The Royalettes were a four-girl group from Baltimore Maryland Baltimore, during the mid-60s. They were originally signed with Philadelphia-based Chancellor Records and later with Warner Bros., but their biggest success came at MGM Records. They worked with producers Teddy Randazzo, who also wrote for Little Anthony & the Imperials in the 1960s, and Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers. The 60’s girl-group released two albums with MGM Records, produced by Teddy Randazzo who also arranged the records and co-wrote a majority of the songs. Randazzo Incorporated a full orchestra to enhance the production, but despite the Exceptional quality of the songs and critical acclaim for their live performances, a success eluded the group. A final single produced by Bill Medley also failed to chart and the group then signed to Roulette Records in 1967 before breaking up two years later. Sheila Ross worked briefly as a backup singer for The Three Degrees and had two solo single releases in the early 1970s. A CD retrospective was released in late 2010 of all their MGM tracks including the 27 songs produced by Randazzo for the two albums, plus another originally released on a single.
Fontella
Bass was born in St.Missouri Bass’ younger brother David Peason was a former
Showtime at the Apollo champion. She was the daughter of gospel singer Martha
Bass and at the age of five Fontella was providing the piano accompaniment for
her grandmother's singing at funeral services. She was singing in her church's
choir at six and by the time she was nine she was accompanying her mother on
tours throughout the American South and Southwest.
Fontella
continued touring with her mother until the age of sixteen. When she was
attracted by more secular music. Throughout high school she began singing
R&B songs at local contests and fairs. At seventeen, she started her
professional career working at the Showboat Club near Chain of Rocks, Missouri.
In 1961, she auditioned on a dare for the Leon Claxton carnival show and was
hired to play piano and sing in the chorus for two weeks, making $175 per week
for the two weeks it was in town. She wanted to go on tour with Claxton but her
mother refused and according to Bass "... she literally dragged me off the
train". It was during this brief stint hat she was heard by Oliver Sain.
Who hired her to back Little Milton on piano for concerts and recording. Bass
originally only played piano with the band, but one night Milton didn't show up
on time so Sain asked her to sing and she was soon given her own featured vocal
spot in the show. Milton and Sain eventually split up and Bass went with Sain;
he also recruited male singer Bobby McClure and the group became known as
"The Oliver Sain Soul Revue featuring Fontella and Bobby McClure. With the
support of Bob Lyons, the manager of St. Louis station Katz, Bass recorded
several songs released through Bobbin Records and produced by Ike Turner. She
saw no notable success outside her hometown. It was also during this period she
met and subsequently married the noted jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie.
Two
years later she quit the Milton band and moved to Chicago after a dispute with
Oliver Sain. She auditioned for Chess Records, who immediately signed her as a
recording artist. Her first works with the label were several duets with Bobby
McClure, who had also been signed to the label. Released early in 1965, their
recording "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing" (credited to Oliver Sain)
found immediate success, reaching the top five at R&B radio and peaking at
#33 at pop. Bass and McClure followed their early success with "You'll
Miss Me (When I'm Gone)" that summer, a song that had mild success,
reaching the Top 30 on the R&B chart, although it made no significant
impression on the pop chart. After a brief tour, Bass returned to the studio.
The result was an original composition with an aggressive rhythm section;
backing musicians on the track included drummer Maurice White (later the leader
of Earth, wind and fire), bassist Louis Satterfield and tenor saxophonist Gene
Barge and the young Minnie Rippleton among the background singers. The song
Rescue shot up the charts in the fall and winter of 1965. After a month-long
run at the top of the R&B charts, the song reached #4 at the pop charts and
gave Chess its first million-selling single since Chuck Berry a decade earlier.
Bass
followed with "Recovery," which did moderately well, peaking at #13
(R&B) and #37 (pop) in early 1966. The same year brought two more R&B
hits, "I Can't Rest" (backed with "I Surrender)" and
"You'll Never Know." Her only album with Chess Records, The New
Look, sold
reasonably well, but Bass soon became disillusioned with Chess and decided to
leave the label after only two years, in 1967. By her own account, she was
effectively cheated out of her royalties for "Rescue Me", which she
had co-written with pianist Raynard Miner. Bass demanded a better royalty rate
and artistic control; she approached her then manager Billy Davis about
securing her writing credit on the song but was told not to worry about it.
When the record came out and her name was still not on it she was told it would
be on the legal documents, but this never happened. She continued to agitate about
the matter for a couple years but later recalled: "It actually
side-stepped me in the business because I got a reputation of being a trouble
maker." Tiring of the mainstream music scene, she and husband Lester Bowie
left America and moved to Paris in 1969, where she recorded two albums. Even
with the success of "Rescue Me" it was many years and much litigation
before Bass would be credited with her share of the songwriting and the
royalties. In 1993 Bass sued American Express and Ogilvy and Mather for the
unauthorized use of the song in a commercial for the credit card giant
The
next few years found Bass at a number of different labels, but saw no notable
successes. After her second album, free, flopped in 1972, Bass retired from music and
concentrated on raising a family (she has four children with Bowie). She
returned occasionally, being featured as a background vocalist on several
recordings, including those by Bowie. In 1990 she recorded a gospel album with
her mother and brother David Peaston, called Promises: A Family Portrait of
Faith and
undertook a fall tour of the US West Coast, called "Juke Joints and
Jubilee", which featured both traditional gospel and blues performers.
During the 1990s she hosted a short-lived Chicago radio talk show, released
several gospel records on independent labels through old friend Harriet Bluett.
