LAURA LEE

Laura Lee's attitude-laden recordings for Chess and Hot Wax made her soul music’s first unabashed feminist. 

She was born Laura Lee Newton in Chicago on March 9, 1945, but grew up in Detroit with her mother, Ernestine Rundless, who led a gospel group called the Meditation Singers. Its line-up included Della Reese, who Laura replaced in 1956 when Reese pursued a career in pop singing.

Nine years later, as Laura Lee, she launched her own career in secular music, performing in clubs around Detroit. In 1966, she made her first solo recording, “To Win Your Heart,” for the Ric Tic label.

By 1967, Lee was on Chess Records out of Chicago. It was decided that she would record at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where the label had had great success with Etta James. Lee’s debut for Chess, “Dirty Man,” was about a woman whose man had treated her so badly, she was now “tired of you and your woman and your dog, too!” It got to #13 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart.

Lee stayed with Chess until 1969, when she moved to Cotillion, a subsidiary of Atlantic. After two unsuccessful singles for the label, Lee signed with the Detroit-based Hot Wax Records, run by the former Motown production trio of brothers Eddie and Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier. Hot Wax and its Invictus subsidiary were riding high with recent successes by Freda Payne, the Flaming Ember, and the Honey Cone. They also put Laura Lee back on the charts with feminist anthems like “Wedlock is a Padlock” and “Women’s Love Rights.” The latter became her sole top forty pop single.

Lee’s biggest R&B hit, “Rip Off,” came in 1972. It continued her pattern of taking no crap from men as she emphatically proclaimed, “This fool is in for the shock of his life, I'm tired of being neglected / I'm gonna slap him in the face with the unexpected!”

By 1975, Lee was on Ariola Records, but her time with the label was short-lived; Lee became seriously ill and left the music business for several years. In 1983, she recorded a gospel album, Jesus is the Light of My Life. It was produced by Al Green, with whom Lee had been romantically involved a decade prior. By 1990, she had recovered her health and became an ordained minister in Detroit.

In 2016, Lee filed a defamation suit against Mildred Gaddis, a Detroit radio talk-show host. Gaddis had claimed on-air that Lee threw hot grits on Al Green in 1974, putting him in the hospital with second-degree burns. While the incident did occur, Green’s attacker was his then-girlfriend, Mary Woodson--who, after the assault, committed suicide with the singer’s gun. Laura Lee had nothing to do with it.

Charted singles:

“Dirty Man” (1967) R&B #13, Pop #68
“Wanted: Lover, No Experience Necessary” (1967) Pop #84
“Uptight, Good Man” (1967) R&B #16, Pop #93
“As Long As I Got You” (1968) R&B #31, Pop #123
“Need to Belong” (1968) R&B #44
“Hang It Up” (1969) R&B #48
“Wedlock Is a Padlock” (1971) R&B #37
“Women’s Love Rights” (1971) R&B #11, Pop #36
“Love and Liberty” (1971) R&B #23, Pop #94
“Since I Fell For You” (1972) R&B #24, Pop #76
“Rip Off” (1972) R&B #3, Pop #68
“If You Beat Me Rockin’ (You Can Have My Chair)” (1972) R&B #31, Pop #65
“Crumbs Off the Table” (1972) R&B #40
“I’ll Catch You When You Fall” (1973) R&B #49
“I Need It Just As Bad As You” (1974) R&B #55
“Love’s Got Me Tired (But I Ain’t Tired of Love)” (1976) R&B #61