Penny Ford - Penny Ford (1993)

Singer Penny Ford is best known as the belting vocalist on "The Power" and "Oops Up," the worldwide multi-platinum selling hits by Snap and Ford. A top session and concert vocalist, whose other credits include the Gap Band ("I Found My Baby") Barry White (his 1999 Staying Power tour), Rick James (Urban Rapsody), and Soul II Soul (Vol. III: Just Right), made her Columbia/Sony debut with 1993's self-titled release. The album boasted grade-A talent like producer/bassist Randy D. Jackson (Narada Michael Walden, Journey), saxman Gerald Albright, and pianist Greg Phillanganes. The lead single was a R&B charting hip-hop flavored cover of Aretha Franklin's "Daydreaming." Ford's gospel-honed vocals on the inspiring "I'll Be There" -- not the Jackson 5 classic -- are impressive. Other standouts are the funky "Nevertheless," the pensive mid-tempo "Father Time," and the ballads "All in Me" and "Wherever You Are Tonight," the latter co-written by Junior ("Mama Used to Say," "Too Late"). ~ Ed Hogan