Source Material: Helene Smith – “You Got To Be A Man”

Helene Smith was a soul singer from Miami, Florida who released a number of singles in the 1960s.  She began her career with Willie Clarke and her eventual husband Johnny Pearsall.  Clarke and Pearsall were college friends who created Deep City records, the first Black owned independent record label in Florida.  Helene Smith was the first artist they recorded and the only one to record an album, Sings Sweet Soul (1966).  Throughout the mid-to-late ’60s, Helene Smith released 45s on Deep City, Blue Star Records, and Phil L.A. of Soul.  One of her most well-known songs is “A Woman Will Do Wrong” (1967), a Phil L.A. of Soul cut, but “You Got To Be A Man” (1967) was a Deep City song that illustrated a lot of her strengths.

Helene Smith – “You Got To Be A Man”