Ann Peebles

Ann Peebles (born April 27, 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri) is an internationally acclaimed singer and songwriter best known for her popular Memphis soul albums of the 1970s on the Hi Records label. Two of her better known songs are "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" and "I Can't Stand the Rain", popularised by cover versions by Paul Young and Eruption respectively.

Peebles was discovered as a talent by Gene "Bowlegs" Miller of Hi Records during a 1968 trip to sit in singing with him at a Memphis, Tennessee, nightclub. A popular local bandleader, Miller was known for also helping other musicians, such as members of the Hi Rhythm Section, get their starts in the Memphis music industry. Peebles soon began penning and singing hits for the label, cowriting with label staff songwriter Don Bryant, whom she later married in 1974. Peebles released a number of commercially successful and critically well received albums produced by Willie Mitchell on Hi Records throughout the 1970s, until the rise of disco music in the late 1970s took her music out of the limelight. Hi Records was sold in 1977, but Peebles reunited with Willie Mitchell in 1989 to produce her comeback album, Call Me.

In 2006 she released the album Brand New Classics which consists of re-recordings of some of her songs in an acoustic style.

Ann Peebles has been sampled by many Hip-Hop artists, in particular RZA and the Wu-Tang Clan.

Discographie

 1969 This Is Ann Peebles -
 1971 Part Time Love
 1972 Straight From The Heart
 1974 I Can't Stand the Rain
 1976 Tellin' It 41
 1978 If This Is Heaven
 1979 The Handwriting's On The Wall
 1989 Call Me
 1992 Full Time Love -
 1996 Fill This World With Love
 2003 The complete Ann Peebles on Hi Records
 2006 Brand New Classics