Description
Today, more than 25 years after their final performance together, The Staples Singers are synonymous with gospel and soul music of the highest order. Roebuck “Pops” Staples, daughters Cleotha, Mavis, and (sometimes) Yvonne, and son Pervis raised their voices in song to celebrate the Lord, but also to crusade for civil rights and share musical messages of power and positivity around the world. In the 1960s, the group transitioned from pure gospel and blues to soul and R&B, setting the stage for their commercial breakthrough at Stax Records. Following their tenure at the Memphis label, they recorded for the Curtom and Warner Bros. labels, the latter as The Staples. Now, that curiously overlooked period of the group’s history is being reevaluated with a quartet of new reissues from Omnivore Recordings.
The Staples Singers’ first post-Stax project was the soundtrack to director-star Sidney Poitier’s 1975 film Let’s Do It Again, co-starring Bill Cosby, Jimmie Walker, Ossie Davis, and John Amos. Poitier tapped Curtis Mayfield to pen the score which the Staples would perform. The pairing of Mayfield with the Staples paid off when the title track went to No. 1 on both the Billboard Pop and R&B charts. The original Curtom soundtrack album has been expanded for Omnivore’s reissue with single edits of “Let’s Do It Again,” “After Sex,” and “New Orleans.”
