Sitting here listening to her wonderful Queen of the Night LP and can't help wondering why Maggie Bell didn't ever break through. She was really good with a strong, soulful voice. She had the best producers (starting with Jerry Wexler) and was managed by Peter Grant. Hard to fathom how it didn't happen in a big way for her. But she deserves a bit of forum love and here it is. Well done, Maggie.
I think she came along too late when most had moved on from that Janis and Aretha soulful sound, and thought of it being part of the past.
I haven't heard much of her stuff, but really liked the song "It's a Lovely Life" w/ Rick Wakeman for Ken Russel's "Crimes of Passion".
Covering a Beatles song like I Saw Her Standing There, and not a great version at that, doesn't exactly make you a star.
Yeah, and she had serious chops and rock credentials which might got lost in the material and the production. She would have been better off plowing the soul rock blues field she started with Stone the Crows and maybe guesting with Dewar building a larger name ala Denny did with 'Evermore'. BUt with Grant as manager a Zep or Bad Co cameo would have done the trick and who know s what the two unreleased solo albums are like... She probably would have had some success with crunchy catchy hardrock ala Bad Co. Elkie Brooks is another that comes to mind.
She was very well known and popular over here, with her work with groups like Stone The Crows. She seemed to pop up a lot on our main TV rock show of the time, the Old Grey Whistle Test.
She did have a hit single as a duet with fellow scot and complete clown BA Robertson https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...=YzE7SZFaZ9Y&usg=AOvVaw1d3oEx92XDoeHgiJkV27cV
There's some stuff about this in the Barney Hoskyns Led Zeppelin book. Basically Grant was too busy with Zeppelin and Bad Company to really focus on her career, but he also wouldn't let anyone else do it for him. So she just ended up hanging around the Swan Song office waiting for something to happen. And nothing really did.