I really feel so stupid and unaware!

I was at my aunt's house last night and in her bedroom there's this box FULL of records(45s) so when I was going through them I found the infamous "Come 2 My Garden" album. I played that thang and start cooking the supper 4 the kids(I'm baby-sitting my aunt's kids while she's at work).

So, the album is being played in the backround while I was cooking and man I tell ya, time flew like air lol thats one of the ultimate FEEL-GOOD music(unsupricingly,,scropios artists are known 4 being the best when it comes to feel-good music lol) when the album ended, I swear I was on the verge of losing my breath. Sadly, thats the only Minnie album in that box.

I'm aware of Minnie's musical and her wild influence on sistas like Mariah, Chante, Shanice and etc but I wasn't really that HEAVY into her music.

I'm seriously thinking of buying her anthology 2-CD set album "Petals". What do u guys think?

Any-fans?

I sleept on her too. I've always loved her "Inside My Love" which was on the "Jackie Brown" soundtrack (amazing soundtrack, BTW). I also want a recommendation. Someone hear our plea!

I think Petals is an excellent choice for starters. Her best album IMO, is Perfect Angel. Stevie Wonder did about 85% of the production. 2nd best is Adventures in Paradise.

psykosoul said:

Just wait until u hear "Reasons" on the "Perfect Angel" album. WOOO! And the rest of the jams are heaven!

Minnie Ripperton is a goddess. "Petals" and "Perfect Angel" are your best bets.

VoicesCarry said:

I already selected that anthology in my amazon's cd-wishlist

I downlouded "The Edge Of A Dream" man, I neva heard such beauty like that

Her rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Woman Of Heart And Mind" is breathless and the live version of "Loving You" backed-up by George Benson's band is just wild wild wild.

Everytime He Comes Around is hypnotic 2 the 10th degree!

Petals is a must for starters then get the albums (Perfect Angel, Andventures In Paradise, Stay In Love, and Minnie) Although I believe they are only Japanese only releases...there isn't a domestic pressing of thiese releases. The same deal with Chaka's early solo albums.The first album Perfect Angel, is just that. Like someone said Stevie did most of the production, he also worked on LaBelle's Pressure Cookin LP around the same time. This has never been put on cd (so send me an Orgnote and I'll burn one for you...also LaBelle's Phoenix., No, Stevie, but a killer album.) I digress...My favorite jamz are "Every Time He Comes Around", "Minnie's Lament"(not on Petals I may add) this song will give you chils...the hair on the back of my neck stands up everytime I hear this (no shittin'). "Light My Fire" a cover with Jose' Feliciano, kust imagine an rnb version with a latin flavor...

Peace, Serveitupfrankie*

The 'Perfect Angel' album (1974) is a great place to start.It includes her big hit "Lovin You",but it also features wonderful tracks like "Everytime He Comes Around","Reasons",and "Take A Little Trip".

I gotta pick up that 2-CD set too.

All of you Stevie Wonder's fans you're gon' dig this article, its from 1975. Read on:

Stevie's Angel
by Margo Jefferson

The story of how Minnie Riperton met Stevie Wonder at a rehearsal during Chicago's 1971 Black Expo is fast becoming pop legend. Riperton had released a debut album that won critical praise but, frustrated with her record company's listless promotion effort, was preparing, at age 22, for semi-retirement in Florida. "I saw Stevie backstage", she recalled, "so I went over and whispered in his ear for him to keep up the good work. He asked me what my name was and I said, 'Minnie'. Well, he started jumping up and down saying, 'Not Minnie Riperton -- it's been my dream to work with you. You sing like an angel."
Wonder's dream came true three years later when he played back up and wrote two songs for Minnie Riperton's second album, called -- not surprisingly -- "Perfect Angel". The combination of her own clear, childlike voice and Wonder's playing has brought her a hit single "Lovin' You" a gold album, and a reputation as pop music's #1 Ingenue.

Riperton's secret lies in what another admirer, composer-arranger Quincy Jones calls, "a combination of soul and science." Her soul is of the ethereal sort. The songs Riperton writes with her husband, Richard Rudolph, are simple rhymed paeans to the joys of love and nature; her delivery is winsome, and during her recent week of performances at the Greek Theater, in Los Angeles, her stage act included potted trees, bushes, hanging vines, and live caged birds. The science is all in the voice, a trained instrument that travels four to five octaves "really five and a half", she claims -- and astonishes audiences used to pop singers whose narrow ranges are amplified by fulsome recording studio effects. "I studied opera." says Riperton, "Just before that I studied voice. I didn't discover my range overnight."

Gems: One of eight children in a musical Chicago family, Riperton began voice lessons at the age of 9. At 14 she joined a five girl soul group called the Gems, and in the late 60's she was in a psychedelic-and-soul group called Rotary Connection. After six albums they disbanded, and Riperton , who by then had done some radio and commercials and became a much-in-demand studio soprano in Chicago, cut her first solo album, "Come To My Garden".

Record companies beckoned, but, says Riperton, "they saw I was a black woman, so they immediately put me into a "sh-bop" slot. I wanted to be accepted as a creative artist . So we just left Chicago and that whole scene and headed for Florida." A couple of years later an Epic Records executive came to Florida looking for her -- She had settled in Gainesville and become the mother of two children -- and signed her to a contract giving her complete artistic control.

Now she has made a third album, "Adventures In Paradise" which is climbing the charts, but Minnie Riperton tends to shrug it off, "Once it stops being fun for me, for my husband and for my children, then I'm disappearing.", she insists, "I was never reaching for stardom". Instead it reached for her.

CinisterCee said:

Harlepolis, can u name the samples?

You can't go wrong listening to pretty much any R&B music from the mid 70's.