1-CD-Album Digipak (4-plated) with 44-page booklet, 29 tracks, playing time approx. 75 mns

The forgotten recordings of Edna McGriff a Fifties R&B star! Few ever reissued on CD, most unheard since the 1950s! Includes fabulous R&B versions of pop songs like The Fool, Born To Be With You, Freight Train, and I Enjoy Being A Girl with the cream of New York's R&B session men! First full-length biography by R&B scholar Bill Dahl.

In 1952, aged just sixteen, Edna McGriff scored her breakthrough hit, Heavenly Father. It would, though, be the only major hit of her career. Her early recordings have been featured on other anthologies.

Bear Family picks up the story in 1954 when Edna McGriff began a long association with Arthur Shimkin who produced budget records and kiddies' records that he sold through dime stores, book stores, and other places that didn't ordinarily sell records. Shimkin operated under a variety of label names, and Edna McGriff recorded for nearly all of them. To his credit, Shimkin didn't economize on sessions, and Edna Mcgriff's recordings featured the top New York jazz and R&B session guys, as well as glorious arrangements by Sy Oliver, Buddy Lucas, Ray Ellis, and Jimmy Carroll. Edna McGriff proved that she could sing much more than R&B, and applied her gloriously supple voice to a wide range of songs, much as Ray Charles would do years later. She did country songs, show tunes, pop songs, rock 'n' roll hits, and some originals.

In addition to Edna McGriff's recordings for Arthur Shimkin's labels, this set also includes her ultra-rare records for Felsted, Savoy, and Brunswick. Sadly, Edna McGriff died in her thirties, unable to mount a comeback and share her music with us as so many of her contemporaries have done.

Something rare! Something different! Something great from Bear Family!

Track Listing

• Start Movin' (In My Direction)
• Confidential
• The Fool
• Freight Train
• Mr. Lee
• He's Got The Whole World In His Hands
• Don't You Just Know It
• Just Walking In The Rain
• I Can't Love You Enough
• After The Lights Go Down Low
• Mambo Baby
• Sh-Boom (Life Could Be A Dream)
• I Hurt Too Much To Cry
• I Get The Feeling
• Oh Joe! (Rock Me Round)
• How Long Will It Take
• No Change
• Ah-Ah-Ah
• Pledging My Love
• Dance With Me, Henry
• Born To Be With You
• And That Reminds Me
• A Thousand Burning Bridges
• Sad, Sad, Sad
• I Was I Am And Always Will Be
• Come Back My Love
• Grant Avenue
• Sunday
• I Enjoy Being A Girl

Additional Details

Label: Bear Family Records

Genre: R & B

Run Time: 75 mins

Release Date: 08/24/12

UPC: 4000127172761