Ann Lee Peebles was born in Kinloch, Missouri, in 1947, one of eleven children. She grew up singing in her father’s church and soon joined the family Gospel group, the Peebles Choir. Her inspiration came from listening to Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke, but she was also a fan of Aretha Franklin, Mary Wells and Muddy Waters. In the mid-sixties she started singing in clubs, which brought her to Memphis in 1968. Gene “Bowlegs” Miller, a well-known Memphis trumpeter, heard her sing and introduced her to Willie Mitchell. He wasted no time in signing her to Hi Records, where she worked with the Hi Rhythm Section and the Memphis Horns. After her first three releases all entered the R&B chart, Mitchell teamed her up with one of the label’s songwriters, Don Bryant, who wrote “99 Pounds” for her in 1971. They continued to write songs together, with some success, and married in 1974.
In 1972, Hi Records released her third album, “Straight From The Heart”, which is a collection of excellent Soul songs, including “”99 Pounds” and other songs written by Peebles and Bryant and Peebles and Denise LaSalle. The final track on the album is “I Take What I Want”, co-written by Teenie Hodges from the Hi Rhythm Section with David Porter and Isaac Hayes. The quality of the songwriting matches the understated arrangements and the smooth sound of the studio band. It is a good example of what Willie Mitchell’s studio could achieve.
Her two best-known songs are “I Can’t Stand the Rain”, which she wrote with Don Bryant, and “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down”, both from 1973. The first of these was her biggest hit, reaching number six on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and number thirty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. It has become a standard of Memphis Soul, covered by Tina Turner on her “Private Dancer” album in 1984 and released as a single in 1985. Both of these single hits are included on the 1974 album “I Can’t Stand The Rain”.
Ann Peebles made seven albums (four entered the R&B Albums chart top fifty) and around twenty singles for Hi Records, before taking time out from the industry when Hi Records closed in 1979.
She returned to the studio in 1989 to record an album called “Call Me” with Willie Mitchell, who released it on his own label Waylo Records. She continued working up to 2012, when a stroke forced her to retire. In 2014, Ann Peebles was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
Ann Peebles 2007 Memphis
Photo: Lindsey T (Wikimedia Commons)
