Barbara Lynn: Why Can’t You Love Me + Mix It Up Baby
From Here Is Barbara Lynn (Atlantic, 1968)
I first heard this LP at The Groove Merchant and then ended up getting a copy through The Record Jungle: my two favorite CA stores, making the indirect connect!
This was Lynn’s first album for Atlantic, having already landed in the spotlight five years prior with “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” (which this album also includes…and odd, if not calculated move on Atlantic’s part). The LP didn’t really yield any major hits, though two singles barely made the charts: “Until Then, I’ll Suffer” and “This Is the Thanks I Get.”
For me, the heavy rotation track has been “Why Can’t You Love Me.” It has one of those openings that, within the first 2-3 bars, I’m already sold on the song…something about the interplay between the piano, the guitar and the vibes = magical. And of course, Lynn herself drops in with a lovely, haunting ballad about unrequited love.
“Mix It Up Baby” is one of those classic ’60s dance tunes which mostly just sounds like a compendium of other ’60s dance tunes, literally…calling out the dance names. Mix it up, indeed.
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