Melba Moore - A Portrait Of Melba / Burn (Expanded Edition) (2012)

Soul - disco - gospel singer - actress - TV celebrity
Born on 10 October 1945, in New York, U.S.
She is the daughter of saxophonist Teddy Hill and singer Bonnie Davis. She took her last name from her stepfather, jazz pianist Clem Moorman whom her mother married after she broke up with Teddy Hill. She has released 21 studio albums (not counting live, special projects and musicals - soundtracks) between 1970 - 2009. In 1966 she released a northern soul gem at Musicor Records, "Don't Cry Sing Along With The Music" / "Does Love Believe In Me". She started her career on stage playing in the original cast of the musical "Hair" along with Ronnie Dyson, when she replaced Diane Keaton. In 1970 she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Lutiebelle in "Purlie". In 1972 she co-starred in a TV show with Clifton Davis but it was cancelled after they broke up their relationship. She married to Charles Huggins in 1975 and together they founded Hush Productions which evolved into a whole genre-generating sound style in New York - the post disco Hush sound. Her first two studio albums at Mercury (1970 - 1971) were produced by Jim Fragale and in 1975 she was signed at Buddah Records for her next four albums (1975 - 1977, produced by Eugene McDaniels, Van McCoy and Charles Kipps, McFadden & Whitehead), then she moved to Epic for three albums (1978 - 1980, produced by McFadden & Whitehead, Bruce Hawes, Victor Carstarphen, Pete Belotte), one at EMI America (1981, produced by McFadden & Whitehead) and then her golden and more succesful commercially period at Capitol Records for six albums (1982 - 1990, produced by a variety of top producers of the period such as Kashif, Paul Laurence, Morrie Brown, Rahni Harris, Keith Diamond, Brian Morgan, Vaneese Thomas, Chad, Howard King, Wayne Warnecke, Ernie Poccia, David Townsend, David Conley, William A. Rhinehart, Sami McKinney, BeBe Winans, Dean Gant, Norman Connors). She made her comeback in 1999 with an album at Encore Music Group Inc and then she recorded albums for The label Shout Glory (2003), a gospel album for Believe Music Works / Lightyear (2004) and her collaboration album with Phil Perry (2) produced by Chris "Big Dog" Davis in 2009. She has never achieved stellar hits in the pop charts - the closest she has come to crossover mainstream success is with the disco classic Van McCoy-penned and produced "This Is It" (1976, No.91 U.S. Pop Charts, No.18 R'n'B U.S. Charts, No.2 Hot Dance U.S. charts and No.9 U.K. charts, a No.10 hit in the U.K. for Dannii Minogue when she covered it in 1993), the Bee Gees-penned and McFadden & Whitehead-produced "You Stepped Into My Life" (1978, No.47 U.S. Pop Chart, No.17 U.S. R'n'B Chart, No.5 U.S. Hot Dance Chart, a hit for Patti Boulaye as well in the UK when she covered it in 1979) and the post disco "Love's Comin' At Ya" (1982, No.104 U.S. Pop chart, No.5 U.S. R'n'B Chart, No.2 U.S. Hot Dance Chart and No.15 U.K. chart). She has achieved though a long string of hits in the R'n'B chart from 1975 up to 2011 with "Love Is" single. In 1976 she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance for Van McCoy-penned and produced "Lean On Me" (No.17 in R'n'B Charts), a song that Vivian Reed had first performed in 1970 and covered "Mighty Clouds Of Joy" that B.J. Thomas originally performed in 1971. In 1977 she released her cover of Beatles' "The Long And Winding Road" (No.94 in R'n'B charts). In 1983 she contributed to the soundtrack of "Bad Boys" with the Rahni Harris-produced "Don't Go Away" and the next year she duetted with Lillo Thomas for "(Can't Take Half) All Of You" (No.28 R'n'B charts). In 1986 she covered the Fleetwood Mac standard "Dreams" and was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Read MyLips", both produced by Keith Diamond and in the same year she topped the r'n'b charts with her duet with Freddie Jackson, "A Little Bit More" repeating their duet success in 1987 with "I Can't Complain" (No.12 R'n'B chart). In 1988 she duetted with Kashif for "I'm In Love" (No.13 R'n'B chart). In 1989 she duetted with Burt Reynolds for "Let Me Be Surprised" for the soundtrack of "All Dogs Go To Heaven", in 1990 she contributed to the soundtrack of "Def By Temptation" with the Daniel Telefaro and Linda Vitali-produced "Face To Face" and in 2003 she collaborated with Beyoncé and Angie Stone for a vocal trio that performed the Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis-produced "Time To Come Home" for the needs of the soundtrack "The Fighting Temptations". In 2005 she released her deep house single "My Heart Belongs To You", written and produced by Ron Carroll and in 2009 she released "Been There, Done That" produced by Richard Bush and David Posner.