In February of 1971, while waiting for a place on the Revue roster, Collins went into a Macon, Georgia, studio with Brown and recorded a five-song sampler. Collins was pushed back to the waiting list. Before she could join the group, however, former Brown singer Vicki Anderson showed up and signed on for a two year stint. In 1969 principal singer Marva Whitney gave word that she would be leaving the group and Brown needed a replacement. The James Brown Revue featured a roster of female singers known for their vocal dexterity, powerful range, and unmitigated funk. The "Godfather of Soul" liked what he heard and gave Collins a call. After seeing Brown in concert in 1968 she worked up the nerve to send him a demo tape. At 14 she recorded her first single, "Unlucky in Love." Around the same time, she married a local man who worked as a promoter for the James Brown Revue. By her early teens she was already flexing her powerful voice with a local group, the Charles Pike Singers. Gloria Lyn Collins was born on June 12, 1948, and raised in Abilene, Texas. "But she rose above that anyway." Leaped from Local Group to Legend's Stage "She was a musical treasure that really didn't get the recognition," her son Bobby Jackson told the Mercury News. This did not stop the soulstress from singing her way around the world right until her untimely death. Hidden behind the wall of fame that is James Brown, Collins and her thundering vocals remained mostly unheard. Yet, despite her talent and success, her name has barely registered on the country's musical conscious.
Her song "Think (About It)" topped the charts in 1972 and inspired a generation of sample-happy hip-hoppers in the 1990s.
As the most commercially successful member of James Brown's Revue, Lyn Collins became a funk diva well before either word had much meaning.
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