Nasty Gal

Nasty Gal was recorded in May 1975 and released by Island, her first major-label album, produced by Betty Davis with Bob Clearmountain engineering. After ABC acquired her previous label, Island offered to buy out her contract, and she chose to record with her touring band Funk House, not session musicians: Nicky Neal on drums and backing vocals, Larry Johnson on bass, Fred Mills on keyboards and backing vocals and Carlos Morales on lead guitar and backing vocals, with Errol Bennett on congas, James Allen Smith on synthesizer and Buddy Williams on bass drum. It runs 39:15. Gil Evans conducted and arranged "You and I".

It reached 54 on the Top R&B Albums chart in 1976 and 96 in Australia. Early reviews were unfavorable, with critics feeling her image overshadowed her talent; in retrospect AllMusic gave it 4.5 and Pitchfork 8.4, and PopMatters's Ron Hart called it an album filled with some of her most aggressive and voracious set of tunes to date. It did poorly enough that Island shelved the follow-up, Is It Love or Desire?, which stayed unreleased until 2009, and she left the music industry soon after. Light in the Attic reissued it on CD in 2009.