Biography
A pop-soul singer whose style echoed Dionne Warwick and Brenda Holloway, Barbara Acklin achieved her greatest recognition through the 1968 summer release “Love Makes a Woman.” Born Barbara Jean Acklin on February 28, 1943, in Oakland, California, she was the sole child of Herman and Hazel Acklin; the family relocated to Chicago, Illinois, in 1948. Her earliest vocal training occurred in the choir of Big Zion Baptist Church, and as a teenager she performed in local nightclubs while enrolled at Dunbar Vocational High School. After graduation she took a secretarial position at St. Lawrence Records arranged by her cousin, producer and saxophonist Monk Higgins, whose own single “Who Dun It” appeared on the national R&B charts in 1966 and who later co-produced several ICA hits for Bobby Bland in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Higgins issued an Acklin recording under the name Barbara Allen on his Special Agent imprint and subsequently employed her as a background vocalist on his Chess Records dates.
In 1966 Acklin joined Brunswick Records as a receptionist for producer Carl Davis, whose roster included the Chi-Lites and Gene Chandler. Determined to record, she repeatedly urged Davis to give her studio time while he encouraged her songwriting instead. She approached Jackie Wilson with a composition she had created alongside David Scott, formerly of the Five Du-Tones and the Exciters. Wilson approved the song and forwarded it to Davis; cut on August 8, 1966, and issued the following month, “Whispers (Gettin Louder)” climbed to number six R&B and number eleven pop, paving the way for Wilson’s mid-sixties resurgence and his sole number-one R&B single, “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.” In gratitude Wilson assisted Acklin in obtaining her own Brunswick contract.
Her initial chart entry arrived in spring 1968 with the Chandler duet “Show Me the Way to Go,” which reached number thirty R&B. That July she claimed her signature hit when “Love Makes a Woman” peaked at number three R&B and number fifteen pop, earning a BMI Award. A second Chandler collaboration, “From the Teacher to the Preacher,” followed in October and registered at number sixteen R&B and number fifty-seven pop. Subsequent singles included “Just Ain’t No Love,” “Am I the Same Girl,” “After You,” “I Did It,” “Lady Lady Lady,” and “I Call It Trouble.” Her Brunswick long-players comprised Love Makes a Woman (summer 1968), Seven Days of Night (1975), Someone Else’s Arms (April 1970), I Did It (December 1970), I Call It Trouble (1973), and Barbara Acklin’s Greatest Hits (April 4, 1995).
The instrumental backing of “Am I the Same Girl” was repurposed for Young-Holt Unlimited’s “Soulful Strut,” which replaced Acklin’s vocals with piano and outsold and outcharted the original, attaining Top Ten R&B, number three pop, and more than two million copies. During this period Acklin began writing with fellow Brunswick artist Eugene Record of the Chi-Lites. Their collaboration yielded the spare ballad “Have You Seen Her,” which reached number one R&B and number three pop, securing the group’s first gold record; originally the closing track on (For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People, the five-minute song received extensive soul-radio play. The same partnership led to the Chi-Lites’ first number-one pop single, “Oh Girl,” which topped the R&B chart for two weeks in June 1972. Additional Acklin-Record compositions for the group encompassed the buoyant “Stoned Out of My Mind” and the reflective “Toby,” a double-sided hit that titled a 1974 album whose flip side, “That’s How Long,” was credited to Archie Powell and Tony Byrd.
Acklin left Brunswick for Capitol Records in 1974. Her debut single there, “Raindrops,” became an R&B hit in June. The album A Place in the Sun, issued in May 1975 and produced by Willie Henderson, yielded two further singles: “Special Loving” and “Give Me Some of Your Sweet Love.” Despite favorable notices, Capitol ended the association. Acklin maintained a performing schedule as a soloist and as a background singer alongside the Chi-Lites and other acts.
