"If you're born a woman, you're born to be hurt..."  The stark sentiment expressed by singer Sandy Posey in her 1966 recording of Martha Sharp's "Born a Woman" didn't keep the song from reaching the twelfth spot on the Billboard Hot 100 - effectively launching a career that's continued into the 21st century.  Between 1966 and 1968, the Alabama-born songstress recorded four studio albums for MGM Records, all of which blended pop and country sounds in a Brill Building-meets-Memphis style crafted in conjunction with producer Chips Moman.  Late last year, Cherry Red's Strawberry imprint collected all four of those albums plus assorted bonus tracks on the 2CD release Born a Woman: Complete MGM Recordings 1966-1968, the definitive celebration of Posey's time at the label.

With multi-tracked vocals and its girl group-gone-countrypolitan sound, "Born a Woman" set the template for Posey's MGM recordings which are nonetheless rich with variety.  Posey earned warranted comparisons to Skeeter Davis and Brenda Lee while in retrospect, these recordings also resemble Dolly Parton's early experiments with pop crossover for Monument Records.  (Those were collected on vinyl last year on The Monument Singles Collection 1964-1968.)  As Brian Ward points out in his comprehensive liner notes for this release, young Sandy's touchstones were the likes of Cher, The Shirelles, Nancy Sinatra, and The Shangri-La's - all women who made powerful pop music on their own terms.  Her love of R&B made her an ideal match for Chips Moman, who allowed the soul to shine through in her polished recordings.

Her 1966 debut album Born a Woman featured a cross-section of material in addition to the title track. A number of rearranged covers (a lush "It's All in the Game," a suitably weepy take on Bobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely" as "Miss Lonely," even a doo-wop-inflected "Strangers in the Night") were joined by strong Posey originals ("Blue Is My Best Color," "Arms Full of Sin," "You Got to Have Love to Be Happy") and one heartbreaker from Moman ("This Time").  Even the more maudlin material such as another Vinton cover, "Satin Pillows," has strength and emotional authenticity in Posey's reading.

MGM was quick to capitalize on the success of "Born a Woman" with a second album in 1966, composed of material mainly cut during the same sessions as Sandy's debut.  Martha Sharp was again tapped for the title track, and her ode to a pained but confident and self-aware "Single Girl" ("...all alone in a great big town") landed at the same peak of No. 12 in the United States while climbing to No. 15 in the United Kingdom, as well.

Chips Moman drew on many of his favorite songwriters for the album including Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham (the ironically bouncy portrait of a woman in poverty, "Hey Mister;" the familiar "I'm Your Puppet") and Wayne Carson Thompson (the devastating "Shattered") while the covers were arguably even more eclectic.  Ron Miller and Bryan Wells' moving plea for tolerance "A Place in the Sun" (a concurrent hit for Stevie Wonder) was given a sweet, straightforward treatment nodding to its folk-inspired roots.  Sandy's take on Jerry Butler and Otis Redding's torrid "I've Been Loving You Too Long" is measured and stately, with Bill McIlhenney's swelling strings and a chorus behind her.  Jerry Livingston and Paul Francis Webster's "The Twelfth of Never" - a 1957 hit for Johnny Mathis which would return to the charts in 1973 for Donny Osmond - suited Posey's strengths as a balladeer but P.F. Sloan's "See Ya Round on the Rebound" let the singer cut loose on a slice of California pop.  Barbara Cooper and Frank Catana's supremely moody "Patterns" (released by Cooper herself in 1967) showcases Posey at her finest.  The Italian-language versions of "Born a Woman" and "Single Girl" have been appended to Disc One of this set, along with non-LP single "What a Woman in Love Won't Do" which barely missed the U.S. top thirty.

The second disc of Strawberry's set opens with Posey's third MGM platter, Sandy Posey Featuring 'I Take It Back.'  The title track by "Spooky" songwriters J.R. Cobb and Buddy Buie earned her another No. 12 hit in the U.S., in spite of - or because of - its unusually shifting melody that veers from big beat to melancholy ballad.  As always, Moman had a stack of classy songs to match with Posey's emotive vocals, including two more from Penn and Oldham ("Standing in the Rain" and "Bread and Butter"), one from John D. Loudermilk (the bubblegum-fashioned "Sunglasses"), and one from the "Son of a Preacher Man" team of Ronnie Wilkins and John Hurley ("Love of the Common People").  The Wilkins/Hurley tune was introduced in early 1967 by The Four Preps; in addition to Sandy's, versions by The Everly Brothers and Wayne Newton would be released before soul group The Winstons got it on the charts in 1969.  Nicky Thomas and Paul Young would have much bigger success with it in, respectively, 1970 and 1983.

