BIOGRAPHY AND DISCOGRAPHY

 

Something of a mystery woman in rock, as all we know is Odelle Turner was said to be a native of Virginia and 19 years old when signed to Atlantic. In spite of her promise, both as a singer and songwriter, she had just one recording session with only two of the four songs seeing the light of day.

The company gave her a big build up and didn’t skimp on promoting her record, which was quite good. She had a good voice and definitely knew how to use it to her advantage and briefly gave the label one of the deepest roster of female rock acts in the business with Ruth Brown and Laurie Tate, both of whom had #1 hits proving the appeal of the fairer sex to rock fans. But for whatever reason she never got another chance to show what she could do, not just for Atlantic but somehow not attracting the attention of any other label in need of a viable rocker, leaving behind just one single as evidence of an all-too-short career.
 
 
ODELLE TURNER DISCOGRAPHY (Records Reviewed To Date On Spontaneous Lunacy):

ALARM CLOCK BOOGIE
(Atlantic 964; April, 1952)
A promising debut for Turner who sings with enthusiasm and experience at the fine art of partying until you drop and backed by a top notch Jesse Stone arrangement this was one that should’ve established her as someone to keep an eye on instead of being her swan song. (7)

DRAGGIN’ HOURS
(Atlantic 964; April, 1952)
An effective B-side in that it presents a different theme, tempo, musical bed and vocal style and though not designed to be catchy it does have a nice slow rhythm but the longer it goes on it gets a little tedious despite Turner’s solid efforts to inject life into it. (5)