Amazon.com
David Nathan's life changed as an English teenager in the '60s. The agent of that shift? Records by black American singers such as Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, and Nina Simone. Soon he was the head of Simone's British fan club, and in short order, became a journalist with growing access to his heroines. Over the ensuing years, Amazon.com and Billboard contributor Nathan has had Franklin bake him a peach cobbler, stood under the thrown shade of everyone from Esther Phillips to Anita Baker, and even had Miss Ross ask him to call her "Diana." The Soulful Divas captures Nathan's obsession with his favorites, providing two-layered narratives that meld career rundowns with interviews and other personal meetings with his subjects. Most of the 14 single-artist chapters are successful portraits, with the exception of Nathan's profile of Natalie Cole, whose drug problems and career resurrection in the shadow of her late father are little more than the stuff of a legend-in-her-own-mind. A dearth of material weakens a closing chapter on young divas Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, and Toni Braxton. But Nathan also provides many invaluable, eye-opening moments, such as the story of a baseball-bat-wielding Phillips threatening to smash up the offices of a record company slow to pay royalties. Finally, he fills out the received wisdom on "X-rated" Millie Jackson, who says, "When I'm home, it's crossword puzzles, television, and the kids." Kids who no doubt, like Nathan, picked up their share of tips on life and love from Jackson and her sisters. --Rickey Wright
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Book Description
The best-selling guide to the lives and work of the R&B divas, now in paperback! In The Soulful Divas, author David Nathan profiles the greatest female rhythm and blues vocalists of the past 30 years as never before with an unforgettable collection of fascinating, personal biographies. He celebrates such legendary performers as Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, and others in provocative, behind-the-scenes portraits based on his long-standing personal relationships with these legendary women. The result is a hugely entertaining, candid look at the ups and downs of each performer's career-as well as an intriguing view of how these unforgettable women made a powerful mark on an essentially white, male-dominated industry.
