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In 1968 a group of Ray Charles’ backing singers, the Raelettes, walked out together to form their own act, Sisters Love. The founding lineup included Merry Clayton, Jeannie Long, Vermettya Royster, Gwen Berry and Odia Coates. After a first single on Los Angeles label Man Child Records, they signed with A&M, and in 1971 the Gene Chandler-produced Are You Lonely? reached number 20 on the Billboard R&B chart and number 108 pop. They also appeared in the film The Mack, singing Now Is the Time, a Willie Hutch track.

Through Hutch they moved in 1972 to MoWest, Motown’s West Coast subsidiary, worked with Hal Davis and Gloria Jones, and toured with the Jackson 5. Their album With Love was shelved, MoWest shut down in spring 1973, and after one last single on Motown that November the group disbanded. The recordings kept circulating through DJs and British dance clubs, and With Love finally came out in 2010, 38 years after it was made. A reformed lineup recorded for Ian Levine’s Motor City Records in 1989.

• New York DJ Danny Krivit made an eight-minute club edit of Give Me Your Love in 1980, later the title of a 2006 Soul Jazz compilation.
• I’m Learning to Trust My Man became a Northern Soul favorite and was reissued by Tamla Motown in the UK in 1975.
• Its B-side, Willie Hutch’s Try It, You’ll Like It, was later recorded by Marvin Gaye for the deluxe Let’s Get It On.
• The reunited group’s 1989 single was titled No More Broken Hearts.
• Royster’s 2009 solo album On the Half Shell included new recordings of Sisters Love songs.