Sandy's original songs "I Can Show You How to Love" and "The Boy I Love" showed that she was paying attention to the accomplished writers surrounding her; the latter, in particular, shows her flair for drama and pathos.  She rounded out the LP with dreamy takes on the familiar oldies "Halfway to Paradise" (a Goffin/King classic popularized by Billy Fury in the U.K. and Tony Orlando stateside) and "Come Softly to Me" (a 1959 No. 1 for The Fleetwoods).

Strawberry's collection concludes with Sandy's final MGM album, 1968's Looking at You.  Though the "formula" was largely the same, Posey had matured with every album - and this was no exception.  Brill Building songsmiths Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were tapped for "It's Not Easy" (also recorded by The Animals, and Bill Medley) and "Shades of Gray" (famously cut by The Monkees), both of which were draped in elegant arrangements.  Buie and Cobb ("Out of Tune"), Goffin and King ("Will You Love Me Tomorrow"), and Penn and Oldham ("Handy") were all back too, lending a sonic consistency across all of Sandy's MGM LPs.  Joe South wrote and produced the uptempo "One Man Woman," in which Posey professes to stand by her (terrible) man but does so with the utmost confidence that she'll be able to change him.  Though the lyrics often placed Posey on the losing end of a relationship, her charm, strength, and confidence always shone through; on Looking at You, those lovelorn words and music are often accompanied by backings that reflected the changes in pop music.  There are dashes of psychedelia and rock as well as the usual blend of pop, country, and soul.

Strawberry's first-class package is completed with the singer's final non-LP sides for MGM including more A-list songs from Martha Sharp, "Elvira" songwriter Dallas Frazier, and Brill Building alums Doc Pomus and Toni Wine.  Sandy Posey moved on from MGM to Columbia and later recorded for Monument, Warner Bros., and various smaller labels.

Born a Woman is a fine tribute to this underrated artist, made even more special by the top-notch package which includes a 24-page booklet with photos, memorabilia, and comprehensive liner notes by Brian Ward plus a full MGM discography within the digipak.  Simon Murphy has superbly remastered the audio.  The set is available now at the links below!

Sandy Posey, Born a Woman: Complete MGM Recordings 1966-1968 (Cherry Red/Strawberry CRJAM017D, 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

Born a Woman (MGM SE-4418, 1966)

1. Born a Woman
2. Miss Lonely
3. You Got to Have Love to Be Happy
4. Just Out of Reach
5. Blue Is My Best Color
6. Strangers in the Night
7. It's All in the Game
8. Satin Pillows
9. Arms Full of Sin
10. If Tears Had Color in Them
11. This Time
12. Caution to the Wind

Single Girl (MGM SE-4455, 1966)

13. Hey Mister
14. Patterns
15. A Place in the Sun
16. The Last Day of Love
17. I'm Your Puppet
18. Here Comes My Baby Back Again
19. Single Girl
20. Shattered
21. See Ya Round on the Rebound
22. Don't Touch Me
23. I've Been Loving You Too Long
24. The Twelfth of Never
25. What a Woman in Love Won't Do

Bonus Tracks (MGM Italy single MG 70-012, 1967)

26. Nata Donna (Born a Woman)
27. Sempre Sola (Single Girl)

CD 2

Sandy Posey Featuring "I Take It Back" (MGM SE-4480, 1967)

1. I Take It Back
2. Standing in the Rain
3. The Big Hurt
4. Sunglasses
5. Bread and Butter
6. I Can Show You How to Love
7. It's Wonderful to Be in Love
8. Love of the Common People
9. Halfway to Paradise
10. The Boy I Love
11. Come Softly to Me

Looking at You (MGM SE-4525, 1968)

12. Deep in Kentucky
13. The Meadow of My Love
14. Just You, Just Me (And Love for Company)
15. It's Not Easy
16. Silly Girl, Silly Boy
17. Something I'll Remember
18. Handy
19. Shades of Gray
20. Out of Tune
21. Will You Love Me Tomorrow
22. One Man Woman

Bonus Tracks

23. Take Me with You, Baby (from The Best of Sandy Posey, MGM SE-4509, 1967)
24. Are You Never Coming Home (MGM single K 13824-A, 1967)
25. Ways of the World (MGM single K 13967-A, 1968)
26. The Wonderful World of Summer (MGM single K 13967-B, 1968)
27. Your Conception of Love (MGM single K 14006-A, 1968)
28. All Hung Up in Your Green Eyes (MGM single K 14006-B, 1968)