Kim Tolliver -

Kim Tolliver (June 21, 1937 — June 6, 2007) was an American soul singer who cut late-Sixties singles for Sure-Shot and Rojac, then partnered with songwriter-producer Fred Briggs on two albums under the Kimberley Briggs name. In 1973, she made the Chess album Come and Get Me, I’m Ready.

Background

Kim Tolliver was born Dorothy Kimberley Tolliver on June 21, 1937, in Lebanon, Tenn. She spent her formative years in Cleveland’s Hough district and briefly sang alto with the Metrotones in late 1954 after baritone-tenor Guy Spears entered military service.

By the early 1960s, Tolliver fronted Cleveland club dates with guitarist-bandleader Lou Ragland and the Bandmasters, who backed her as their female singer. Ragland led her road band around 1964, when the Kim Tolliver Revue joined a package headed by The Impressions. Tolliver helped the Bandmasters secure the house-band job at the Music Box on Euclid Avenue in 1965 after Don Gregory and the Monclairs left for the road.

Singles 1967–71

In April 1967, Tolliver entered Royal Studios in Memphis for “In Return for Your Love” (b/w “Get a Little Soul”), which Don Robey issued on Sure-Shot.

Jack Taylor signed Tolliver to Rojac in New York in 1968 and issued “I’ll Try to Do Better” (b/w “I Gotta Find a Way”) as her first release for the label. Rojac followed with “Tuesday’s Child” (b/w “(You’re Trying To) Cop My Stuff”) and “Let Them Talk” (b/w “I’ll Try to Do Better”) across 1969, then closed her label run with “Driving Me to the Arms of a Stranger” (b/w “I Gotta Find a Way”) the next year. Tolliver married songwriter-producer Fred Briggs by the end of the Rojac period and worked with him between Cleveland and Memphis.

Tolliver adopted the Big Ella name for the 1971 Superheavy single “How Long Can I (Keep Hanging On)” (Part 1 and 2), a Briggs-produced Kimberly original for Kimbrig Music.

Discography: