Big Maybelle born 1 May 1924

Mabel Louise Smith (May 1, 1924 – January 23, 1972), known professionally as Big Maybelle, was an American R&B singer. Her mountainous stature matching the sheer soulful power of her massive vocal talent, Big Maybelle was one of the premier R&B chanteuses of the 1950s. Her deep, gravelly voice was as singular as her recorded output for Okeh and Savoy, which ranged from 

down-in-the-alley blues to pop-slanted ballads. Her 1956 hit single "Candy" received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.

Born in Jackson, Tennessee, United States, Big Maybelle sang gospel as a child and by her teens had switched to rhythm and blues. In the early nineteen thirties the young Mabel won an amateur singing contest in Memphis, and decided that performing was for her. She began her professional career with Dave Clark's Memphis Band in 1936, and also toured with the all female International Sweethearts of Rhythm. She then joined Christine Chatman's Orchestra, and made her first recordings with Chatman in 1944, before recording with the Tiny Bradshaw's Orchestra from 1947 to 1950.

In the early forties Mabel was part of pianist Christine Chatman's orchestra and made her first recording with that group in 1944 for Decca Records. Soon she recorded and toured with the Tiny Bradshaw band from 1947 to 1950. Her work with him and Oran "Hot Lips" Page led to a couple of appearances on record for King Records, but she had little initial success. By the start of the new decade she was now working as a single, but bookings were sporadic and recording sessions were non-existent.

At an appearance with Jimmy Witherspoon at Detroit's Flame Show Bar in 1952, the struggling performer gained notice, and soon it paid off.She was signed by Okeh Records, whose record producer Fred Mendelsohn gave her the stage name 'Big Maybelle' because of her loud yet well-toned voice. Her first recording for Okeh, "Gabbin' Blues", was a number 3 hit on the Billboard R&B chart, and was followed up by both "Way Back Home" and "My Country Man" in 1953.

Maybelle was an in person smash in Philadelphia, first for a week at the Earle Theatre along with Willie Mabon, and then at a number of nightclubs in that city including Pep's and Emerson's cafe. 

In a testament to Maybelle's popularity during her first year for Okeh, Cash Box Magazine awards Maybelle the number three position as best female R & B performer behind Faye Adams and Dinah Washington.

In 1955 she recorded the song "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On", produced by up-and-coming producer Quincy Jones, a full two years before rockabilly then rock and roll singer Jerry Lee Lewis's version. Lewis credited Smith's version as being the inspiration to make his version much louder, raunchy and raucous, with a driving beat and a spoken section with a come-on that was considered very risqué for the time.

                             

More hits followed throughout the 1950s, particularly after signing with Savoy Records later in 1955, including "Candy" (1956), one of her biggest sellers. During this time, she also appeared on stage at the Apollo Theatre in New York City in 1957, and at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival she sang "All Night Long/I Ain't Mad at

You", as seen in Bert Stern's film of the festival Jazz on a Summer's Day, in which Mahalia Jackson and Dinah Washington also performed.

Maybelle persevered throughout the '60s, recording for Brunswick, Scepter (her "Yesterday's Kisses" found her coping admirably with the uptown soul sound), Chess, Rojac and other labels. Her last hit single was in 1967 with a cover of "96 Tears" by Question Mark & the Mysterians.  Maybelle also continued to perform in person into the early sixties, when the battle with drug addiction and health problems took their toll on her. From the mid sixties on she performed on an irregular basis, settling down in Cleveland. But the good years were long gone when she slipped into a diabetic coma and passed away in a Cleveland hospital in 1972.

Her final album, Last of Big Maybelle, was released posthumously in 1973. 

The album The Okeh Sessions on the Epic label, won the 1983 W. C. Handy Award, for "Vintage or Reissue Album of the Year (U.S.)."

Mabel Louise Smith was fortunate to change up and become a top selling recording artist in the midst of the rock 'n' roll era which assured her a place in the hearts and minds of so many that were there during those musically revolutionary times. Rather than becoming one of the many talented but neglected performers who shaped the music of those days and were then discarded from the writing of the history, Big Maybelle remained a performer who bridged the gap between the R & B days, to the rock music future.  In 2011, she was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame.

(Edited mainly from Wikipedia and a 2000 Earthlink article by J C Marion)