Brook Benton, “I Keep Thinking to Myself”
Single released November 1974
Bessie Banks, “Try To Leave Me If You Can (I Bet You Can’t Do It)”
Single released November 1974

Al Bell had known songwriter-producer Clyde Otis for decades. If you were in the music business, Otis was tough to NOT know: Otis’ partnership with Brook Benton had produced dozens of chart singles between 1959 and ‘70. When Bell invited Otis and a few of his artists, most notably Benton, to work with Stax in 1974, it seemed to make good music and business sense.

But as soul and R&B grew increasingly (and more militantly) political through the 1970s and changing radio and chart landscapes welcomed new stars, the changes pushed others off the horizon, and the courtly, southern gentleman Benton was one such musical casualty. So when Stax released Benton’s single “I Keep Thinking to Myself” in November ‘74, it faced uncertain prospects. Though its arrangement is as comfortably, rhythmically soulful as Benton’s smooth, deep voice - southern country blues that seem to glide with no effort, somehow both heavy and light as a feather - it failed to chart.

Bell’s deal with Otis also brought a few other artists to Stax, including female vocalist Bessie Banks, who had been recording soul and R&B singles since the mid-50s. “I’m not going to ask you to stay, because I’ve got too much pride,” she begins to open “Try To Leave Me If You Can,” and listening to the rest of her vocal - strong, soulful and sharp, no doubt the sound and attitude of a confident, sure woman - it’s hard to stop wondering why she never scored a hit. “Try To Leave Me If You Can” didn’t make it to the charts either, and proved to be Banks’ swan song. She never released another record.

Even if barely heard in their own time, “I Keep Thinking to Myself” and “Try To Leave Me If You Can” are two of the best lost treasures on The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles Volume 3 1972-’75. “Leave Me” is available on one other compilation but “Thinking” isn’t available any place else.

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