Song of the Day 8/1: Barbara Lynn, “You’ll Lose a Good Thing”

Guest post by Nathan Arizona

Aretha Franklin recorded “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” in 1964. She sounded great. Of course she did. She was Aretha.

Barbara Lynn had recorded the soul tune two years earlier. In fact, she wrote it. She sounded great too. But she had something that Aretha never did: an electric guitar strapped around her shoulder.

It was rare to see a woman playing guitar in those days, but just as unusual was the way she played it: left-handed. Tall, attractive and a nice mover, she looked good doing it, too. They called her the Queen of Gulf Coast Soul.

New Orleans producer Huey Meaux signed Lynn as a teen-ager out of Beaumont, Texas. You can hear the New Orleans in her sound. Studio pros from the Crescent City often backed her up. Dr. John plays keyboards on “You’ll Lose a Good Thing.” As a fledgling guitarist and singer, she listened hard to Guitar Slim, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Reed and Brenda Lee.

Her version of “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” reached No. 1 on the R&B charts and No. 8 on the regular Top 40. She had other hits as well. The Rolling Stones covered her “Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin’)”. Freddie Fender hit the country charts with “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” in 1976.

Lynn didn’t become a huge star, but she had a nice career going when she walked away from it in the early ’70s. She headed back to Beaumont, where she raised her three children. One of the first things she’d done with money from “Good Thing” was buy a house there. She returned to performing for several years in the ‘80s and is now retired in Beaumont at age 83.

John Waters, looking for groovy music from the early ‘60s, put Lynn’s song on the “Hairspray” soundtrack. He knew a good thing when he heard it. Here’s Barbara Lynn performing “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” on a syndicated TV show in 1966.

On the same show, Lynn did a very energetic version of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say.” She’s accompanied by the legendary guitarist Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.

Freddie Fender had a country hit with this version of “You’ll Lose a Good Thing.”