Mary Christine Brockert (1956-2010), better known by her stage name of Teena Marie, is an American R&B singer from the 1980s and one-time girlfriend of Rick James.
Her songs that made the top ten on the American R&B charts:
- 1979: I’m a Sucker for Your Love (#8)
- 1980: I Need Your Lovin’ (#9)
- 1981: Square Biz (#3)
- 1984: Lovergirl (#9)
- 1988: Ooo La La La (#1)
- 1990: If I Were a Bell (#8)
Only “Lovergirl” did better on the American pop charts, the only one to reach the top ten there. Her only top ten British hit was “Behind the Groove” (1980).
She grew up near Venice Beach in Oakwood, back then a black part of Los Angeles.
She first sang at church at age two: when the priest said, “Dominus vobiscum” and the people answered “Et cum spiritu tuo”, she sang out “Day-O!”, taken from Harry Belafonte’s “The Banana Boat Song” (1956).
At age eight she saw Diana Ross on television and wanted to be just like her. That year she appeared on television herself on “The Beverly Hillbillies”. At age ten she sang “Ave Maria” at Jerry Lewis’s son’s wedding. She also sang in television ads.
In “Square Biz” she tells us:
You know I love spirituals and rock
Sarah Vaughan, Johann Sebastian Bach
Shakespeare, Maya Angelou
And Nikki Giovanni just to name a few
Vaughan and Bach she got from her parents. She also liked Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson and Al Green.
In the 1970s Motown was trying to break into television and she tried out for one of their shows. She did not get the part but Berry Gordy heard her sing. Motown signed her in 1976.
The material they gave her did not do her justice. Then one day Rick James was walking down the hall and heard her singing and playing the piano:
I expected to see a writer-producer. And instead I found this short, tiny white body sitting at the piano, singing like the gods had come into her spirit.
He took her under his wing. He was producing an album meant for Diana Ross but had her sing it instead: “Wild and Peaceful” (1979). The song “I’m a Sucker for Your Love” went to #8, a song meant for Diana Ross.
People assumed she was black, so much so that when her picture appeared on her second album many thought maybe she was light-skinned, not white. She is Motown’s most successful white artist to date. Unlike most whites who sing in a black style she appeals mostly to blacks, not whites.
She has sung at least five songs with Rick James, the best known being “Fire and Desire” (1981).
In the 1990s she pretty much dropped out of sight. Since 2004 she has been having middling success but no big hits.
In 2009 she did a song with Faith Evans, “Can’t Last a Day”. She says of Evans:
I’ve always loved Faith and her vocal style. She reminds me of me. Her correlation with Biggie – having a career with him and without him – reminds me of me and Rick. I feel like she’s a younger me.
– Abagond, 2010.
See also:
Being the girlfriend of Rick James must have been an interesting experience.
Must say, she’s never really grabbed me, as I’m not such a big fan of 80s R&B. But I may have to re-evaluate; just listened to “Ooo La La La” for the first time and realised that it’s the basis of “Fugee-La”.
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Did not like anything by Ms. Marie (screeching for singing)…with the exception of ‘Portugese in Love’, and ‘Square Biz’. Everything other song, was to much of straining for singing, to me. Thought the relationship between she and James was cool. They’re lives would make a great bio-pic/film.
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For a while in the late 80s, she attended the same Church of God that I attended in the DC area.
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i like teena marie. she is very underrated and wouldn’t be surprised if no white person know who the hell she is. sometimes she does sound good, sometimes she doesn’t. but i rather listen to her than a lot of white artists who sing r&b music when they really shouldn’t.
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Lover Girl. That was the tune. Although Rick James’ influence was undeniable she always felt more like a Prince protégé.
While me and my brothers were on the George Clinton / Cameo trip and my father was still stuck in the 60s with Jimi Hendrix, my mother was a Teena Marie fan – right after Manu Dibango 😉
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She’s before my time, but “I’m Still in Love” is still my jam–I really like the guitar parts.
