Mary Love – The Complete Modern & Best of the Co Love Sides (2014)

The Complete Modern & Best of the Co Love Sides features all Mary Love’s pivotal Modern sides, re-mastered from the original tapes. Nine of those 13 tracks are from the multi-track tapes and are therefore presented in their best sound quality ever.
Despite her achievements and superficial success, Mary’s complex and troubled life contrasts starkly with her career. Family and personal issues kept her away from the studios in the early 70s but she came back impressively, writing and performing two tracks on each of the soundtracks for Rudy Ray Moore’s films Dolemite and Petey Wheatstraw. ‘Loving You’ from Petey Wheatstraw would have been a great number for Bettye Swann or Irma Thomas, not that they would have necessarily improved on Mary’s stunning performance or Nat Dove’s subtle arrangement. After an inevitable flirtation with disco, which we felt inappropriate for this compilation, she returned to recording religious music, devoting her life to God’s word and works. Her 1980s Co-Love gospel recordings were of such quality that they were partly responsible for rejuvenating the modern soul scene in the UK, where ‘Come Out Of The Sandbox’ and ‘The Price’ became indispensable for lovers of inspired black music of any genre or period.