Discography
52
Most popular
Blues, Candy & Big Maybelle
1995
Miss Rhythm and Blues
2026
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
2025
Hey Watch Out!
2025
Essential Classics, Vol. 433: Big Maybelle
2024
Sweet On Candy: Best Of 1953-61
2024
What More Can a Woman Do?
2023
The Blues Collective - Big Maybelle
2023
The Big Maybelle Story Volume One: Dirty Deal Blues
2023
Big Maybelle (That's a Pretty Good Love)
2022
The Soul of Big Maybelle
2022
All of Me
2021
Big Maybelle Just Want's Your Love
2021
The Classic Savoy Sessions
2021
America's Queen Mother of Soul (Remastered)
2020
Whole Lotta Shakin
2020
The Magic of Big Maybelle
2020
The Big Maybelle's Blues
2020
1944-1953
2020
Soul Diva
2019
The Best Of Blues, Candy & Big Maybelle
2018
Gabbin' Blues - The Best Of
2017
The Complete King, Okeh and Savoy Releases 1947-61
2016
Ocean Of Tears
2015
Whole Lot Of Shakin' Goin' On - The Okeh & Savoy Hits
2015
Back 2 Back Divas
2015
Send For Me
2015
All You Need Is Blues
2015
Best of Blues
2015
Top 55 Classics - The Very Best of Big Maybelle
2015
Soul Masters: Big Maybelle
2014
Big Maybelle Greatest Hits
2014
Blues Party Vol 1
2014
36 Hits !
2013
Only You
2013
Classic R&B Women: Big Maybelle & Baby Washington
2012
10 Exciting Hits !
2011
The Best of Big Maybelle
2011
Half Heaven, Half Heartache
2010
Candy!
2009
Very Best of
2009
Shoutin' in the Dark
2008
Blues and Brimstone
2008
No Man's Cry
2008
I've Got a Feelin' - Okeh & Savoy Recordings 1952-56
2007
Maybelle's Blues
2007
I've Got a Feelin'
2007
Half Heartache: The Brunswick Recordings
2001
That's All
2000
The Complete Okeh Sessions 1952-1955
1994
Newport Jazz Festival 1958, Vol III: Blues in the Night, No. 1 (Remastered Live)
1992
Presenting Big Maybelle
1953
Singles & EPs
14
Gabbin' Blues / Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
EP · 2023
Rockhouse / That´s a Pretty Good Love
Single · 2016
Rain Down Rain
Single · 2015
I´ve Got a Feeling
Single · 2015
Don´t Leave Poor Me
Single · 2015
96 Tears
Single · 2015
Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
Single · 2013
Gabbin' Blues
Single · 2013
Baby Please Don't Go
Single · 2012
One Monkey Don´t Stop No Show
Single · 2010
At Newport
EP · 2009
Savoy Jazz Super - EP
EP · 2009
Savoy Jazz Super EP: Big Maybelle
EP · 2009
Pitiful / I´ve Got a Feelin´
Single · 1961
Upcoming shows
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More about Big Maybelle
About
Mabel Louise Smith (May 1, 1924 - January 23, 1972), known professionally as Big Maybelle, was an American R&B singer and pianist. Her 1956 hit single "Candy" received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999. Biography: Born in Jackson, Tennessee, United States, Big Maybelle sang gospel as a child and by her teens had switched to rhythm and blues. She began her professional career with Dave Clark's Memphis Band in 1936, and also toured with the all female International Sweethearts of Rhythm. She then joined Christine Chatman's Orchestra as pianist, and made her first recordings with Chatman in 1944, and with the Tiny Bradshaw's Orchestra from 1947 to 1950.
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Her debut solo recordings, as Mabel Smith, came for King Records in 1947, backed by Oran "Hot Lips" Page, but she had little initial success. However, in 1952 she was signed by Okeh Records, whose record producer Fred Mendelsohn gave her the stage name Big Maybelle. Her first recording for Okeh, "Gabbin' Blues", was a number 3 hit on the Billboard R&B chart, and was followed up by both "Way Back Home" and "My Country Man" in 1953. In 1955 she recorded "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On", produced by Quincy Jones, two years before Jerry Lee Lewis's version. More hits followed throughout the 1950s, mainly for Savoy Records, including "Candy" (1956), one of her biggest sellers. She made the stage of the Apollo Theater in New York City; the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival; and she appeared in Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960), filmed at the Newport Jazz Festival, along with Mahalia Jackson and Dinah Washington. After 1959 she recorded for a variety of labels but the hits largely dried up. She continued to perform in person into the early 1960s, when drug addiction and health problems took their toll on her. Her last hit single was in 1967 with a cover of "96 Tears" by Question Mark & the Mysterians Big Maybelle died in a diabetic coma in 1972, in Cleveland, Ohio. She was survived by her only child Barbara Smith and a host of grandchildren. Her final album, Last of Big Maybelle, was released posthumously in 1973. The album The Okeh Sessions on the Epic label, won the 1983 W. C. Handy Award, for "Vintage or Reissue Album of the Year (U.S.)." In 2011, she was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame.
Big Maybelle in brief
- How many Big Maybelle releases are on Riffiter?
- 66 releases are catalogued, spanning 1953 to 2026.
- When was Big Maybelle formed?
- Big Maybelle formed in 1924.
- What is the most recent Big Maybelle release on Riffiter?
- Miss Rhythm and Blues, released in 2026.