After the rather disappointing start of her solo career, Mavis's second single "I Have Learned To Do Without You" soared up Billboard's R&B charts, peaking at #13 in August 1970 and even made its way to #87 Pop. That single, and the subsequent album "Only For The Lonely", was unlike its predecessor not entirely recorded at the Stax Studios in Memphis or at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama. Nor did Steve Cropper have to hold Mavis's hand this time. Much to her surprise, the Gospel community had fully accepted her venture into the secular field. "I was more ready for the second album," Mavis said via the trans-Atlantic phone line. I wondered if she liked the material on this album better than the first. "I liked all of the songs on both my albums because I'm not gonna sing anything I don't like. Anything I can't feel, I won't sing. But I'll say that I was just more relaxed and more ready to do the second album since I was broken in by then, you know. Since I had done the first one."

With the exception of "How Many Times" and "You're The Fool", which were cut in Muscle Shoals and Stax Studios respectively, the remainder of "Only For The Lonely" was recorded in Detroit. Producer Don Davis was brought to Stax by Al Bell, in an effort to fuse the Memphis- and Detroit sound, which Al thought would create the ultimate in Soul. Don worked with several Stax artists, including Johnnie Taylor, for whom he co-wrote and produced the 1968-smash "Who's Making Love". Originally a guitarist, Davis had played on many of the early Motown sessions, even co-owned Thelma Records with Berry Gordy's ex-wife. At this time, Don had a label of his own, Groovesville and a studio called United. This was where Mavis recorded most of "Only For The Lonely" in September 1969. "I know I did 'I Have Learned To Do Without You' there for sure. I think it was recorded at United because Don wanted it to be mentioned on the album that some of the material was recorded at his studio, not at Muscle Shoals or at Stax. I think Don was producing someone else up there in the studio at that time too. Don had certain musicians too, like Eli Fountain. On that song, I'm saying 'Eli's a-coming, come on and blow your horn.' I used to love that song by Laura Nyro 'Eli's a-coming', and when his name was Eli, that was the first thing I thought of. And he blew a saxophone, so I just brought it in like that, you know."

"I Have Learned To Do Without You" was a big hit and unbeknownst to the public, it also fit right into what was going on in Mavis's personal life. "It wasn't planned, but it just so happened that that song came out just as I got my divorce from Mr. Spencer, the undertaker. Yvonne told me 'Mavis, when Spencer comes in the club or in the lounge or whatever and they see him coming, everybody gets up to go the jukebox and plays 'I Have Learned To Do Without You'. He just be sitting there, crying in his drink. I said 'well, that's good for him, when he had me, he didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to be a man and be a gentleman, so he lost. He's got to listen to 'I've Learned To Do Without You'."

The second single, a cover of Brook Benton's "Endlessly", issued in September 1972, reached #30 on the R&B charts. But the song that's probably closest to Mavis's heart is "Since I Fell For You". "I love that song so much! Ella and Buddy Johnson, they wrote and recorded 'Since I Fell For You' and I got the worst beating in my life because of that song. I was about seven, almost eight years old. It was hard times back then. Mom and Pops would send us down south to Grandmama, my mother's mother, Mrs. Mary Lee Ware. She lived in Mound Bayou, an all-black town in Mississippi and me and Yvonne would stay there and go to school there, because that would make it easier for Mom and Pops. We would walk down this gravel road to school, and all while you're walking, you're passing these places that have jukeboxes, like little restaurants or drug stores. And all I could hear while I was walking to school was that song. It was so hot, and so walking back and forth to school, I actually learned the song. My teacher and my classmates, they all knew that I could sing and they had this variety show. I didn't wanna sing, so someone pushed me on stage. I'm just this skinny, little girl, but with a big voice. So I got out on the stage and they gave me a microphone and I started singing; 'you-uuu made me leave my happy home'. I was just a-singing and all of a sudden I see my uncle coming towards me. He was like sixteen years old. See, the school went from elementary to junior high and he was in junior high. I saw him coming around the side of the auditorium and towards me and I thought he was coming to pat me on my head and congratulate me, but he got on that stage and snatched me off it! He took me outside and started walking me home to my grandmother, without saying a word. When we got to my grandmother's house, he pushed me in the door and told my grandmother; 'this young'in was up in the schoolhouse singing the Blues' (laughs). Nobody had ever told me what to sing, I was just singing. Nobody said anything about 'you don't sing no blues' and my grandmother had never said anything. She sent me outside to get these switches. She stripped the leaves off and when she started getting my li'l legs, she started talking; 'You-don't-sing-no-Blues-in-this-family! You- sing-church-songs!' I didn't know what was happening! I'm just crying; 'grandma, nobody ever told me about singing no Blues!'. I didn't know I was singing the Blues, I just knew it was a song that I liked. My little legs was stinging and then she sent me back to school with all these little pink whips on my leg and the kids knew I had gotten it. I was embarrassed, I was hurt, so started printing letters home to my mother. I told her 'Mama, I wanna come home, 'cause grandma won't let me sing'. I was telling all on my grandma. See, she wouldn't let me suck my fingers either. I used to suck my two fingers and she would put peppers on my fingers, burn me! By the time I recorded 'Since I Fell For You', my mother had brought my grandmother from Mississippi to come to Chicago to live with us. So when I got a copy of the record, I said 'hey Ware! Come here!'. She said: 'what you want, young'in?' and I said 'listen to this!'. And I put that record on and when she heard me sing 'you-uuu made me leave my happy home', she said; 'you little bugger, you didn't forget that, did you?' I said 'no, ma'am. I didn't forget it, but you can't get me now!' (laughs)."

"Only For The Lonely" was Mavis's last solo album for Stax. And the reason for that, according to Mavis, was not that the Staple Singers became so in-demand that she didn't have the time to concentrate on a solo career. It all started with two songs; "I'm Tired" and "You're All I Need". "I had a problem with Stax when I did the ´Only For The Lonely' album," Mavis said. "I wanted those two songs to go on the album. But then someone from the publishing company called and said that they wanted half of my publishing. And so I told them 'no, I only have two songs on my own album and I intend to keep 100% of my publishing'. That's why those two songs didn't make the album. I thought that was horrible. It really hurt me. I knew I hadn't finished them, but I didn't think that they would go on and put the album out before I finished them. I was just waiting for them to call me, to let me know that we had time to go on and finish those two songs. And the next thing I knew, the album was out! So I said 'I'll be darn.' And I cried a while and I got over it, but I learned about the business. Certain things you put in writing, you put it in the contract, this is what I expect, like 'if I write some songs...' You have to do certain things like that, because some companies will come and say 'we've always done this, we get half of the writer's publishing'. That's how they got over on a lot of young writers. Taking part of their publishing. But that was it, that was the end of my solo career at Stax. That was exactly the reason why I didn't make any more. Nobody had ever done me wrong (laughs) and I couldn't take that. You're supposed to learn from things like that and what I learned was not to make any more solo albums for Stax Records."