Ann Peebles

Ann Lee Peebles (born April 27, 1947) is a retired American singer and songwriter who gained popularity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s while signed to Hi Records. Her most successful singles include "I Can't Stand the Rain," which she wrote with her husband Don Bryant and radio broadcaster Bernie Miller, and "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down." In 2014, she was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

She was born in Kinloch, Missouri, the seventh child of eleven. As a child she began singing in the choir of her father's church and with the family's group, the Peebles Choir, who regularly opened shows for gospel stars including Mahalia Jackson and the Soul Stirrers featuring Sam Cooke. She was also influenced by R&B performers, including Muddy Waters, Mary Wells and Aretha Franklin.

She began performing in clubs in St. Louis, and in the mid-1960s joined a revue led by bandleader Oliver Sain. While visiting Memphis in 1968, she sang in a club with trumpeter Gene "Bowlegs" Miller, a popular local bandleader known for helping other musicians get their start in the Memphis music industry (including the members of the Hi Rhythm Section, who played on Peebles' recordings). Miller introduced her to Hi Records producer Willie Mitchell, who quickly offered her a recording contract.

Her first record, "Walk Away," written by Sain, reached the R&B chart in 1969, as did the follow-up, "Give Me Some Credit," and she released an album, This Is Ann Peebles. All her early records on Hi were produced by Mitchell and featured the signature sound of the Hi Rhythm Section and Memphis Horns. In 1970, her single "Part Time Love," a version of Little Johnny Taylor's 1963 hit, reached no. 7 on the R&B chart, and no.45 on the pop chart, and she began working with the Hi label's songwriter Don Bryant, whom she married in 1974. One of the first songs he wrote for her was "99 Pounds" in 1971.

She continued to have R&B hits in the early 1970s, including "I Pity the Fool," "Slipped, Tripped and Fell in Love," "Breaking Up Somebody's Home" (a Hot 100 hit in 1973 for Albert King and later recorded by Bette Midler), "Somebody's on Your Case," and "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" (later a hit for Paul Young). She was also the only female singer on Hi to release a string of albums, including Straight from the Heart and I Can't Stand the Rain, that contained many tracks that she co-wrote. The title track of the latter album, written by Peebles and Bryant with DJ Bernard Miller, was her biggest commercial success, reaching no. 6 on the R&B chart and no. 38 on the pop chart in 1973.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.