#204: Stop! I Don’t Need No Sympathy by Alma Faye Brooks

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: July 1977
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Stop! I Don’t Need No Sympathy”
Lyrics: N/A

Alma Faye Brooks was born in Tyler, Texas, in 1953. In 1965, she moved with her family to Montreal. She sang at the Union United Church, a black-Canadian congregation. In 1977, she released “Stop! I Don’t Need No Sympathy”, a cover of a song previously performed in 1973 by Washington DC R&B singer Lynn Roman.

“Stop! I Don’t Need No Sympathy” was cowritten by Carl Davis and Sonny Sanders. In 1934, Carl Davis was born in 1934 in Chicago. In 1955, he began working as a DJ assistant on WGES in Chicago. In the early 1960s, he helped run the small Nat record label which had a local hit with the song “Nite Owl” by the DuKays, produced by Davis. A follow-up release, “Duke of Earl”, which Davis also produced, was credited to the group’s lead singer Gene Chandler, and became a national chart-topping hit when it was distributed on the VeeJay label. Over the years, he wrote songs recorded by Major Lance, Barbara Acklin (“Love Makes A Woman”), Jackie Wilson, the Chi-Lites, Tyrone Davis, Mary Wells, Gene Chandler, and Peaches & Herb. He also produced Jackie Wilson’s 1967 hit record “(You’re Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”, “Oh Girl” by the Chi-Lites, and several of Major Lance’s Top Ten hits: “Monkey Time” and “Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um”. In addition, it was on Carl Davis’ Dakar label that Tyrone Davis (no relation) recorded the number-one R&B hits “Can I Change My Mind” and “Turn Back The Hands of Time”. He died in 2012 at the age of 77 of pulmonary fibrosis. Carl Davis was honored at the 55th Grammy Awards in 2013 in a tribute to  music business personalities.

Willian Nelson “Sonny” Sanders was born in 1939 in Chicago. He made his first records in 1956 with Sax Kari & The Quailtones and was a founding member of the Motown group The Satintones. Sanders also worked as a backing singer at Motown, on such records as Marv Johnson’s “You Got What It Takes” and Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What I Want)”; and as an arranger. After leaving Motown he remained active in Detroit writing and arranging a large number of songs for Ric-Tic/ Golden World. He went to Chicago in 1965 for Carl Davis at Brunswick Records, working with Jackie Wilson, Gene Chandler, the Chi-Lites, and Tyrone Davis. With Eugene Record of the Chi-Lites, he co-wrote Barbara Acklin’s “Am I the Same Girl”, the backing track of which later became “Soulful Strut” credited to Young-Holt Unlimited (which Sanders co-wrote). In 1963, Sanders co-wrote “If You Need Me”, a #2 R&B hit for Solomon Burke. His composition, “Am I The Same Girl” was recorded by Dusty Springfield in 1969 and later successfully covered by Swing Out Sister in 1992 – becoming a number-one Adult Contemporary hit that year. Over the years, Sonny Sanders wrote songs recorded by The Marvelettes, Bill Doggett, Wilson Pickett, Barbara Lewis, Tom Jones, Lavern Baker, Johnnie Taylor, The Dells, The Rolling Stones, Grover Washington Jr., Phoebe Snow, and others. He arranged “(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet” for the Reflections, and “Agent Double-O Soul” for Edwin Starr. Sonny Sanders died in 2016 at the age of 77.

“Stop! I Don’t Need No Sympathy” is about someone who has decided not to take someone back after the pain born from trying to make a relationship work. Their heart can’t take another experience like that, and they are done with their “ex.”

“Stop! I Don’t Need No Sympathy” peaked at #7 in Montreal, #13 in Ottawa, and #19 in Sept-Iles (PQ).

In early 1978, her release “If You Love Me Like You Say You Love Me”, reached #8 on CFRA in Ottawa.

Alma Faye Brooks was nominated for a Juno in 1978  in the Most Promising Female Singer category, but lost out to Lisa Dalbello. This was the same year Patsy Gallant, Joni Mitchell, Claudja Barry, Dan Hill, Gordon Lightfoot, Gino Vanelli, Rush, April Wine, BTO, Trooper and Anne Murray were also nominated for Junos.

In 1979 Alma Faye Brooks released the album Doin’ It, which spawned the singles “It’s Over” and “Don’t Fall In Love”. Her performances to support the album included an appearance on Whatever Turns You On, a short-lived prime-time version of the long-running sketch comedy/variety series You Can’t Do That on Television. In the summer of 1979, “Gimme Your Love” reached #14 on CFRA in Ottawa. Brooks received a second Juno Award nomination in the same category in 1980, losing out to France Joli.

With the disco genre in commercial decline around this time, she did not release another album. She reemerged in the late 1980s in Montreal’s local live music scene, performing Motown music by artists such as Aretha Franklin and The Supremes at “Soul Unlimited” events at the Rising Sun club.

In 2012, the Montreal Gazette reported that Brooks was the “frontwoman of La Gioventu, a popular corporate and private party band that regularly headlines concerts at the Rialto Theatre, like her popular Motown revue or this weekend’s Disco Inferno concert.” Following the death of disco icon Donna Summer in 2012, she began performing Donna Summer songs with La Gioventu in tribute.

Her song “Thank You”, from Doin’ It, was used in the soundtrack to the 2023 film Solo.

August 3, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Soul diva Alma Faye Brooks rekindles Montreal’s disco inferno,” February 18, 2012.
Dave Hoskstra, “Carl Davis, Music Producer Of “The Chicago Sound” Dies At 77,” Chicago Sun-Times, August 9, 2012.
Chris Rizik, “R.I.P. legendary Chicago soul hitmaker Sonny Sanders,” Soul Tracks, October 13, 2016.
“Casablanca Records diva Alma Faye Brooks pays tribute to Donna Summer at Disco Inferno,” Montreal Gazette, July 4, 2013.

CKGM 980-AM Montreal Top Ten | July 21, 1977