| Stormy Monday | ||||
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| Studio album by Lou Rawls | ||||
| Released | 1962 | |||
| Recorded | February 5–12, 1962 Capitol Studios (Los Angeles, California) |
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| Genre | R&B, vocal jazz | |||
| Length | 40:49 (Original LP) 45:34 (CD reissue) |
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| Label | Capitol 1714 |
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| Producer | Nick Venet | |||
| Lou Rawls chronology | ||||
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| Reissue cover | ||||
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Blue Note reissue cover
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
Stormy Monday (a.k.a. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water) is the debut album of R&B singer Lou Rawls, released in 1962 on Capitol Records. Recorded in two sessions in February 1962, the album features a number of blues and jazz standards chosen by Rawls and backed by the Les McCann trio.[2] Stormy Monday was reissued in 1990 by Blue Note records.[3]
Contents |
Excerpt from the album liner notes:
In 1962, when this album was made and when he turned 26, Lou Rawls' rich baritone was unknown, except to a few gospel music fans and Hollywood hipsters who caught his act at local night clubs like P.J.'s, The Troubador, Shelley Manne's Manhole or Brother's on Santa Monica and Vine. A years earlier, Capitol A&R man Nick Venet had heard Rawls at Pandora's Box Coffee Shop, who was playing there for $10 a night plus pizza in late 1959, and signed him to the label.[4] One stillborn single emerged before Lou had the brainstorm to do an album of blues and jazz standards, backed by then up-and comer Les McCann and his trio, who were performing nearby at The Bit on Sunset Boulevard. Before his Grammy winning album Love Is a Hurtin' Thing, Stormy Monday was the first of more than 20 other albums Rawls would record on that label in only a decade.[5]