40 Year Itch: Competing with the Joplin Poltergeist

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    When former Stones the Crow singer Maggie Bell finally released her first solo album, Rolling Stone Magazine made it the lead review of an issue that also included Van Morrison's It's Too Late to Stop Now and Deep Purple's Burn. Bell had won recent UK polls for best female vocalist and had often been compared to Janis Joplin, "among rock's most powerful necrophiliac myths" as writer Dave Marsh put in.

    With Jerry Wexler producing, Queen of the Night makes a strong case for Bell. Though my favorite cut is "As the Years Go By", Marsh prefers Bell's cover of the John Prine song "Souveniers".  Marsh goes on to say "If Maggie Bell makes another album this good, her problem will become living up to her own reputation".