True and Real LP (vinyl)

Anita Tucker
True and Real LP (vinyl)

Anita Tucker’s first release was in 1955 on the Philadelphia based Guyden label - Ring-Aling-Aling backed with A Million Thanks which credited Alan Freed as a writer.
Later that year she was signed to Capitol Records and came charging out of the starting gate in November '55 with the classic single Slow Smooth and Easy - a great R&B mid-tempo jiver with backing harmonies and musicians including Mickey Baker and Sam ‘The Man’ Taylor.
The backing vocals are often thought to be The Five Keys, who had also been signed to Capitol, but Bernie West of the Five Keys has disputed this and it was most likely Capitol’s studio Doo Wop group, The Cues.
The next release in March of 1956 was from her second Capitol session - Trying to Get to You backed Shiver my Timbers.
Trying To Get To You was a cover of the 1954 hit for Doo Wop band The Eagles, also covered by Elvis Presley.
The final Capitol release was in May 1956 - Handcuffed Heart backled with Hop Skip and Jump.
Despite her obvious vocal talents and looks, some strong material plus good reviews, Anita’s singles didn’t earn the success Capitol were looking for and so they dropped her in 1956.
Her two sessions also produced a couple more tracks, One and Two and If You Go, both tracks unreleased at this time but finally surfacing on the Pathe Marconi in 1986.
She released a one-off single for the small 54 Records label in 1959 - Heartaches and Tears/I Need Love - two sides of soulful Rlythm & Blues.
1962 saw another single release on obscure Vended lebel - He’s an Evil Man/I’ll Get Along Without You, and a couple more singles on Akue followed in 1966.
These appear seem to be her last recordings, firstly Lonesome Road/Try A Little Tenderness followed by I Cried For You/You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You.
Listening to this body of work from Anita Tucker, one word springs to mind: “underrated”.
Though she enjoyed a long and varied career as a singer, actress, and model, she never achieved the success of some of the other female R&B singers of the 1950s,
She stayed true to the music she loved, to her the songs were: “…real blues –earthy, sometimes dirty. But even when they were dirty, they were real…Everything about them was true and real”.