Little Milton

Milton "Little Milton" Campbell, Jr. (September 7, 1934—August 4, 2005) was a blues vocalist and guitarist best known for his hits "Grits Ain't Groceries" and "We're Going to Make It." Most popular in the sixties, he became one of the lesser known greats of the genre, combining traditional lyrical structure with smoother production.

Born in the Mississippi Delta town of Mississippi and raised in Greenville by a farmer and local blues musician. By age twelve he had learned the guitar and was a street musician, chiefly influenced by T-Bone Walker and his blues and rock-n-roll contemporaries. In 1952, while still a teenager playing in local bars, he caught the attention of Ike Turner, who was at that time a talent scout for Sam Phillips' Sun Records. He signed a contract with the iconic label and recorded a number of singles. None of them broke through onto radio or sold well at record stores, however, and Milton left the Sun label by 1955.

After transitioning from several labels without notable success, Milton set up the St. Louis Bobbin Records label, which ultimately scored a distribution deal with Leonard Chess' Chess Records. As a record producer, Milton helped bring artists such as Albert King and popular R&B singer Fontella Bass to fame, while experiencing success for the first time. After a number of small format and regional hits, his 1962 single, "So Mean to Me," broke onto the Billboard Magazine R&B chart (then called the "Black Singles Chart"), eventually peaking at #14.

After a short break to tour, manage other acts, and spend time recording new material, he returned to music in 1965 with a more polished sound, similar to that of B.B. King. After the ill-received "Blind Man" (R&B: #86), he released back-to-back hit singles. The first, "We're Gonna Make It," a blues-infused soul song, topped the R&B charts and broke through onto Top 40 radio, a format then dominated largely by white artists. He followed the song with #4 R&B hit "Who's Cheating Who?" All three songs were featured on his breakthrough album We're Gonna Make It, released that summer.

Throughout the late sixties Milton released a number of moderately successful singles, but didn't release his second album, Grits Ain't Groceries, until 1969, in support of his hit of the same name, as well as "Just a Little Bit" and "Baby, I Love You." With the death of Leonard Chess the same year, Milton's distributor, Checker Records fell into disarray, and Milton joined the Stax label two years later. Adding complex orchestration to his works, Milton scored hits with "That's What Love Will Make You Do" and "What It Is" from live album What It Is: Live at Montreux. Stax, however, had been hemorrhaging money since late in the previous decade was forced into bankruptcy in 1975.

After leaving Stax, Milton struggled to maintain a career, transitioning first to Evidence, then the MCA imprint Mobile Fidelity Records, before finding a home at the independent label, Malaco Records, where he remained for much of the remainder of his career. His last hit single, "Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number," was released in 1983 from the album of the same name. His most recent album, Think of Me, was released in May of 2005 on the Telarc imprint.

In 1988, Little Milton was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and won the prestigious W.C. Handy Award. He continued to tour and release new material until his death on August 4, 2005 of a stroke.

Discography

Albums

We're Gonna Make It (1965, Chess) R&B: #3 US: #101
Grits Ain't Groceries (1970) R&B: #41 US: #159
If Walls Could Talk (1970) R&B: #23 US: #197
Waiting for Little Milton (1973, Stax) R&B: #39
What It Is: Live at Montreux (1973)
Blues 'n' Soul (1974) R&B: #45
Tin Pan Alley (1975)
Friend of Mine (1976) R&B: #50
The Blues Is Alright (1982, Evidence)
Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number (1983, Mobile Fidelity) R&B: #53
Playing for Keeps (1984, Malaco) R&B: #55
Annie Mae's Cafe (1987)
Movin' to the Country (1987)
Back to Back (1988) R&B: #73
I Will Survive (1988)
Too Much Pain (1990) R&B: #40
Reality (1991) R&B: #57
Strugglin' Lady (1992) R&B: #63
I'm a Gambler (1994)
Live at Westville Prison (1995)
Cheatin' Habit (1996) Blues: #14
For Real (1998) Blues: #13
Welcome to Little Milton (1999) Blues: #10
Feel It (2001)
Guitar Man (2002) Blues: #8
Think of Me (24th May 2005, Telarc) Blues: #14

Singles

Incomplete Listing

"So Mean to Me" (1962) R&B: #14
"Blind Man" (1965) R&B: #86
"We're Gonna Make It" (1965) R&B: #1 US: #25
"Who's Cheating Who?" (1965) R&B: #4 US: #43
"Man Loves Two" (1966) R&B: #45
"We Got the Winning Hand" (1966) Pop: #100
"Feel So Bad" (1967) R&B: #7 Pop: #91
"I'll Never Turn My Back on You" (1967) R&B: #31
"Let Me Down Easy" (1968) R&B: #27
"More and More" (1968) R&B: #45
"Grits Ain't Groceries" (1969) R&B: #13 US: #73
"Just a Little Bit" (1969) R&B: #13 US: #97
"Baby, I Love You" (1970) R&B: #6 US: #82
"If Walls Could Talk" (1970) R&B: #10 US: #71
"Somebody's Changin' My Sweet Baby's Mind" (1970) R&B: #22
"I Play Dirty" (1971) R&B: #37
"If That Ain't a Reason" (1971) R&B: #41
"That's What Love Will Make You Do" (1972) R&B: #9 US: #59
"What It Is" (1973) R&B: #51
"Behind Closed Doors" (1974) R&B: #31
"Tin Pan Alley" (1974) R&B: #51
"Let Me Back In" (1974) R&B: #38
"If You Talk In Your Sleep" (1975) R&B: #34
"Friend of Mine" (1976) R&B: #15
"Baby, It Ain't No Way" (1977) R&B: #94
"Loving You" (1977) R&B: #47
"Just One Step" (1977) R&B: #59
"Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number" (1983) R&B: #89

Compilation Albums

Rockin' the Blues (13th February 1996)

External links

[[1]] Official Little Milton website including Biography

[[2]] Little Milton 2002 Interview and Photos by PT Quinn

[[3]] Commentary about Little Milton by Shaun Mather