Soul singer and songwriter Gloria Scott is revered among soul aficionados for ‘What Am I Gonna Do’, her 1974 debut album produced by Barry White. Although it featured a pair of charting singles, the LP was lost in the shuffle during a year in which White cranked out album projects for himself, Love Unlimited, Love Unlimited Orchestra, Tom Brock, and Gene Page (the latter two of whom also assisted with Scott's sessions). Several songs off the LP became deep classics, particularly in Europe, where Scott has continued to perform into the 2020s. Active since the mid-'60s, she has enjoyed a lengthy career with links to other R&B legends such as Sly Stone, Ike & Tina Turner, and Mary Wilson. She released her second album, ‘So Wonderful’, in 2022.
Gloria Scott was raised in Texas and California. Born in Port Arthur, she moved before her first birthday to Houston, where she started singing and took piano lessons. She and her family relocated to East Palo Alto in her early teens, and later moved to Sunnydale. At a school dance, she got on-stage to sing with the Mojo Men, and ended up performing with the band on a more formal basis. This led to the group's Sly Stone writing and producing Scott's debut single, "I Taught Him," released on Warner Bros. in 1964. Scott continued performing in and around the Bay Area, and for a while was an Ikette, touring with Ike & Tina Turner.
Post-Ikettes, a song she wrote with Herman Chaney caught the attention of Barry White, who ended up signing her. White produced Scott's 1974 debut album, ‘What Am I Gonna Do’. The second LP released on the Casablanca label (after Kiss' self-titled debut and before Parliament's Up for the Down Stroke), it yielded "What Am I Gonna Do" and "Just as Long as We're Together (In My Life There Will Never Be Another)," singles that respectively reached number 74 and number 14 on Billboard's Hot Soul Singles chart. The second A-side received enough support from club DJs to scale up the disco chart to number 14. Scott recorded a follow-up with H.B. Barnum as producer, but it was shelved. Nothing else materialized from Scott and White's affiliation.
Scott went on to perform and record with Mary Wilson for a couple years. Thanks to the enduring support of European soul fans, Scott later became an in-demand performer, regularly appearing at the annual Baltic Soul Weekender in Germany, debuting there in 2008. Meanwhile, What Am I Gonna Do was reissued in multiple editions. The title song, along with "(A Case Of) Too Much Lovemakin'" and the B-side "That's What You Always Say," were licensed for numerous compilations. Scott recorded infrequently, releasing the original song "It's So Wonderful" and a cover of Ten City's "That's the Way Love Is," and in 2022 finally released her second album, So Wonderful, produced by Andrew McGuinness and issued on the Acid Jazz label.
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Alan Mercer: Gloria, I must tell you how exquisite your new album is. I didn’t think you could top your first album, but you did!
Gloria Scott: I am so happy that music came out of me before I leave this earth.
AM: Did you write the songs?
GS: I wrote most of them. ‘So Wonderful’ was written way back when I was working with Barry White, also ‘Running Away’ was written back then too. I was doing the Baltic Soul Weekend one year and Andrew McGuinness had the music to a song, and I heard the lyrics come to me out of the sky and it became the song, ’Real’. He had it on his phone and we created it right there.
AM: Tell me about the song you didn’t write called ‘Promise Land’.
GS: I always did that song when I was in Germany, but it didn’t seem complete. It didn’t have enough meaning, so I wrote some more lyrics to it and got permission to use it.
AM: It’s a great tune to end the album and also your opening song, ‘All Of The Time, You’re On My Mind’ is a perfect opening song.
GS: That was the song that Barry did for a second album he never released.
AM: Did you re-record it?
GS: Yes, but sometimes the strings were a little too much for me. I wish I would have been able to give my opinion of it when they were working on the mix. I would have done things a little bit different. Sometimes the producers don’t respect singers like they should. If Andrew produces my next album, I’m going to be sure to sign a contract that gives me the final say.
AM: You should. Someone with your experience and longevity should be listened to.
GS: I kind of want to do it myself.
AM: You understand music.
GS: I don’t know music, but I do understand it. Barry was the same way.
