TOP 40 DEBUT: January 5, 1980
PEAK POSITION: #38 (January 12, 1980)
Rita Coolidge deserves better than sidekick status. Despite a five-decade career that includes two Grammy awards and #1’s on both the Country (Albums) and Adult Contemporary (Singles) charts, the Tennessee-born singer-songwriter remains largely defined by the men who entered (and exited) her life over the early part of her career. To wit: She was the “Delta Lady” made famous by Leon Russell and Joe Cocker! She’s the “Raven” in David Crosby’s 1971 epic “Cowboy Movie”! She was the paramour of both Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, thereby (allegedly) breaking up Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young! Even her Grammies had to be shared with a man, in this case her one-time duet partner and (frequently abusive) husband, Kris Kristofferson.
Coolidge came of age in a rock era that wasn’t particularly kind to women, and for a long time she was relegated to backup singer roles, talent be damned. At age 23, she cut a couple singles for Pepper Records, a glorified jingles company based in Memphis; neither made a ripple, but the second one (“Turn Around And Love You”) caught the attention of Delaney & Bonnie, one of the best-connected acts in Los Angeles circa 1969. Delaney & Bonnie brought the young Coolidge back to L.A., and it was there, during sessions for The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends (Accept No Substitute), that she crossed paths with the band’s pianist and arranger, Leon Russell, himself a rising star on the session player circuit. Within months of their initial meeting, a smitten Russell had written “Delta Lady” in her honor and given it to Joe Cocker for his second, self-titled album.
Coolidge came along for Cocker’s resulting tour, Mad Dogs & Englishmen, a barely-controlled circus of egos and excess that could’ve easily buried the young vocalist amidst the chaos of nine (count ‘em, nine) separate backup singers. Instead, Coolidge practically walked off with the resulting film and double album, thanks to a solo turn on “Superstar,” recorded a year before the Carpenters got to it. (The Carpenters’ version peaked at #2 on October 16, 1971. It’s a 10.) Coolidge’s rendition made her an actual superstar, at least in certain music circles, but while that breakout performance led to an A&M Records deal, it still didn’t grant her enough industry weight to place her own compositions onto her own solo albums. Hell, she didn’t even get credit for her writing contributions to “Superstar” itself until 1992. (If you’ve got the stomach, check out her 2016 interview with Relix, and marvel at how badly the industry treated women during this period.)
So yes, that’s her voice providing backup on Eric Clapton’s “After Midnight” and ex-boyfriend Stephen Stills’ “Love The One You’re With.” That’s her melody anchoring the legendary piano coda of “Layla”—though Coolidge never received writing credit for that one either, since another ex-boyfriend, drummer Jim Gordon, claimed sole authorship. (Coolidge had already split from Gordon by that point, breaking it off cold after he gave her a black eye midway through the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour. Gordon was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and is currently in prison for the 1983 murder of his own mother.) And that’s her sweet alto lifting the craggy vocals of partner Kris Kristofferson on their #1 country album Full Moon, released just weeks into their seven-year marriage. (It gives me no pleasure to report that Kristofferson was also mentally and physically abusive, and unfaithful to boot. Can you sense a pattern developing?)
I’m not sure how much of that lifetime of frustration and second-place status you really hear in “I’d Rather Leave While I’m In Love.” Like all of Coolidge’s other Top 40 entries, it’s a cover, and the song’s authors—Peter Allen and Carole Bayer Sager—both made their reps off distinctly middle-of-the-road ballads. (Allen came to fame by writing Olivia Newton-John’s breakout #1, “I Honestly Love You,” which is a 3. Sager is responsible for three #1 singles to come, some drastically better than others.)
And Coolidge, true to her nature, doesn’t draw attention to her vocal in the slightest. She’s all understated restraint, resisting the urge to “go big” in favor of letting the song do the heavy lifting. A casual listener, without the benefit of back story, might easily mistake the lack of raw emotion for vocal nonchalance. But with Coolidge, back story matters. Choosing this particular set of lyrics to interpret, just as her divorce to Kristofferson was being finalized? That’s some heavy subtext right there.
In another singer’s hands, “I’d Rather Leave While I’m In Love” could easily tip over into pure schmaltz. And full disclosure: Approaching this song cold, I was half-expecting the sort of “lite-rock” treacle that clogged the airwaves throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s. But that’s not what happens here. By this point, Coolidge was a battle-scarred veteran of rock ’n roll’s misogyny; intended or not, that tumultuous history seeps into the margins of her performance. The way she hits those final long notes on the word “love”? There’s no malice there, no resentment. Just the long, slow exhale of a survivor who’s seen some shit, and knows that this, too, shall pass.
The Eighties would be a rough decade for Rita Coolidge. She found occasional success on the Adult Contemporary charts, where “I’d Rather Leave While I’m In Love” peaked at #3, while never quite getting back in the good graces of Top 40 itself. (As indicated above, this particular single topped out at #38.) Eventually, even the AC airplay dried up. After two albums in a row failed to chart, A&M—the label where she’d been recording since 1971—finally dropped her in 1984.
But Coolidge, a survivor to the end, kept going. Since 1990, she’s released a steady stream of albums on smaller, independent labels. (Her last one, Safe In The Arms Of Time, came out in 2018.) She formed a Native American music trio with her sister and niece; as Walela, they performed at the 1996 Olympics and toured with Robbie Robertson. And in 2016, Coolidge published her autobiography, Delta Lady: A Memoir. I bet she’s got some amazing stories.
GRADE: 6/10
BONUS BITS: Thanks to reader Ian King who alerted me to this version from the legendary Dusty Springfield, which actually predates Rita’s cover by more than a year. Dusty’s take wasn’t released as a single and is mostly lost to the ages, although it did get briefly resurrected in 2005 by noted Dusty fans the Pet Shop Boys, who included the song on their installment of the cultivated mixtape series Back To Mine.
BONUS BONUS BITS: Here’s Stephanie J. Block’s 2003 version, from the hit Hugh Jackman musical The Boy From Oz, based on the life of Peter Allen. Remember my warning about how this song could easily tip into schmaltz? Here's Exhibit A.