Laura Lee (born Laura Lee Newton, 9 March 1945, Chicago, Illinois) is an American soul and gospel singer and songwriter, most successful in the 1960s and 1970s and influential for her records which discussed and celebrated women's experience. She first recorded solo for Ric-Tic Records in 1966, with "To Win Your Heart". The following year, she signed with Chess Records and recorded "Dirty Man" which became her first hit, reaching #13 R&B and #68 pop. She stayed with Chess until 1969, also recording "Up Tight Good Man" (#16 R&B) and "As Long As I Got You" (#31 R&B). In 1970, Lee moved to Holland, Dozier and Holland's newly established Hot Wax label in Detroit. One of her first recordings for Hot Wax, "Women's Love Rights", became one of her biggest hits, reaching #11 on the R&B chart in 1971 and #36 pop. In 1972, "Rip Off" became her biggest R&B hit at #3 but only climbed to #68 on the Billboard Hot 100. Lee left Invictus / Hot Wax in 1975 and signed with Ariola Records, but became seriously ill shortly afterwards and retired from the music industry for several years. She returned in 1983 with a gospel album, Jesus Is The Light Of My Life, on which she worked with Al Green. By 1990 she was recovered from her illness, and had been ordained as a minister. She has continued recording music, mostly gospel.
Below is a list of Laura Lee songs, sorted by the most popular first. Place mouse on
to see information about song. Click song title to play song and to read details about the song including lyrics (if available). Click year to list all songs from that year. Click label to list songs from that record label. Songs with chart position "---" either never made it into the US top 100 R&B or UK charts or we have no details of their highest chart positions if they did.
(Song are sorted in highest US R&B Top 100 and/or UK Top 100 chart position order)