In 1990 MC Hammer included a cover of “Have You Seen Her” on his second Capitol album, Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ’Em, the first multi-platinum rap release in history. The single itself earned gold status. British pop ensemble Swing Out Sister scored a 1992 U.K. hit with “Am I the Same Girl.” Late in 1998, during a telephone interview from her Omaha, Nebraska, residence with Chicago cable host Royce Glamour, Acklin spoke enthusiastically about new recordings while mentioning a persistent cold. Days later she was hospitalized and died of pneumonia on November 27, 1998, survived by her son Marcus, her aspiring-singer daughter Samotta, her granddaughter Sheratta, and an extensive catalog of classic Chicago soul.
In 1966 Acklin joined Brunswick Records as a receptionist for producer Carl Davis, whose roster included the Chi-Lites and Gene Chandler. Determined to record, she repeatedly urged Davis to give her studio time while he encouraged her songwriting instead. She approached Jackie Wilson with a composition she had created alongside David Scott, formerly of the Five Du-Tones and the Exciters. Wilson approved the song and forwarded it to Davis; cut on August 8, 1966, and issued the following month, “Whispers (Gettin Louder)” climbed to number six R&B and number eleven pop, paving the way for Wilson’s mid-sixties resurgence and his sole number-one R&B single, “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.” In gratitude Wilson assisted Acklin in obtaining her own Brunswick contract.
Her initial chart entry arrived in spring 1968 with the Chandler duet “Show Me the Way to Go,” which reached number thirty R&B. That July she claimed her signature hit when “Love Makes a Woman” peaked at number three R&B and number fifteen pop, earning a BMI Award. A second Chandler collaboration, “From the Teacher to the Preacher,” followed in October and registered at number sixteen R&B and number fifty-seven pop. Subsequent singles included “Just Ain’t No Love,” “Am I the Same Girl,” “After You,” “I Did It,” “Lady Lady Lady,” and “I Call It Trouble.” Her Brunswick long-players comprised Love Makes a Woman (summer 1968), Seven Days of Night (1975), Someone Else’s Arms (April 1970), I Did It (December 1970), I Call It Trouble (1973), and Barbara Acklin’s Greatest Hits (April 4, 1995).
The instrumental backing of “Am I the Same Girl” was repurposed for Young-Holt Unlimited’s “Soulful Strut,” which replaced Acklin’s vocals with piano and outsold and outcharted the original, attaining Top Ten R&B, number three pop, and more than two million copies. During this period Acklin began writing with fellow Brunswick artist Eugene Record of the Chi-Lites. Their collaboration yielded the spare ballad “Have You Seen Her,” which reached number one R&B and number three pop, securing the group’s first gold record; originally the closing track on (For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People, the five-minute song received extensive soul-radio play. The same partnership led to the Chi-Lites’ first number-one pop single, “Oh Girl,” which topped the R&B chart for two weeks in June 1972. Additional Acklin-Record compositions for the group encompassed the buoyant “Stoned Out of My Mind” and the reflective “Toby,” a double-sided hit that titled a 1974 album whose flip side, “That’s How Long,” was credited to Archie Powell and Tony Byrd.
Acklin left Brunswick for Capitol Records in 1974. Her debut single there, “Raindrops,” became an R&B hit in June. The album A Place in the Sun, issued in May 1975 and produced by Willie Henderson, yielded two further singles: “Special Loving” and “Give Me Some of Your Sweet Love.” Despite favorable notices, Capitol ended the association. Acklin maintained a performing schedule as a soloist and as a background singer alongside the Chi-Lites and other acts.
In 1990 MC Hammer included a cover of “Have You Seen Her” on his second Capitol album, Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ’Em, the first multi-platinum rap release in history. The single itself earned gold status. British pop ensemble Swing Out Sister scored a 1992 U.K. hit with “Am I the Same Girl.” Late in 1998, during a telephone interview from her Omaha, Nebraska, residence with Chicago cable host Royce Glamour, Acklin spoke enthusiastically about new recordings while mentioning a persistent cold. Days later she was hospitalized and died of pneumonia on November 27, 1998, survived by her son Marcus, her aspiring-singer daughter Samotta, her granddaughter Sheratta, and an extensive catalog of classic Chicago soul.