Lyn Collins and James Brown on stage circa 1972. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Photographs
Some of the sampled recordings within the historical past of Black music began its (sadly modest) crossover to a pop viewers within the late summer time of 1972. Lyn Collins, the “Female Preacher” who was one of many many soul and funk chanteuses to be mentored by James Brown, entered the Billboard Scorching 100 for September 2, 1972 with “Think (About It).”
Collins was married on the age of simply 14, to a person who was the native promoter for the James Brown Revue. She advised Beat Instrumental in 1973: “I’d been taking part in little, native golf equipment and needed to interrupt into the massive time. I watched the assorted big-name revues which got here by means of city and I made a decision I finest appreciated the best way James Brown labored.
“I started sending tapes to his manager up in Cincinnati and I just kept on nagging Mr. Brown until he gave me an audition,” she went on. “I feel he solely did it so he may lastly eliminate me, however he appreciated what he heard and requested me to affix the present.’
Thus she turned a member of Brown’s touring band as feminine lead within the wake of Vicki Anderson’s departure, and debuted in her personal title with the one “Wheel of Life” in 1971. That was on the Godfather’s King label, which he was about to placed on maintain as he moved to Polydor and his new imprint, Folks. Collins made that transfer with him and launched the Suppose (About It) album in 1972, produced by Brown himself.
The title monitor turned a single in June, and was by a way her most profitable, getting into the soul chart on July 15 and rising to No.9. Its Scorching 100 begin got here at No.90, however it could solely rise to No.66, a peak she bettered barely when she accompanied Brown on “What My Baby Needs Now Is A Little More Lovin’.” That went to No.56 pop and No.17 soul.
However it was the afterlife of “Think (About It)” that made it a massively essential and influential lower within the rise and rise of hip-hop. 4 segments of the recording have been repeatedly sampled, most notably the “Yeah…wooh!” break that was appropriated seemingly in all places, most notably within the 1988 hit “It Takes Two” by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock. As advised by the title, that single additionally leaned closely on Collins’ vocal line “It takes two to make a thing go right.”
Different artists to elevate from “Think (About It)” included Janet Jackson, Beyoncé, the Actual Roxanne, De La Soul, Madonna, and even R.E.M. Collins continued to file for Folks into the mid-Seventies, with a second album, Test Me Out If You Don’t Know Me By Now, launched in 1975. After her departure from Brown, she sang with Rod Stewart and Dionne Warwick. As her stature belatedly improved in recognition of her distinctive position in each the soul and hip-hop worlds, she was celebrated on the 2005 compilation Mama Feelgood: The Better of Lyn Collins.
Sadly, that 12 months, her first European tour in her personal title, in a double invoice with one other graduate of Brown’s band, Martha Excessive, could be Collins’ final. After returning residence, she died of issues from a seizure on March 13, on the age of simply 56.
Hearken to “Think (About It)” on Apple Music and Spotify.
