Ruler of My Heart

Recorded in New Orleans in 1963 with Allen Toussaint, who wrote and produced the track for Minit Records. The session came from the same New Orleans soul scene that also yielded Thomas’s early-1960s Minit sides. The single became one of Irma Thomas’s signature recordings and a compact example of early New Orleans soul. Its restrained vocal and Toussaint’s arrangement helped establish the style that defined Thomas’s best-known work. The song gained wider recognition when Otis Redding reworked it as "Pain in My Heart," extending the reach of Thomas’s original. It remains one of her most enduring recordings and a touchstone in New Orleans R&B.