Gloria Scott

Among soul enthusiasts Gloria Scott has long stood out for her 1974 debut long-player What Am I Gonna Do, an album overseen by Barry White. The record arrived amid a crowded stretch when White issued projects for himself, Love Unlimited, Love Unlimited Orchestra, Tom Brock, and Gene Page, two of whom also contributed to Scott’s sessions, so its pair of charting singles drew limited notice. Several tracks nevertheless hardened into cult favorites, above all across Europe, where Scott has kept performing well into the 2020s. Working steadily since the mid-1960s, she built connections with such R&B figures as Sly Stone, Ike & Tina Turner, and Mary Wilson before issuing her follow-up album So Wonderful in 2022.

Scott spent her childhood between Texas and California. Born in Port Arthur, she relocated with her family to Houston before turning one, began singing there, and started piano lessons. In her early teens the household shifted to East Palo Alto and later to Sunnydale. During a school dance she joined the Mojo Men onstage, which soon led to regular appearances with the group. That association prompted Sly Stone to write and produce her first single, “I Taught Him,” issued by Warner Bros. in 1964. She continued working the Bay Area circuit and spent a period as an Ikette on tour with Ike & Tina Turner.

After leaving the Ikettes, a composition she crafted with Herman Chaney reached Barry White, who promptly signed her. White produced the 1974 Casablanca release What Am I Gonna Do—the label’s second album after Kiss’s self-titled debut and before Parliament’s Up for the Down Stroke—which yielded the Hot Soul Singles entries “What Am I Gonna Do” at number 74 and “Just as Long as We’re Together (In My Life There Will Never Be Another)” at number 14; the latter track also climbed to number 14 on the disco chart thanks to club play. A subsequent project recorded with H.B. Barnum as producer remained unreleased, and no further recordings emerged from her partnership with White.

Scott spent a couple of years performing and recording alongside Mary Wilson. Sustained enthusiasm from European soul audiences eventually turned her into a sought-after live act, including regular appearances at Germany’s annual Baltic Soul Weekender beginning in 2008. What Am I Gonna Do has since been reissued in several editions, while the title track, “(A Case Of) Too Much Lovemakin’,” and the B-side “That’s What You Always Say” have surfaced on numerous anthologies. Scott’s own output remained sporadic, comprising the original “It’s So Wonderful,” a cover of Ten City’s “That’s the Way Love Is,” and finally, in 2022, the Andrew McGuinness-produced So Wonderful on Acid Jazz.