Like many artists of her time, Bass experienced a revival of interest. She was
featured on the PBS Special and accompanying DVD, Soul Celebration, Soul
Spectacular recorded live at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, PA, November 2001. She
has been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Well, I decided to post one of
my favorite artists. Sugar Pie De Santo was born Umpeylia Marsema Balinton,
October 16, 1935, Brooklyn, New York. Sugar Pie De Santo is a 4' 11"
Rhythm and Blues Singer of African American and Philipino descent. Her Mother
was a concert pianist. She spent most of her early life in San Francisco, where
she moved with her family at a young age.
In 1955, De Santo did some touring with The Johnny Otis
Revue. Otis age named her
Sugar Pie De Santo. From 1959 to 1960, she toured with The James Brown Revue.
In
1960, De Santo rose to national prominence when her Single "I Want to
Know" reached number four on Billboards R & B chart.
She recorded the
song with her husband Pee Wee Kingsley. Soon thereafter her marriage to
Kingsley fell apart, and De Santo moved to Chicago and signed with Chess
Records in 1962 as a recording artist and writer. Among her recordings at Chess
were "Slip-in Mules"
"Use What You Got"
"Soulful
Dress" (her biggest hit at Chess)
"I Don't Wanna Fuss"
In 1964 Sugar Pie De Santo Recorded "Can't Let You Go"
De
Santo participated in the American Folk Blues Festival tour of Europe in 1964,
and her lively performances, including wild dancing and standing back flips,
were widely appreciated.
In
1965 De Santo began a writing collaboration with Shena DeMell. They produced
the song "Do I Make Myself Clear"; an excellent duet with her cousin
Etta James reached the top 10.
It was followed up by another 1966 duet from the
cousins, "In the Basement".
De Santo's next song, "Go Go
Power", did not chart, and De Santo and Chess parted ways.
Sugar Pie De Santo kept on
writing songs and recorded for a few more labels. In 1968 she released " The One Who Really Loves You"on the Brunswick Label.
she
eventually moved back to the Bay Area, settling in Oakland.
Though
it had often been said that her stage performances far surpassed her studio
recordings, a full-length live recording, Classic Sugar Pie, was not released until 1997.
De Santo was given a Bay Area
Music Award in 1999 for best female blues singer. In September 2008, she was
given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. De Santo received a
lifetime achievement award from the Goldie Awards in November 2009.
Justine Washington was born November 13, 1940 in Bamberg, South
Carolina. Washington was raised in Harlem, New York. In 1956, she joined the
vocal group The Hearts, and then began her solo career a year later. Washington
had sixteen R & B Chart entries in 15 years, mostly in the 1960s. Justine
Washington Released Numerous singles early in her career. Washington recorded
on Donald Shaw's Neptune Record Label. She established herself as a major soul
singer with two hits in 1959: "The Time" and "The Bells".
Washington followed up with the hit "Nobody Cares" in 1961.
She signed with ABC Paramount
for two releases. Her self-written "Let Love Go By" ,Released under the name Jeanette "Baby" Washington, is a Classic
Northern Soul single. She then moved to Juggy Murray’s Sue Records Sue Records
in 1962, where she reached the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 with "That's
How Heartaches Are Made" (1963) and the U.S. R&B Top 10 with
"Only Those In Love" (1965). Washington also recorded the song called
"I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face" and in 1962 "Careless
Hands".
Washington revived her career in
the early 1970s coving The Marvelettes' "Forever” as a duet with Don
Gardner. Her solo release "I've Got To Break Away" made number 73 on
the R&B charts.
Washington is still active as a
live performer, appearing several times a year on the East Coast. She performed
with the Enchanters at a Philadelphia-area show in March 2008, and in Baltimore
in June 2008. Washington was among the 2008 honorees in Community Works' Ladies
Singing the Blues music series.
Wendy Rene is a soul/R&B singer and
songwriter. In her early teens, she was a member of the singing group The
Drapels and was signed with Stax Records. The group consisted of Wendy, her
brother Johnnie Frierson and two friends, Marion Brittenum and Wilbur Mondie. Mary
Frierson needed a stage name Otis Redding came up with the name Wendy René. She used that name regularly
after she became a solo artist.
She recorded several songs, some of which have
been used in films and sampled/redone by current artists such as Wu-Tang and
Alicia Keys.
Her father was of mixed race and married a
Memphis musician who was nearly 20 years his junior. The two had three sons and
one daughter. As a teenager, Wendy married a military man. The young couple parted
ways. Soon after, Wendy met and married songwriter and Stax employee James
Cross.
In December 1967, Wendy was scheduled to fly with Otis
Redding and the Bar-Kays for what would have been her final live performance
for the forseeable future. Wendy René backed out at the last minute to stay home with her
child. Tragically, the plane crashed Leaving Redding and six others dead.
Irma Thomas Sang in a church choir as a teen. Singing
with Tommy Ridgley helped her get a record deal with the local Ron label. Irma
Thomas’ first single, "(You Can Have My Husband but) Don't Mess with My
Man," was released in spring 1960, and reached number 22 on the Billboard
R&B chart. She then began recording on the Minit label, working with
songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint on songs including "It’s
Raining" and "Ruler of my Heart", Imperial Records acquired
Minit in 1963, and a string of successful releases followed. These included
"Wish Someone Would Care” its B-side “Breakaway”, ”Anyone Who Knows What
Love Is", and A cover of Kai Winding’s “Time is on my side”. She recorded
for Chess Records in 1967/68 with some success, the Otis Redding song
"Good To Me" reaching the R&B chart. She then relocated to
California, releasing records on various small labels, before returning to
Louisiana, and in the early 1980s opened her own club, the Lion's Den. She then
signed to Rounder Records, and in 1991 earned her first-ever Grammy Award
nomination for Live! Simply the Best, recorded in San Francisco.
