Candi Staton Life Happens

Candi Staton

I'd Rather Be An Old Man's Sweetheart (Than A Young Man's Fool)

Candi Staton

I'd Rather Be An Old Man's Sweetheart (Than A Young Man's Fool)

Hanceville, Alabama--population under 800—was where Canzetta Maria Staton came into the world on March 13, 1943. 26 years later, she was on her way to being one of the top female belters on the Southern soul circuit.

At eight, Candi sang spirituals with The Four Golden Echoes (her sister Maggie was also a member). Candi's mother moved to Cleveland when the girl was 10 but shipped her daughters off to a Nashville boarding school, where Candi and Maggie put together The Jewel Gospel Trio, recording five singles for Nashboro from 1955 to '58 and touring widely. After she was done with school, Candi returned to Alabama to settle down and study nursing. Seven years passed, her vocal ambitions at an impasse.

One night her brother took her to Birmingham's 27/28 Club, convincing the owner to let her sit in. Candi tore into Aretha's Do Right Woman—Do Right Man, leading to a gig there. She opened for Clarence Carter, who was duly impressed, but her abusive husband led her to spurn Carter's offer of a spot in his revue. Six months later, Candi left Mr. Wrong and tracked Clarence down, ready to tour. Her first single, Now You've Got The Upper Hand, trickled out on a tiny Birmingham label, Unity Records.

Clarence told his producer Rick Hall, owner of Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, about his new discovery. A quick audition convinced Hall to record her the same night. Carter got together with two of his favorite collaborators, George Jackson and Raymond Moore, to cook up the strutting and delightfully ribald I'd Rather Be An Old Man's Sweetheart (Than A Young Man's Fool), her first single for Hall's Fame label proving a sizable hit at #9 R&B and #46 pop. Jackson was also in on writing her 1970 hit, I'm Just A Prisoner (Of Your Good Lovin'). "She's a heck of a singer," says George. "She's real gospel, you know. She's real good." Candi married Clarence and cut a '72 duet with him for Atlantic, If You Can't Beat 'Em.

Candi transformed the country classics Stand By Your Man and He Called Me Baby into early '70s soul hits, and did a great job on Elvis' In The Ghetto. But Young Hearts Run Free, Staton's R&B chart-topper in 1976, wasn't a Muscle Shoals product; it was done in L.A. with Dave Crawford producing. Staton retired from the soul arena for many years to concentrate on gospel, but she recently returned to the deep soul arena, her vocal delivery as emotionally gripping as ever.

- Bill Dahl -

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