album rating: ★★★★★
Genre: Soul / R&B / Southern soul / quiet storm. Feelin' Bitchy is Millie Jackson's sixth studio album and her biggest commercial success, the record on which she fully embraced the raunchy, outspoken, hilariously confrontational persona that would define her entire subsequent career. Jackson (born Mildred Virginia Jackson, Thomson, Georgia, 1944) had established herself with the concept album Caught Up (1974) and its sequel Still Caught Up (1975) — groundbreaking works that combined spoken-word raps with Southern soul of the highest order, recorded at Muscle Shoals with producer Brad Shapiro. After two more restrained records in 1976, she returned with Feelin' Bitchy in August 1977, again at Muscle Shoals with Shapiro, and the album spent 38 weeks on the US R&B charts. The album opens with 'All The Way Lover', an eleven-minute extended performance that starts as a slow soul groove and expands into an elaborate comedic rap on the subject of men and their sexual obligations — what The Bay State Banner called 'a mischievous, unkind, joyously detestable yakety-yak, excused by Millie's call to Woman to take all of what men are too scared to give.' The album also includes her celebrated cover of Merle Haggard's country hit 'If You're Not Back in Love by Monday', a version of Benny Latimore's 'All The Way Lover' and original soul tracks including 'Feelin' Like a Woman', 'Lovin' Your Good Thing Away', 'A Little Taste of Outside Love' and 'You Created a Monster'. The cover photo — an image of Jackson's tongue prominently extended — caused some record stores to keep the album behind the counter.
Label: Spring Records (distributed by Polydor Incorporated), released August 1977.
Producers: Brad Shapiro and Millie Jackson.
Recording studios: Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, Sheffield, Alabama; A&R Recording Studios, New York City; Criteria Recording Studio, Miami, Florida; United Sound Studios, Detroit, Michigan.
Critical reception: Feelin' Bitchy is consistently described as the peak of Millie Jackson's discography and one of the classics of late-1970s soul. Ace Records, which reissued it in remastered form, called it 'a significant milestone in Millie Jackson's storied career.' Rate Your Music reviewers describe it as 'Millie Jackson's most popular album, and rightly so. Every song on it is a gem.' Jackson herself told Black Echoes that it was not the Haggard cover that sold the album: 'All The Way Lover sold the album.' The album was reissued with bonus tracks by Ace Records / Southbound in 2006.
Commercial success: Feelin' Bitchy reached number 4 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart and number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single 'If You're Not Back in Love by Monday' reached number 5 on the R&B chart and number 43 on the Hot 100. The album was certified gold by the RIAA for over 500,000 copies sold. It attracted a devoted UK following — Jackson was voted the number 1 female singer in the Blues & Soul magazine annual poll — and she played sold-out UK dates in early 1978 performing the material.
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