Garland Green

Garland Green first entered the world on June 14, 1942, in Dunlieth, Mississippi, as the tenth child in a family of eleven, his vibrant, soulful, and pleading voice already evident from the start. He completed his early schooling in nearby Leyland and performed regularly with the gospel ensemble there. Relocating to Chicago in 1958, he finished high school at Englewood High while holding down after-school jobs and singing either with ensembles or alone on weekends. His initial mentor appeared unexpectedly when he was performing inside a pool hall: Argia B. Collins, proprietor of several barbecue establishments who also produced his own Mumbo sauce. Impressed enough to act, Collins funded two years of study at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, where Green concentrated on piano and voice while appearing nightly at neighborhood clubs.

A second opportunity arose when Mel Collins caught his powerful delivery during an amateur contest at the Sutherland Lounge. Married to noted songwriter Josephine “Joshie” Armstead, who had previously collaborated with Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson on “Let’s Go Get Stones,” “Cry Like a Baby,” and additional numbers, Collins shared the discovery with his wife. She recognized a quality likely to appeal to female listeners, so the couple recorded Green in Detroit and issued the material on their Gamma label. Strong local sales prompted MCA to acquire national rights and place the record with its Revue subsidiary. Revue followed with three further singles that justified continued sessions, after which Green advanced to MCA’s Uni imprint and achieved his greatest success with “Jealous Kind of Fella.” Written by Rudolph Browner, Garland Green, Maurice Dollison, and Joshie Armstead, the track climbed to number five on the R&B chart and number twenty on the pop chart. Uni promptly issued an eleven-track album to capitalize on the momentum.

Subsequent Uni releases proved less successful, prompting Green to depart MCA and Armstead for Atlantic’s Cotillion label. Five singles appeared over two and a half years, the strongest being “Plain and Simple Girl,” which reached number seventeen on Billboard’s R&B chart; the remainder made little impact, and Cotillion never released an album. He next recorded for Spring Records, where five singles emerged within an eighteen-month period. These tracks registered only modest chart positions in the sixties and seventies on the R&B side, yet the performances themselves were well regarded. In 1990 Kent Records in the United Kingdom compiled the material as the album Garland Green—The Spring Sides.

A blues session on a small label preceded his move to RCA, which issued three singles and one album produced by Leon Haywood in Los Angeles; unfortunately, limited promotional support yielded negligible results. Nearly seven years passed before Green signed with Ocean Front Records and worked under the production of Lamont Dozier. The resulting album also featured Arlene Schesel, head of the label’s A&R department, on several tracks. Schesel and Green later married. Subsequent recordings appeared irregularly, most often on labels Green operated himself. Although he never duplicated the commercial reach of “Jealous Kind of Fella,” he continued to record steadily throughout his career.