There’s something eerie about hearing Ila Vann sing, and then realizing you’ve never heard heard her name before. Vann seems to have been perpetually on the cusp of stardom, working with everyone from Sam Cooke to Louis Armstrong to recording songs intended for Gladys Knight. You can sense her authenticity so often in her work, specifically with her gospel-trained voice that necessarily seats her next to Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye.
Vann found a true fanbase in England, and now lives in Ontario, performing there extensively. For a Jersey girl whose four kids live in New York City, this is a travesty.
The Ila Vann Collection is a remarkable collection of some of her most arresting and emotional recordings. “Keep on Laughing Baby” has all the power of “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” and the brassy but still whiny ballad of “Every Little Living Dream” is truly haunting. And then there’s the hit that turned it all on for Vann, “You Made Me This Way,” with a Temptations like swing that ends far too quickly.
Comparing Vann to Franklin or Gaye, and imagining what her career might have been like in the 60s and 70s may be a futile exercise. But for a singer who lost two husbands and hasn’t really hit it big in her own country, Vann is a talent who deserves more than a retrospective head nod.
