CANDI STATON

Canzetta Maria Staton was born in Hanceville, Alabama, on March 13, 1940. Her family was poor, so she helped out by picking cotton when she wasn’t singing in the church choir. By the age of eight, she had joined a gospel group called the Four Golden Echoes.

When Staton was ten, her mother moved the family to Cleveland to escape her alcoholic husband. Staton and her sister Maggie were then sent to the Jewell Christian Academy in Nashville. The pastor paired the sisters with a third girl, Naomi Harrison, as the Jewell Gospel Trio. They toured the gospel circuit with the likes of Mahalia Jackson, the Soul Stirrers, and the Reverend C.L. Franklin (father of Aretha). The group also recorded for the Nashboro, Apollo, and Savoy labels.

At seventeen, Staton ran off to California with fellow gospel singer (and future soul-music star) Lou Rawls. They were going to get married, but Rawls’ mother talked them out of it. Staton returned to her native Alabama and soon became pregnant by the son of a local Pentecostal minister. So they got married. The husband, who was very jealous and abusive, demanded that his wife stay home and forget about her musical career. She did just that for the next decade, having four children and limiting her singing to the church.

By the late 1960s, Candi Staton had left her husband and started performing secular music. She got a job touring with soul singer Clarence Carter (“Slip Away,” “Patches”), who would also become her second husband. Through Carter, she met Rick Hall of FAME Records in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In 1969, she had her first of five top ten Soul hits, “I’d Rather Be an Old Man’s Sweetheart (Than a Young Man’s Fool).” Her 1970 remake of Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man” received a Grammy nomination, as did her 1972 version of Elvis Presley’s “In the Ghetto.” In all, Staton’s FAME sessions resulted in thirteen charted singles and earned her the nickname, “The First Lady of Southern Soul.”

In 1976, Candi Staton jumped on the disco bandwagon and worked with producer David Crawford. This collaboration spawned her all-time biggest hit, “Young Hearts Run Free.” It went to #1 on the Soul chart, peaked at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100, and became Staton’s first hit single in the UK, where it got to #2.

In 1982, she returned to gospel music. Staton and her then-husband, John Sessewell, founded the Beracah Ministries in Atlanta. She went on to record a dozen gospel albums, two of which were Grammy-nominated.

In 1991, a reissue of Staton’s five-year-old recording with The Source, “You Got the Love,” became a #4 hit in England. In 1997, a remix got to #3 in that country.

In 2004, the Honest Jon’s label in the UK issued Candi Staton, a compilation of her Fame recordings. She subsequently appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” and hosted her own program, “New Direction,” on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). She also made appearances on TBN’s “Praise the Lord,” and performed on Robert Tilton’s TV show, “Success-N-Life.”

On October 30, 2018, Candi Staton announced that she had breast cancer. Nine months later, she posted on social media that she was now cancer-free.

Staton has been married six times and has five children. From 1970-2018, she released thirty albums.

Charted singles:

“I’d Rather Be an Old Man’s Sweetheart (Than a Young Man’s Fool)” (1969) R&B #9, Pop #46
“Never In Public” (1969) R&B #22
“I’m Just a Prisoner (Of Your Good Lovin’)” (1969) R&B #13, Pop #56
“Sweet Feeling” (1970) R&B #5, Pop #60
“Stand by Your Man” (1970) R&B #4, Pop #24
“He Called Me Baby” (1971) R&B #9, Pop #52
“Mr. and Mrs. Untrue” / "Too Hurt to Cry" (1971) R&B #20, Pop #109
“In the Ghetto” (1972) R&B #12, Pop #48
“Lovin’ You, Lovin’ Me” (1972) R&B #40, Pop #83
“Do It in the Name of Love” (1973) R&B #17, Pop #80
“Something’s Burning” (1973) R&B #83
“Love Chain” (1973) R&B #31
“As Long as He Takes Care of Home” (1974) R&B #6, Pop #51
“Here I Am Again” (1975) R&B #35
“Six Nights and a Day” (1975) R&B #86
“Young Hearts Run Free” (1976) R&B #1 (1 week), Pop #20
“Run to Me” (1976) R&B #26
“A Dreamer of a Dream” (1977) R&B #37
“Nights on Broadway” (1977) R&B #16, Pop #102
“Listen to the Music” (1977) R&B #90
“Honest I Do Love You” (1978) R&B #77
“Victim” (1978) R&B #17
“Honest I Do Love You” (1978) R&B #77
“When You Wake Up Tomorrow” (1979) R&B #13
“Looking for Love” (1980) R&B #42
“Without You I Cry” (1981) R&B #78
“Count On Me” (1981) R&B #82
“You Got the Love” (The Source featuring Candi Staton, 1986) R&B #88