hypersongs

Candi Staton

An Alabama singer who came out of the gospel circuit, cut soul records at FAME in Muscle Shoals, and had her biggest hit with "Young Hearts Run Free" in 1976; her vocal on "You Got the Love" became a dance record decades later.

Hanceville and the gospel circuit

Canzetta Maria Staton was born on March 13, 1940 in Hanceville, Cullman County, Alabama, in a community called The Colony; her father was a farmer and seasonal coal miner, and she calls herself a coal miner's daughter. Some cited sources give 1943. Around 1950 her mother took her and her sister Maggie to Cleveland, where they met Bishop Mattie Lou Jewell, who invited them to her school in Nashville. From about 1953 she toured nationally with the Jewell Gospel Trio, sharing bills with Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke, until about 17.

She returned to Hanceville around 1958. In 1968 she met Clarence Carter in Birmingham, and Carter introduced her to Rick Hall of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals. Between 1968 and 1974 she recorded 48 songs there for Hall. "I'd Rather Be an Old Man's Sweetheart (Than a Young Man's Fool)" (1969) reached number nine on the R&B chart, her debut album I'm Just a Prisoner came out in 1970, and "Stand by Your Man" reached number four on the R&B chart and 24 on the pop chart. She was nominated for Grammys for "Stand by Your Man" and "In the Ghetto" and appeared on Soul Train on September 23, 1972.

Warner and disco

She signed to Warner Bros. in 1974 and in 1975 was paired with the Atlanta producer Dave Crawford. The album and single Young Hearts Run Free appeared in 1976, her biggest hit. "Nights on Broadway" followed in 1977 (UK number six), then "Victim" and House of Love in 1978 and Chance in 1979. In the 1980s she turned to gospel, founded the Beracah label in Atlanta and hosted a television show, with Grammy gospel nominations in 1984 and 1987.

"You Got the Love" began as a vocal she recorded for a 1980s direct-to-video weight-loss documentary, for which the producers could not pay her and instead gave her half the copyright and publishing. It was mixed over the Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle track "Your Love", licensed in 1986 by the DJ Simon Harris, and a 1991 mix by The Source with Candi Staton reached UK number four. Florence and the Machine covered it in 2009 (UK number five). She told the Guardian's Ernesto Lechner, on Grammy.com in 2025, about her gospel roots, and she made Life Happens at FAME with Rick Hall in 2014, with Jason Isbell and John Paul White on "I Ain't Easy to Love".

Later years

His Hands (2006) was produced by Mark Nevers of Lambchop, with the title song by Will Oldham, and Evidence: The Complete Fame Records Masters (Ace/Kent, 2011) collected 48 tracks. She was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2014. Unstoppable came out in 2018 on Beracah and Thirty Tigers. Back to My Roots (February 2025), her 32nd album by Grammy.com's count, includes a duet with William Bell and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Roots Gospel Album at the 68th ceremony. Setlist.fm has 84 setlists for her, from 1969, including Glastonbury on June 25, 2023.

The Encyclopedia of Alabama calls her the First Lady of Southern Soul. She appears in the 2024 PBS documentary Disco: Sound of a Revolution, and lives in Atlanta.

Albums

  • Young Hearts Run Free 1976 · Warner Bros.

    Her Warner Bros. album with the producer Dave Crawford, recorded in Los Angeles.

Songs

  • Young Hearts Run Free Young Hearts Run Free · 1976

    Her 1976 single, written and produced by Dave Crawford, which reached number two in the UK and number one on the US soul chart.

Sources

  1. Candi Staton, Wikipedia
  2. Staton, Candi, Encyclopedia of Alabama
  3. You Got the Love, Wikipedia
  4. Candi Staton, Paste (2014-07-16)