Mable John

Mable John holds the distinction of being the first woman Berry Gordy, Jr. placed under contract at his Tamla imprint, an operation that predated the launch of Motown by more than two years. She also numbers among the handful of performers who appeared on both of the leading soul labels of the 1960s, Motown and Stax. The three singles she cut belonged to Gordy’s short-lived and commercially fruitless blues campaign; alongside John, he recorded blues sides by Sammy Ward, Luther Allison, Amos Milburn, Earl King, Arthur Adams, and others.

Born in Bastrop, Louisiana, as the eldest of nine siblings—one of them the celebrated R&B singer Little Willie John, known for “Fever” and “Talk to Me”—Mable John saw her family move first to Arkansas during her childhood and later to Detroit in search of work in the expanding auto industry. After finishing at Pershing High School in Detroit, she took a job with Bertha, Berry Gordy’s mother, who operated a modest insurance agency. John met Gordy in 1956, began recording for him in 1959, and released her initial Tamla single, “Who Wouldn't Love a Man Like That,” in 1960; the sturdy blues track made no commercial impression. Her follow-up, 1961’s “No Love,” showed promise, yet Motown could not move blues product. Her last Tamla release, “Actions Speak Louder Than Words,” appeared late in 1961.

Blues releases at the label had run their course by 1962, and John was let go from the roster. The Supremes, who supplied backing vocals on several of her sessions, achieved stardom a few years after she departed. John next joined Ray Charles’ Raelettes, singing with the group both before and after her time at Stax. That association lasted from 1966 to 1968 and yielded the deep-soul classic “Your Good Thing (Is About to End),” her most successful recording. Stax issued six further singles: “You're Taking Up Another Man's Place,” “Bigger and Better,” “I'm a Big Girl Now,” “Don't Hit Me No More,” “Able Mable,” and “Running Out.” The album Stay Out of the Kitchen would have been more definitive had it contained “Don't Hit Me No More.”

After exiting Stax in 1968 and returning briefly to the Raelettes, John stepped away from secular music to concentrate exclusively on Christian work. In the mid-’70s she managed the Autographs, who held a contract with RCA, although the label released nothing by the group while she was in charge. The Rhythm & Blues Foundation inducted Mable John into its Hall of Fame in 1994, an apt tribute to the undervalued blues singer whose strong records never arrived with the timing or fortune required for wider recognition. Mable John died on August 25, 2022, in Los Angeles at the age of 91.