a job singing with Tommy Ridgley's Untouchables part time as she worked other jobs to support her family, not travelling far outisde of New Orleans. In 1960 she had a single released on the local Ron label - "(You Can Have My Husband But) Don't Mess With My Man" was a national hit on the R&B singles chart, rising to #22. This led to her going on the road for out-of-town gigs throughout the South as she became a popular R&B singer.

In 1961 she recorded for Joe Banashak's Minit Records. Like all the other local New Orleans acts signed to Minit (including Jessie Hill, Ernie K-Doe, Aaron Neville, Chris Kenner and Benny Spellman), she recorded under the guidance of Allen Toussaint, who was responsible for writing and producing some of her best work. Between '61 and '63 she released six brilliant singles on Minit which gave her local hits (they were even played on the white radio stations), the most memorable being the Toussaint composition "It's Raining". Another notable song was "Ruler Of My Heart", which was taken by Otis Redding and rewritten as "Pain In My Heart", giving him one of his earliest hits.

This 12-song compilation features all of her Minit releases, both A and B sides of the six singles. Some charming New Orleans R&B, ranging from bouncy, uptempo horn-driven numbers to string-backed ballads.

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