Jersey History: Before There Was Carole King, There Was Rose Marie McCoy
Question: What do Aretha Franklin, Steve Winwood, James Brown, Patti Page, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Ike & Tina Turner, The Animals, Joey Dee & The Starliters, Dizzy Gillespie, Faith Hill, Brenda Lee, Rick Nelson, Les Paul and Linda Ronstadt have in common? Answer: They all recorded at least one of the 857 songs that singer-songwriter-guitarist Rose Marie McCoy wrote or co-wrote. In fact, 400 singers have recorded her songs. In 2014, her story was written by Arlene Corsano in a book called Thought We Were Writing The Blues But They Called It Rock’n’Roll.
The thing about McCoy is that she didn’t constrain herself to any one genre. Her songs have been recorded in a diversity of styles including jazz, rock, soul, country, pop and gospel. Motown President/Stax Owner Al Bell once said of McCoy: “everybody was scrapping to get by, but it was always men. They were the songwriters. They were the producers. They were the musicians. Women didn’t have a place so Rose made a place for herself.”
They called Yankee Stadium “The House That Ruth Built.” They called Atlantic Records the same thing but they weren’t referring to The Babe. Before Ray Charles, it was Ruth Brown at Atlantic Records who set the woods on fire and she recorded no less than 10 McCoy songs.
Born in Arkansas, Rose Marie McCoy lived in Teaneck, Bergen County, for 50 years, until she moved to Illinois where she passed away in 2015 at the age of 92. Posthumously, she was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame (2017), the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame (2022) and the National Rhythm’n’Blues Hall of Fame (2024).