Mavis Staples (born July 10, 1939) – Freedom Highway (1965)

The Staple Singers' 1965 album Freedom Highway was recorded live at Chicago's New Nazareth Church, and featured this powerful freedom song as its title track.

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Singer and activist Mavis Staples is the last surviving original member of the Staple Singers, and has been singing professionally since the early 1950s. Her recent recordings have won three Grammys, starting with her eighth solo studio album You Are Not Alone (2010), which also hit #1 on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart.

Born and raised in Chicago, Staples began singing with her family’s vocal group in 1950, two years after they had first begun performing at local churches. The Staple Singers were led by their father, guitarist Roebuck “Pops” Staples, and featured Mavis and her siblings Cleotha, Yvonne, and Pervis on vocals. Their first hit was “Uncloudy Day” (1956), released on Vee Jay Records.

During the 1960s, propelled by the friendship between “Pops” and Martin Luther King Jr., the Staple Singers helped provide the soundtrack to the Civil Rights Movement.

Their 1965 album Freedom Highway was recorded live at Chicago's New Nazareth Church. Its title track was a freedom anthem dedicated to all those who protest, march and work for freedom, equality and justice.

Some of their other socially conscious songs during this period included “Long Walk to D.C.” (1968) and the epic “When Will We Be Paid?” (1969), a powerful call for reparations.

A decade later in 1975, they scored a #1 R&B album with the soundtrack to Let’s Do It Again, the hit comedy starring Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Jimmie Walker, John Amos, and Calvin Lockhart that was one of the year’s highest-grossing films. Produced by Curtis Mayfield, its title track became one of the group’s best known singles after it went to #1 R&B and also crossed over to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The rest of the soundtrack was even funkier. Highlights included the superb, laid back bedroom jam “Funky Love,” which featured Mavis on lead vocals; the epic, near-instrumental “Big Mac” that sounded like a bonus cut from Mayfield’s classic Superfly soundtrack; and the phenomenal closing instrumental “Chase” that scored the film’s climatic chase scene. “Chase” was co-written by Mayfield with drummer Quinton Joseph, legendary guitarist Phil Upchurch, Gary Thompson, Floyd Morris, and Mayfield’s longtime bassist and musical director Joseph “Lucky” Scott.

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