The album behind Doris Troy’s 1963 title hit

Doris Troy is locked into the Groundhog’s Day repetition of oldies radio with her 1963 Top 10 hit “Just One Look.” But there was more to her career than is encapsulated in that (albeit, superb) two-minute and thirty-one seconds. The daughter of a Pentecostal minister, she sang in her father’s church choir before being discovered by James Brown at the church of R&B, the Apollo Theater. Her signature “Just One Look” was released by Atlantic and led to this 1963 album, combining well-selected covers (including a gospel-powered take on “Stormy Weather”) with eight originals from Troy and her co-writer Gregory Carol. Troy smolders with anticipation on “Lazy Days (When Are You Coming Home),” grooves to the Latin-inflected “Bossa Nova Blues,” bends blue notes for “Draw Me Closer,” reads her mistreating mate the riot act on “Someone Ain’t Right,” and closes the album with the dramatic Ben E. King-styled “Time.” Troy went on to back the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, sign to Apple for an album in 1969, and mount a musical theatrical production of her life story (which was subsequently turned into the film Mama, I Want to Sing!), but she never again found the commercial success of her very first single. Luckily, the Atlantic archives testify to the breadth of singing and songwriting talent that took root in 1963. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

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