Teena Marie
Born in 1956 in Santa Monica, California, and raised in a mostly African-American community in Venice, California, Mary Christine Brockert (aka Teena Marie) is the most consistently successful white woman on the American R&B charts. This is quite an achievement but the importance of her talents stretches far beyond that statement. She has blazed trails for all female musical artists in claiming unprecedented control over the artistic process on her own recordings. In addition, she emerged from the shadow of her mentor Rick James to become one of the most enduring of Funk artists. Her current album proves that Dance-Funk artists can age gracefully and with all of their artistic power intact.
As a child, the precocious Mary Christine appeared in a number of television commercials and even an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. As a college student in 1975 she was signed to act in a Motown television production that never aired, but Motown kept her on as a musician. At Motown she met Rick James and adopted the name Teena Marie. For her first solo album Wild and Peaceful in 1979 Rick James handled production duties, wrote half the songs and played much of the music. I’m a Sucker For Your Love, the flirtatious duet between the two, became Teena Marie’s first of 7 Top 10 R&B hits.
The cover of Teena Marie’s first album included no photos of the artist. Many were shocked when the second album Lady T featured her portrait on the cover and it became obvious she was white. Reportedly, even Rick James was shocked that she was not black when he first met her after having heard her singing voice. Lady T featured Teena Marie’s first smash Dance hit Behind the Groove. Behind the Groove also broke her into the Top 10 across the Atlantic in the U.K. but would remain her sole major hit there.
The next album Irons In the Fire, her second release in 1980 and an album in which Teena Marie took over performing, songwriting and production duties, included I Need Your Lovin’, another Top 10 Dance and R&B hit that made little dent on the Pop charts. Following her next album, 1981’s It Must Be Magic which featured the hit Square Biz, Teena Marie became embroiled in legal battles with Motown. The final outcome was a victory for Teena Marie and the creation of the landmark artist’s rights initiative ‘The Brockert Initiative,’ after her legal surname. This initiative indicates that record labels can not keep artists under contract if they refuse to release their work.
Following the end of her legal battle Teena Marie signed with Epic Records and released her fifth album Robbery in 1983. Critically well-received and including forays into Jazz, Robbery was less of a commercial success. It was her followup, 1984’s Starchild that finally brought Teena Marie true multi-format commercial success including the Top 10 Dance, R&B and Pop hit Lovergirl. At the peak of her commercial and artistic acclaim, Teena Marie retreated to the studio to record a concept album, Emerald City, that featured a number of long Jazz-influenced ballads and was not released until 1986. The album was a major critical and commercial disappointment barely reaching the Top 20 on the R&B chart and including no major hits.
1987’s Naked To the World brought two more Top 10 R&B hits, Work It and the
sentimental ballad Ooo La La La, but Dance and Pop audiences had deserted her. By 1990’s Ivory, R&B audiences were ceasing to pay much attention as well. Teena Marie was dropped from contract with Epic in the early 90’s and released 1994’s Passion Play on her own record label. Both Epic and Motown continued to release greatest hits collections through the 90’s and Ultimate, the only collection which combines material from both the Epic and Motown
albums was released on Hip-O in 2000.
With a new album recorded and nearly ready for release, Teena Marie’s new material came to the attention of Ronald ‘Slim’ Williams, one of the owners of the Southern Rap label Cash Money Records. Soon Teena Marie had been signed as the first artist for the subsidiary Cash Money Classics. La Dona, the new album, was released in May of 2004 and Teena Marie debuted in the Top 10 of both R&B and Pop charts. Critics and fans alike received the album warmly and it was clear Teena Marie’s rebirth as a major artist was underway.
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