The Hotlanta Soul of Loleatta Holloway
By the late 1970s, the door to fame had opened for Loleatta Holloway and she went on to become one of the great disco divas of the era. The sides she cut for Aware between 1971 and 1975, however, (including 1974'sCry To Me) stand alongside the very finest soul music ever made. Born in Chicago in 1946, Loleatta started out as a gospel singer, moving to secular music in 1971 withRainbow '71b/wFor Sentimental Reasons(Apache) which was picked up nationally by Galaxy Records (who swapped the B-side forBring It On Up). That early A-side (a Curtis Mayfield-penned number), the two differing B-sides and twenty of the brilliant sides she made for Aware Records (including the afore-mentionedCry To Me) are brought together in this definitive collection of Loleatta's Hotlanta Soul. Powerful deep soul ballads, finger-snappers and the odd funky offering set the mood while the skills of such great songwriters as Sam Dees, Curtis Mayfield, Ashford & Simpson and Loleatta herself ensure that the songs are always more than just convenient hooks for her stunning vocals. For collector's:Rainbow '71is here in a full-length, six-minute version andThis Man's Arms(originally slated for the Galaxy single A-side) emerges again after 24 years! Though it would have been nice to get all of Loleatta's Aware sides on one CD, it wasn't possible and there have had to be some personal choices made by Ady Croasdell. He assures soul fans everywhere that 'if there is an outcry...(about the missing tracks)...we can always make up for it on a Various Artists CD later!'