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Lady Tee La Doña
I don’t know any white person who’s more accepted in the black community.
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Lady T.
Many a slow jam danced to you, back in the day 🙂
What ever happened to house parties???
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Square Biz, Portuguese Love, Lovergirl, I Need Your Lovin’ and Fire and Desire w/Rick are still played often either on the radio or my Ipod. My mom loves her voice and I only found out in recent years. She definitely gets much love from the R&B fans. I’ve seen her live a couple of times as a part of soul festival type concerts, and she tends to bring down the house. I was at the 2nd to the last performance of Rick James with Teena Marie before the often mentioned BET performance before his passing. Check out her story on Unsung on TVOne or snippets on YouTube.
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The priest only says dominus vobiscum, the people reply et cum spiritu tuo
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Thanks for the correction. That makes way more sense based on what I know from the English mass.
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I must admit I’ve never heard about this woman before. Why do you think she is more accepted among blacks than other r&b singers?
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Other white r&b singers.
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I think she was more accepted by black audiences because she had a lot of talent, was marketed primarily to black audiences and never seemed to be interested in using the black audience to springboard to greater white acceptance. Also unlike a great many white singers who affect a “black” style there is not a huge and immediately noticeable difference between her singing voice and speaking voice. IOW she doesn’t sound as if she’s putting on aural blackface.
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Thanks for your input! It does make sense.
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“I must admit I’ve never heard about this woman before. Why do you think she is more accepted among blacks than other r&b singers?
Mira, I think that she came into R&B at a time before it was really popular among Whites to do so. Secondly, she wasn’t trying to use it as a crossover vehicle to success in Rock.
I think Pink would be a modern example of a singer who had 1 or 2 R&B albums, but once her name and face were out there, you never heard an R&B tune from her again.
Teena Marie seemed to embrace, not only Black music, but Black people and culture. In concerts, she would draw a 95% Black audience and stand up there, talking, joking, and singing, with a complete connection to the people. It wasn’t an act, she was really living the Black culture day by day, and it really made a difference.
In all of her interviews, concerts, albums, bios, you never got the idea that she was putting on an act, and I’ve never heard any rumor that she ever was anything but authentic.
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Ooops! Shady beat me to the punch! 🙂
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King,
I agree with you. In fact, I have a theory that every hood has that one white family in it where the kids have essentially come up in black culture themselves, and are completely at home and relate to it. I know my neighborhood in Philly had a family like that. It sounds like, from her bio, that was probably her experience too.
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I never was impressed all that much with Teena Marie. It’s probably because my taste in female vocalists leans more toward artists like Esther Phillips (listening to her now – God I love her voice), Ruth Brown, Etta James, Carla Thomas, LaVern Baker, etc. etc.
Want to hear real talent? Listen to these ladies. 😉
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Fire and Desire is a great song. Never really been into her solo stuff.
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I’ve never been a big fan of her music. Growing up my parents mainly listened to other R&B artists. I didn’t know that she and Rick had a thing together. Now that’s a story to tell!
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I’ve seen many women in my 45 years of life but none as attractive as Teena Marie! She is simply awesome!
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I guess that’s because she has let the world see her inner beauty….her soul! and it’s magnificent! Wish I could have her ear just to say….THANK YOU! and that her essences brightens the entire world!
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Teena Marie passed away at the age of 54 the day after Christmas.
Thank you for your wonderful music, Teena. You will be missed. RIP 😦
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Mira, if you research her life, you will know why she was so different than any other white R&B singer. She sang the only way she knew how, and that included jazz, funk, and rock(check out her “Emerald City” cd) She was totally accepted by the black community because she submerged herself in black culture from the time she was a small child, and identified with it and never deviated from that. She was much more than just an the white R&B singers of today who can duplicate a sound. When you put it all together she was the real deal, and i can’t say that about any other white “R&B” singer.
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Tina Marie is the white queen of soul. Full stop. End of story. Love her.
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