The sadly missed TEENA MARIE is a proper soul fan’s proper soul singer. Born Mary Christine Brockert in 1956, she passed in 2010 but left a wonderful musical legacy that is treasured by her followers and regularly discovered by “newbies” who come across her music often by accident – but once bitten, forever smitten.
Her magnificent legacy is about to enjoy a new lease of life as bbe Records offer a respectful celebration of her music via a new double album of brand new, lovingly crafted remixes of her very best. Right away some Teena purists will say… why bother? The originals are good enough… and sure there is mileage in that stance. But here the new mixes come courtesy of JOHN MORALES in his “M and M” guise. Morales is a soul man through and through (he never takes liberties with his music) and he’s a big, big fan of Lady Tee. He says: “Teena is somewhat underrated, and people don’t really know much about her. I set out to immerse people in her music and represent what she really did. That meant for me a dive into more than her R&B hits, to dig into her ballads and dance cuts. People know she was talented. I don’t really think they really knew the depth of her abilities, her complete confidence to take it upon herself to do everything – singing, producing, arranging, song writing. Teena Marie was the total package.” What’s more the new mixes have been crafted from the original studio tapes.
Entitled ‘Love Songs & Funky Beats’, the collection is an 18 tracker. It begins with ‘I Need Your Lovin’’ and ends with the blistering Rick James duet ‘Fire And Desire’. In between there are all the big tunes to reconsider and enjoy…. ‘I’m a Sucker for Your Love’, ‘Behind the Groove’, ‘Love Just Wouldn’t Be Right’, ‘Portuguese Love’, ‘Chains’, ‘Wasn’t I Good To You’ ‘Square Biz’, the beautifully understated version of Smokey’s ‘More Love’ and many more.
Put simply, ‘Love Songs & Funky Beats’ is a fitting tribute to a wonderful soul stylist crafted by one of the most storied contemporary mix engineers and remixers. It’s released on bbe Records on March 26th as 3 LP vinyl, CD and digital.
