What A Man / I Don't Know
soul stax funk female vocalists sampled


Linda Lyndell was born in Gainesville, Florida, where she grew up singing gospel in both White and Black churches. She began to sing with R&B groups as a teen, most notably with The Rare Breed. In 1967, Atlanta DJ Dave Crawford introduced her music to producers Isaac Hayes and David Porter. Hayes and Porter [or Dave Crawford] recorded her first single, "Bring Your Love Back To Me", in 1967, but it didn't get much attention. In 1968 she recorded "What A Man", reportedly improvised with the Stax musicians in only two takes, which reached #50 on the Billboard charts. It's said that threats from the KKK convinced her to retire from performing and return to Gainesville. Salt n Pepa/EnVogue sampled the song for "Whatta Man" in 1993, and she re-emerged to perform occasionally. She performed "What A Man" for the opening of the Stax Records museum in 2003. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.