Margaret Marie Joseph (born August 19, 1950) is an American R&B,

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

and

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

singer. Her greatest success came in the 1970s with a duet with Blue Magic on " What's Come Over Me" and her versions of

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

's " My Love" and

The Supremes The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successf ...

' "

Stop! In the Name of Love "Stop! In the Name of Love" is a 1965 song recorded by the Supremes for the Motown label. Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, "Stop! In the Name of Love" held the #1 position on the ''Billboard'' ...

Life and career

Margie Joseph was born in

Gautier, Mississippi Gautier ( ) is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States, along the Gulf of Mexico west of Pascagoula. It is part of the Pascagoula Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 18,572 at the 2010 census, up from 11,681 at the 20 ...

, and sang in her church choir. In 1967, during her time attending Dillard University in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

where she studied speech and drama, she recorded some

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

at the

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio Muscle Shoals Sound Studio is an American recording studio in Sheffield, Alabama, formed in 1969 by four session musicians known as The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. They had left nearby FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals to create their own rec ...

s. This led to her debut on the

Okeh Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

label, "Why Does a Man Have to Lie?". In 1969, she signed with Volt Records, a subsidiary of

Stax Streaming API for XML (StAX) is an application programming interface ( API) to read and write XML documents, originating from the Java programming language community. Traditionally, XML APIs are either: * DOM based - the entire document is read i ...

, and recorded the single "One More Chance" with producer

Willie Tee Wilson Turbinton (February 6, 1944 – September 11, 2007), professionally known as Willie Tee, was an American keyboardist, songwriter, singer, producer and notable early architect of New Orleans funk and soul, who helped shape the sound of New ...

. Her next single, "Your Sweet Lovin'", produced by Freddy Briggs, became her first hit, reaching # 46 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

. Its follow-up, a version of

' "

" also became a minor hit on the

pop chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include re ...

(# 96 pop, # 38 R&B). An eight-minute version of the track, arranged by Dale Warren, preceded by an

Isaac Hayes Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songw ...

-inspired rap entitled "Woman Talk," was featured on her 1971 album, '' Margie Joseph Makes a New Impression'' and received a lot of radio air play. Her second album, ''Phase II'', in 1972, also featured a Supremes' cover, " My World Is Empty Without You," but failed to achieve the same success. She then signed to the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

label and worked on three albums with producer

Arif Mardin Arif Mardin (March 15, 1932 – June 25, 2006) was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco and country. He worked at Atlantic Records for o ...

. Her vocals on her cover of

Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Take Me to the River", ...

's "Let's Stay Together" garnered comparisons between her and

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in '' Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Wit ...

. A string of R&B hits followed, with her version of

's " My Love" becoming her most successful record, reaching # 69 on the Hot 100 and # 10 on the R&B chart in 1974, though Cashbox magazine placed the song at No. 4 R&B. The next album ''Margie'' in 1975 is sometimes regarded as her creative peak and contained the singles, "Words (Are Impossible)" and "Stay Still", both reaching the R&B chart. She then recorded a duet version of " What's Come Over Me" with the popular Philadelphia group, Blue Magic, giving her another hit (R&B # 11). In 1976, she moved to

Cotillion Records Cotillion Records was a subsidiary of Atlantic Records (from 1971 part of WEA) and was active from 1968 through 1985. The label was formed as an outlet for pop, R&B, and jazz. Its first single, Otis Clay's version of "She's About a Mover", re ...

to make the album ''Hear the Words, Feel the Feeling'', produced by

Lamont Dozier Lamont Herbert Dozier (; June 16, 1941 – August 8, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Detroit, Michigan. He co-wrote and produced 14 US ''Billboard'' number-one hits and four number ones in the UK. Career Doz ...

, the title track reaching # 18 on the R&B chart. Returning to Atlantic, she recorded the album ''Feeling My Way'' in 1978 with producer

Johnny Bristol John William Bristol (February 3, 1939 – March 21, 2004) was an American musician, most famous as a songwriter and record producer for the Motown label in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was a native of Morganton, North Carolina, about whi ...

, but without great commercial success and she was released from her contract. After recording an album with

Dexter Wansel Dexter Gilman Wansel (born August 22, 1950) is an American R&B/ jazz fusion singer, arranger, musician, composer, conductor, synthesist and A&R director. Early life Dexter Wansel began as an errand boy backstage at the Uptown Theater in Philad ...

for the WMOT label, which went unreleased after the label closed down, she decided to turn to a teaching career. However, in 1982, she recorded the single "Knockout" for the small H.C.R.C. label and it became her last big hit, reaching # 12 on the R&B chart. She re-signed to Cotillion and recorded the 1984 album ''Ready for the Night'' with producer

Narada Michael Walden Narada Michael Walden ( ; Michael Walden; born April 23, 1952) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He acquired the nickname Narada from Sri Chinmoy. He began his career as a drummer, working primarily in the jaz ...

, but was then dropped by the label. In 1993, hip-hop female trio Salt-N-Pepa used Margie's 1970 single "Your Sweet Lovin'" for their hit single "None of Your Business". She returned to work in human services, while also recording a gospel album, ''Latter Rain'', released in 2006. Many of her earlier recordings have been reissued on CD. There is also a CD which features Margie, Blue Magic and Major Harris, recorded live at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, released in 2006 on the Collectables label.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Singles

References

External links

Discography at Soulexpress.net
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph, Margie 1950 births Living people People from Gautier, Mississippi African-American women singer-songwriters American gospel singers American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters American soul singers Atlantic Records artists Singer-songwriters from Mississippi 20th-century African-American women singers