Mama Never Told Me

Album: The Very Best of Sister Sledge (1973)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The third single from Sister Sledge, this funky little number is a delicious piece of Philadelphia Soul written and produced by Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around
    ") and Tony Bell ("I'm Stone In Love With You"). Hurtt and Bell got the group a deal with Atlantic Records after they signed to the label's publishing division in the early '70s. In our interview with Phil Hurtt, he told us how this song came together:

    "Thommy Bell had a hit on the Spinners called 'One of a Kind.' Tony [Thommy's brother] was playing guitar. He started playing the riff that reminded me of that: 'One of a kind...' I started humming the melody to it, and I started thinking about a story. The mom is Flo with these five daughters [one daughter did not perform with the group]. And there had to be some instruction to her daughters, had to be some communication about life. I started thinking about that, and 'Mama Never Told Me' popped off. So basically it was just imagining a mother's conversation to her daughter, then I had to flip the script, because her mama couldn't tell her too much, because she fell for the same thing: a quiet man."
  • This was recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, with members of the studio house band (known as MFSB) providing the instrumentation.
  • The "Shooby dooby dooby doo bop bop" vocal was a playful touch that songwriter Phil Hurtt worked into the song, as he thought it would get people singing along to the song. It was also a cute and appropriate bit for Kathy Sledge to sing, as she was just 14 years old at the time.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

James Bond Theme Songs

James Bond Theme SongsMusic Quiz

How well do you know the 007 theme songs?

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

Lita Ford

Lita FordSongwriter Interviews

Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: Tarantino Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: Tarantino EditionMusic Quiz

Whether he's splitting ears or burning Nazis, Quentin Tarantino uses memorable music in his films. See if you can match the song to the scene.

Jules Shear - "All Through The Night"

Jules Shear - "All Through The Night"They're Playing My Song

Shears does very little promotion, which has kept him secluded from the spotlight. What changed when Cyndi Lauper had a hit with his song? Not much, really.

Female Singers Of The 90s

Female Singers Of The 90sMusic Quiz

The ladies who ruled the '90s in this quiz.