Born Esther Mae Jones in Galveston, Texas, when she was an adolescent, her parents divorced, and she was forced to divide her time between her father in Houston and her mother in the Watts area of Los Angeles. Because she was brought up singing in church, she was hesitant to enter a talent contest at a local blues club, but her sister insisted and she complied. A mature singer at age fourteen, she won the amateur talent contest in 1949 at the Barrelhouse Club owned by Johnny Otis. Otis was so impressed that he recorded her for Modern Records and added her to his traveling revue, the California Rhythm and Blues Caravan, billed as 'Little Esther Phillips' (she reportedly took the surname from a gas station sign).
Her first hit record was Double Crossing Blues, recorded in 1950 for Savoy Records. After several hit records with Savoy, including her duet with Mel Walker on Mistrusting Blues, which went to number one that year, as did "Cupid Boogie". Other Phillips records that made it onto the U.S. Billboard R&B chart in 1950 include "Misery" (number 9), "Deceivin' Blues" (number 4), "Wedding Boogie" (number 6), and "Faraway Blues" (number 6). Few female artists, R&B or otherwise, had ever enjoyed such success in their debut year. Phillips left Otis and the Savoy label at the end of 1950 and signed with Federal Records.
But just as quickly as the hits had started, they stopped. Although she recorded more than thirty sides for Federal, only one, Ring-a-Ding-Doo, charted; the song made it to number 8 in 1952. Not working with Otis was part of her problem; the other part was her drug usage. By the middle of the decade Phillips was chronically addicted to drugs.
In 1954, she returned to Houston to live with her father to recuperate. Short on money, she worked in small nightclubs around the South, punctuated by periodic hospital stays in Lexington, Kentucky, stemming from her addiction. In 1962, Kenny Rogers re-discovered her while singing at a Houston club and got her signed to his brother Lelan’s Lenox label.
Phillips ultimately got well enough to launch a comeback in 1962. Now billed as Esther Phillips instead of Little Esther, she recorded a country tune, Release Me, with producer Bob Gans. This went to number 1 R&B and number 8 on the pop listings. After several other minor R&B hits on Lenox, she was signed by Atlantic Records. Her cover of The Beatles' song And I Love Him nearly made the R&B Top Ten in 1965 and the Beatles flew her to the UK for her first overseas performances.
She had other hits in the 1960s on the label, but no more chart toppers, and she waged a battle with heroin dependency. With her addiction worsening, Phillips checked into a rehab facility. While undergoing treatment, she cut some sides for Roulette in 1969, mostly produced by Lelan Rogers. On her release, she moved back to Los Angeles and re-signed with the Atlantic label. A late 1969 gig at Freddie Jett's Pied Piper club produced the album Burnin'. She performed with the Johnny Otis Show at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1970.
One of her biggest post-1950s triumphs was in 1972 with her first album for Kudu Records. The song penned by Gil Scott-Heron, Home Is Where the Hatred Is, - an account of drug use — was lead track on From a Whisper to a Scream which went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award. When Phillips lost to Aretha Franklin, the latter presented the trophy to Phillips, saying she should have won it instead.
Taylor continued to cut albums with her until in 1975, she scored her biggest hit single since "Release Me" with a disco-style update of Dinah Washington's What a Diff'rence a Day Makes. It reached a high of a Top 20 chart appearance in the U.S., and Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart. On November 8, 1975 she performed the song on an episode of NBC's Saturday Night hosted by Candice Bergen. The accompanying album of the same name became her biggest seller yet, with arranger Joe Beck on guitar, Michael Brecker on tenor sax, David Sanborn on alto sax, and Randy Brecker on trumpet to Steve Khan on guitar and Don Grolnick on keyboards.
She continued to record and perform throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, completing a total of seven albums on Kudu and four with Mercury Records, for whom she signed in 1977. In 1983, she charted for the final time on a tiny independent label, Winning with Turn Me Out, which reached #85 R&B. She completed recording her final album a few months before her death, but it was not until 1986 that the label (Muse) released the record.
Phillips died at UCLA Medical Center in Carson, California in 1984, at the age of 48 from liver and kidney failure due to drug use. Her funeral services were conducted by Johnny Otis, and she was buried in the Morning Light section, at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. The bronze marker recognizes her career achievements, as well as quoting a Bible passage, "In My Father's House Are Many Mansions" - St. John 14:2
Catch Me I'm Fallin'
Esther Phillips Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Everybody falls in love somehow
Something in your kiss just told me
(That) my sometime is now
Everybody finds somebody someplace
There's no telling where love may appear
Something in my heart keeps saying
If I had it in my power
I'd arrange for every girl to have your charm
Then every minute, every hour
Every boy would find what I've found in your arms
Everybody loves somebody sometime
And although my dream was overdue
Your love made it well worth waiting
For someone like you
The lyrics to Esther Phillips's "Catch Me I'm Fallin'" are about the joys and excitement of falling in love. The opening lines suggest that falling in love is a universal experience that everyone goes through at some point in their lives. The lyrics also suggest that love can come unexpectedly and from anywhere, as there is "no telling where love may appear." The singer in the song has found love unexpectedly with someone they have just kissed, and they feel that this person is their "someplace" and their "sometime." The lyrics celebrate the feeling of love and how it can make life worth living, and they suggest that the singer wishes that everyone could experience the same joy.
The song's chorus is particularly upbeat and uplifting, emphasizing the joy of falling in love. It suggests that falling in love is not something to be afraid of or worried about, but rather a natural and wonderful experience that everyone should embrace.
Overall, the lyrics to "Catch Me I'm Fallin'" are an optimistic and joyful celebration of falling in love. They capture the excitement and wonder of finding someone special, and suggest that love can make life worth living.
Line by Line Meaning
Everybody loves somebody sometime
Every person cherishes someone at some point in their lives
Everybody falls in love somehow
All people find ways of being in love someday
Something in your kiss just told me
Your kiss had a distinct feeling that convinced me
(That) my sometime is now
That I have finally found my one and only
Everybody finds somebody someplace
Every person comes across that someone somewhere
There's no telling where love may appear
It's impossible to predict where we'll find our love
Something in my heart keeps saying
My heart is telling me so firmly and undoubtly
(That) my someplace is here
This is where I'm meant to be with someone I love dearly
If I had it in my power
If I possess the strength to do it
I'd arrange for every girl to have your charm
I would make every girl feel your charisma's warmth
Then every minute, every hour
So every minute and every hour
Every boy would find what I've found in your arms
Every boy could find the same love and warmth that I'm experiencing in your embrace
And although my dream was overdue
Even though I was waiting for this love for a long time
Your love made it well worth waiting
Your love undoubtedly made it worth the wait
For someone like you
For someone as magnificent as you are
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
PNA Ltd.
crackin' choon from the day, she even managed to sound uber cute!! The diva that is Esther Phillips. Brilliant.
jasonpfinch
Esther did a Northern tune. This would have gone down well at the Wheel.
Dee Dee Warwick Music
Background vocals by Dee Dee Warwick and Cissy Houston
jasonpfinch
Esther on Atlantic. Yeah baby.