Mitty Collier
Mitty Lene Collier (born 21 June 1941) is an
American church
pastor,
gospel singer and former
rhythm and blues singer. She had a number of successful records in the 1960s, of which probably the best known is "I Had A Talk With My Man Last Night".
Mitty Collier was born in
Birmingham, Alabama, the seventh child of Rufus and Gertrude Collier, and attended
Western-Olin High School,
Alabama A & M College and
Miles College where she majored in English.
She began singing in church as a teenager, and toured with gospel groups, the Hayes Ensemble and the Lloyd Reese Singers, before starting to sing rhythm and blues in local clubs to help subsidise her college education. In 1959, while visiting
Chicago, she entered
DJ Al Benson's talent show at the Regal Theater, winning for six straight weeks and gaining her a slot on a bill with
B. B. King and
Etta James as a prize. This brought her to the attention of
Ralph Bass of
Chess Records, who offered her a recording contract.
She recorded for the Chess label from 1961 to 1968, releasing 15 singles and one album, mostly produced by
Billy Davis.
Her first record was "Gotta Get Away From It All", which was not a hit. Her first real success came in 1963 with "I'm Your Part Time Love", an answer record to
Little Johnny Taylor's "
Part Time Love". It reached # 20 on the
Billboard R&B chart, and was followed up with "I Had A Talk With My Man", a secularised version of
James Cleveland's gospel song "I Had A Talk With God Last Night". The orchestrated ballad reached # 41 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and # 3 on the
Cash Box R&B chart, and became her best known song, later being covered by
Dusty Springfield and
Shirley Brown among others.
Her next record, "No Faith, No Love", was also a reworking of a James Cleveland song, and reached # 29 on the
Billboard R&B chart and # 91 on the pop chart. She released an album,
Shades Of A Genius, in 1965. Her last hit, in 1966, was "Sharing You" (# 10 on the R&B chart, # 97 pop).
She left Chess in 1968 after recording a single, a new version of "Gotta Get Away From It All" recorded at
FAME Studios in
Muscle Shoals with producer
Rick Hall. She then recorded five further singles and an album with
William Bell's
Peachtree label in
Atlanta, Georgia. However, in 1971 she developed
polyps on her
vocal cords, losing her singing voice, and gave up her secular music career.
She then began to devote her life to her
Christian beliefs. After recovering her voice she recorded several albums of gospel music, of which the first,
The Warning in 1972, featured "I Had A Talk With God Last Night". Later albums included
Hold The Light (1977) and
I Am Love (1987).
She also established a Bible Study Telephone Prayer Line and a community outreach program, "Feed-A-Neighbor" (FAN), for which she received the
key to the city of Birmingham in 1987. She became a preacher, and was ordained in 1989, later being appointed pastor of the More Like Christ (MLC) Christian Fellowship Ministries in Chicago. She has also worked at the
University of Chicago, as well as writing plays and continuing to sing gospel music. She has received a number of other humanitarian and other awards, including the
National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) Woman of Wonder Award 2000.
One of my favourite voices. One that just oozes Chicago to me. This list is really about the secular recordings earlier in her career. Not too big a list, but this is in two parts..........Enjoy.
Ain't that love
Come back baby
Do it with confidence
Don't let her take my baby
Don't you forget it
Drown in my own tears
Everybody makes a mistake sometimes
For my man
Free girl (in the morning)
Git out
Gotta get away from it all (version 2)
Hallelujah (I love him so)
Help me
I dedicate my whole life to you
I'm satisfied
I'm your part-time lover
I've got love
I've got to get away from it all (version 1)
http://www.4shared.com/file/lJb2qKQ8/mitty_collier.html