AM: I don’t think you’ve ever recorded a song like ‘Come Back Baby’ and it’s gorgeous.
GS: That was another one that Andrew had the music for, and I wrote the lyrics. It came pretty naturally.
AM: All the songs on this album flow from one to another so seamlessly, just like your first album.
GS: When I played Germany, they let me stay over a little longer, but the morning I was getting ready to leave, they told me they were going to play a track and they wanted me to write something and whatever I wrote the first time is what we would go with and that’s it. It came out so systematically. The runs and the lines fit in so well.
AM: So overall, you are very happy with the album.
GS: Yes, I am. I would always want to change a few things. I was like that with my first album too. I don’t think they let me adlib enough on the first album. I was just a babe then. I let them dictate to me everything and they are still trying to do that.
AM: I want to go over your history because some people may not know that you have worked with some legends. The first being Sly Stone who produced your first single, ‘I Taught Him’ that we can hear on YouTube. It’s so good!
GS: Wasn’t that good? When Bobby Freeman heard that song, he told Sly he wanted a song just like that and that’s when he came up with ‘The Swim’.
AM: You couldn’t have known you were making history, did you?
GS: I was in knee school. I met Sly at a school dance. From then on, we just started hanging out. Whenever he had a gig, he would invite me to hang out. It was like a sock hop, and we had so much fun. I wanted to be in his group when he started Sly and the Family Stone, but at that time he was Sly and the Mojo Men.
AM: I also recently learned that you worked with Ike and Tina Turner, but you were not an Ikette on stage during the show for a while.
GS: I met Ike and Tina in San Francisco at the Fillmore West. I auditioned and I remember the song I sang was ‘Come See About Me’. My family lived in Santa Cruz at the time, so Ike and Tina drove me in their black Cadillac to say good-bye to my Momma. I was 18 at the time and I went to all the gigs with them. The original Ikettes were always performing. I told them I wanted to go home. I was a babe in the woods, so they let me go home, but then they called me, and Ike asked if I wanted to go on the Dick Clark Tour. There were three or four sets of Ikettes that went on that tour and I was on one of them.
AM: That is so exciting. You have always been known for your voice, haven’t you?
GS: Tina came to see us one time and she told me I was the best one so when the original Ikettes quit, Ike asked me if I wanted to be one and I said, “Yes, yes!” Tina let me lead most of the songs that the Ikettes sang. Do you remember the song, ‘I’m Thankful’?
AM: Oh yes.
GS: That was my song. I got real hoarse on night and Ike told me to drink a shot of brandy and then Tina said it was the best version of that song she had ever heard.
AM: That’s quite a compliment.
GS: It was, she did respect me a lot. One time we were performing in LA and P.P. Arnold walked up to the mic and started singing my song. Tina told her to give Gloria back her song. I didn’t make a fuss about it on stage. I just let her do it.
AM: Did you leave show business for a while after you left Ike and Tina?
GS: Actually, I did. I was not in the mainstream. I had moved to LA and this guy I was writing songs with told me I had to meet someone. We went to Barry White’s office. I sang the songs, ‘It’s So Wonderful’ and ‘Can’t Keep Running Away’ and Barry signed me as an artist. It was a terrible contract.
AM: How did you get on Casablanca at the very beginning?
GS: It was Warner Bros. and Casablanca. It was mixed up. I don’t think I was ready for that yet.
AM: Is that why you didn’t do a follow up album?
GS: Barry’s career got so big itself, I think that’s what happened and at the same time I was feeling a little insecure about the whole thing. That’s why I dropped off after that. I didn’t know the album was being played in Europe. I don’t know if Barry promoted it over there or if it just got picked up over there. A lot of people would tell me they heard my song, but it wasn’t one from the album. I found out the guy who produced it put it out. There were just so many things I didn’t understand back then. I didn’t know you had to copyright your songs.
AM: Did you ever imagine it would be 48 years in between releases?
GS: It is unimaginable, but it is the truth.
AM: It is unimaginable. You must be the only recording artist who has that long in between albums. Will you be performing in support of the new album?
GS: I have several gigs in England coming up. It starts in March. I’m really working on getting myself in shape for that.
