Sandy Posey

Born in Jasper, Alabama, in 1944, Sandy Posey was the youngest of five children raised on gospel music and Deep South hospitality.

She began performing in public at an early age, and after graduating from high school, she found work as a receptionist with several recording studios, ending up at Chips Moman’s American Sound Studio in Memphis.

During this time, Posey worked as a session singer, attending sessions for Sam Phillips at Sun Records while also working with the Hurshel Wiginton Singers, who were in constant demand, adding their backing vocals to hundreds of recordings.

Posey also recorded solo under various pseudonyms, though these made little impression either locally or nationally.

Just as it seemed that her musical ambitions would come to nothing, she was invited by a song plugger named Gary Walker to cut a demo at Muscle Shoals called Born a Woman.

Chips Moman was so taken with the demo that he re-recorded the song at his own studio and leased it through MGM, who instantly signed Posey.

The song sold over a million copies, but it was the follow-up, Single Girl, that gave Posey her greatest international hit – a song that encapsulates the sound of mid-60s America in much the same way as Daydream by The Lovin’ Spoonful or Spooky by Classics IV.

Her third single (What a Woman In Love Won’t Do) gave Posey a minor hit on both sides of the Atlantic, though she admitted she never much liked the song because of the subservient role of the song’s protagonist.

Her final hit (I Take It Back) displayed more country leanings than her previous singles and also highlighted her love of The Shirelles and The Shangri-Las.

Posey frequently described her brand of music as “pop-country” and acknowledged her love of The Beach Boys‘ close harmonies and the sounds emanating from England via The Beatles and the British Invasion.

Over two short years, she released nine singles and four studio albums, but by the end of 1968, Sandy Posey’s career was beginning to fade. Shy and retiring by nature, she never much cared for touring or doing the publicity rounds and interviews.

She continued to do session work and was as in-demand as ever, providing backing vocals for everyone from Tommy Roe to Bobby Goldsboro. She also backed Percy Sledge on his Southern soul classic When a Man Loves a Woman and worked with Elvis on Kentucky Rain, The Wonder of You, Suspicious Minds and In The Ghetto.

In the 1970s, Posey decided to pursue her interests in country music. She relocated to Nashville, where she found regular session work with producer Billy Sherrill and enjoyed a Top 20 country chart hit with Bring Him Home Safely To Me.