mable john - "your good thing (is about to end)" (from the stax story boxed set, available for purchase here.)

i'll venture to say something somewhat ridiculous (which is nothing new, really, apart from the preface) : damn, i would've liked to have pissed off mable john. "your good thing" is some cold shit, but mable makes it steam. just listen to the way the horns slink behind her on the chorus, and how she elongates the words "real" and "good," filled w/ the delight that can only come from getting out of a bad relationship w/ the upper hand. she's the kind of woman that made joe tex write a song called "hold what you've got," the kind of woman to inspire isaac hayes & david porter to outdo themselves and pen this absolute classic.

some other things i can tell you about mable john :
1 her brother was little willie john.
2 upon graudating high school, she ended up working for bertha gordy's insurance company.
3 a pre-fame supremes sang back-up on her early records.
4 she sings a song called "don't hit me no more" which opens w/ the line "i'm so sorry you had to slap me."

i'll tell you one final thing, more amazing than any of this : "your good thing" only hit #95 pop, and it was the closest thing she ever had to a hit.