It’s gettin’ fonky in here

Hmm, it’s hot, sweaty and juicy down at the Mr H LuvShack and Bar-B-Q (rent by the hour), and we’ve been setting up a party vibe, just for you. And when we want to get funky, we spend our time in the company of Mama Feelgood! Oh, yeah!

Best known for her time with James Brown, Lyn Collins was so much better than her gobby, showboating bawler of an employer, that it causes me physical pain to think of her languishing in relative obscurity.

Born in Texas in 1948, she began her recording career aged 14. Her biggest solo hit was “Think (About It)”, from her 1972 album of the same name. The song contains breaks which have been widely sampled in hip-hop, most famously, the “Woo! Yeah!” backing loop in Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two” which is composed almost completely from samples of Think including a few lines of Collins’ vocals.

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Another album followed in 1975 Check Me Out If You Don’t Know Me by Now but bar a brief Euro disco comeback, that was it. Which is just wrong. In so many ways. Take a listen to the power of “Mama Feelgood“, the hard hitting an funky (and fabulously titled) “Rock Me Again & Again Again & Again Again & Again” or the sultry take on “Do Your Thing“. She should have been huge, but you idiots don’t recognise class.

It’s too late now, as Mama Feelgood died in 2005 aged 56. But go get yourself some soul. You won’t regret it.

You can get steal her Best Of CD for less than four quid here.

Put your sunglasses on for da fonk below;

Watch a white bloke with a backwards baseball cap taking you through some top samples here, while dancing badly;

1) Summer Madness by Kool & The Gang = Summertime – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
2) Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City by Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland = Heart of the City – Jay-Z
3) Woman To Woman by Joe Cocker = California Love – 2Pac & Dr. Dre with Roger Troutman
4) West Coast Poplock by Ronnie Hudson = California Love – 2Pac & Dr. Dre w/ Roger
5) Let a Woman Be a Woman – Let a Man Be a Man by Dyke & The Blazers = Sally – Stetsasonic
6) Cantaloupe Island by Herbie Hancock = Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) – US3
7) Think (About It) by Lyn Collins (The Female Preacher) = It Takes Two – Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock
A Little Bit of Love by Brenda Russell = Still Not a Player – Big Punisher w/ Joe
9) Memory Band by Rotary Connection = Killing Me Softly – Fugees AND Bonita Applebum – A Tribe Called Quest
10) Sugar On My Tongue by Talking Heads = Sugar (Gimme Some) – Trick Daddy, Cee Lo & Ludacris