Sylvester with the Two Tons Of Fun, Martha Wash (l) and Izora Rhodes (r)
‘You Make Me Feel, Mighty Real!’ Oh, how that lyric line sung by Sylvester, the Queen of Disco Sylvester over a gospel-tinged disco beat made those who heard and danced to it truly feel mighty. That one line can sum up the impact Sylvester had on a generation of club kids, an era of music.
January 13, 1979 – 44 Years Ago Today: Sylvester debuted at No. 85 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart with his single, ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’. It was written by James Wirrick and Sylvester, and released as the second single from Sylvester’s fourth album, Step II. The song was already a largely popular dance club hit in late 1978, as the B-side of his previous single ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’, before it was officially being released in December.
‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ was originally recorded as a mid-tempo piano-driven gospel song; however, after producer Patrick Cowley saw a rehearsal of the song at San Francisco’s City Club, he then offered to remix the song. The result was one of the pioneering disco records using some electronic instrumentation and effects, following closely on Donna Summers iconic ‘I Feel Love’ which heavily used electronic instrumentation ahead of its time. These 1970s songs using electronic instrumentation would have an influence on 1980s and 1990s dance music, which in turn, would have an influence on dance music in the next century.
In Sylvester’s home country, the single was billed on the Disco Top 100 Chart with ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’ and both singles were simultaneously No. 1. ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’ was his first Hot 100 entry the previous August and peaked at No. 19 on November 25, 1978. The song also reached No. 20 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart. The single was his second Top 40 hit, peaking at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart in February 1979.
A 12″ single was released in 1978, with ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’ as the A-side and ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ as the B-side, and these two extended dance mixes proved to be very popular in dance clubs at the time. The two songs held down the top spot on the Billboard Dance Disco Chart for six weeks in August and September 1978. These two songs helped to establish Sylvester’s career as a noted disco and dance music performer, both in the US and abroad. And we danced, and danced… He made us feel, mighty real.
As Cherrill says “In time they will be regarded as nostalgic reflections of the disco era” …and as we now know they are!
Music critic Robert Christgau has said the song is “one of those surges of sustained, stylized energy that is disco’s great gift to pop music”. In 2003, Q Magazine included ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ in their list of the ‘1001 Best Songs Ever’. In 2019, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registery for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
‘You Make Me Feel Mighty Real’ and Dance (Disco Heat) can both found on his iconic albums ‘Step II’ and ‘Living Proof’ (live album).
Disco icon Sylvester may best be known for the international hit singles ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’, ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’, ‘Do You Wanna Funk’ and ‘Menergy’, but the recording artist’s groundbreaking career also furthered queer visibility in popular culture. Leaving a legacy that continues to influence today’s pop music.
Through the compelling new documentary ‘Love Me Like You Should: The Brave and Bold Sylvester’, produced for Pride 2020 by Amazon Music in collaboration with filmmaker Lauren Tabak and writer/consulting producer Barry Walters. The short documentary details the life and times of Sylvester James Jr., known mononymously as Sylvester.
When I saw Sylvester, my life was altered, my life was changed for the better. As a Black queer gay man, any glimmer of seeing oneself reflected back at them, through our culture, changes lives.
Billy Porter
The legacy of a musician who set new precedent for genderqueer, gay and black entertainers has been revisited the new mini-documentary. Sylvester’s story comes to life once more and the true extent of his impact – inside and out of the music industry – is explored.
It is a compilation of archival footage, as well as rare performance clips, charting Sylvester’s rise from Los Angeles choir boy to glam 1970s hit-maker. Starting with his birth in South Central Los Angeles, it charts the course of his move to San Fransisco’s Castro District and later breakthrough as a singer/songwriter.
He crossed over, he was a genderfluid Black man in mainstream music. That hasn’t happened since. There’s been a lot of us who have tried – and I’ve been trying for 30 years – nobody did it like Sylvester.
Billy Porter
While the significant influence of black culture on mainstream music extends back at least a century, James was among the first non-binary artists to achieve superstardom. As pointed out in the documentary, he championed gender fluidity years before it would be called that through his unapologetic style and demeanor.
The filmmakers also incorporate interviews with Sylvester’s sister Bernadette Baldwin, singer, actor and activist Billy Porter as well as collaborators like musician Peter Mintun, producer/songwriter James ‘Tip’ Wirrick, former background singer Martha Wash (Two Tons of Fun/Weather Girls), and Sylvester biographer Josh Gamson.
Sylvester was always ahead of us. He did things like talk about being married to a man before gay marriage was a thought. He responded to Joan Rivers saying that he was this drag queen by saying, ‘But I’m not a drag queen, I’m Sylvester.’ He wasn’t saying there’s something wrong with being a drag queen, he was saying that’s not how gender works. It was gender fluidity and nonbinary gender before we were really there.
Josh Gamson
In addition to interviews, and with his version of ‘God Bless The Child’ on the bacjground, – its is musical treasure! The kind of music he loved more then disco! – the 15-minute doc shows rare archival footage of Sylvester, including performances at The Stud, the historic San Francisco gay bar that recently shuttered. It also depicts how a 1979 show at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House was a healing, joyous moment for the city in the wake of the assassination of gay politician Harvey Milk.
Sylvester died at the age of 41 on December 16th, 1988 after a long battle of an AIDS-related illness. He had attended the San Francisco Pride parade in a wheelchair shortly before passing on to show solidarity even in his final years. His legacy, however, continues to live on…..
Watch the 15-minute documentary:
Amazon has also curated a playlist called Pride History on which ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ is an entry.
Want to read the whole story of Sylvester? Use the ‘Sylvester’ tag….
January 13, 1979 – 40 years ago today, Sylvester debuted at no.85 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart with his single ‘You Make Me Feel, Mighty Real’. This Syvester James and James ‘Tip’ Wirrick-penned single was the second of three Top 40’s for Sylvester on the Hot 100 Chart and his no.1 on the Billboard Disco Top 100 where he scored 18 entries.
In the early 70’s, Sylvester joined the renegade drag act the Cockettes and taught them gospel, but otherwise clashed with their outrageous brand of sketch comedy. Yet his appearances with the group – and especially his soaring solos – quickly turned Sylvester into an underground sensation. In 1972, when David Bowie failed to sell out his first San Francisco show, he told reporters, “They don’t need me; they have Sylvester.”
A seed had been planted, and Sylvester began to perform solo as the doyenne Ruby Blue, a jazz and soul persona influenced by his grandmother that he’d first assumed with the Cockettes. He played at the Rickshaw Lounge in Chinatown, singing standards by early icons like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Lena Horne. Ruby came about, in Sylvester’s words, to inhabit “the mystery of it. The freedom of it. The glamour of it.” Here, the genesis of Sylvester’s music was born, rich in soul and spiritual traditions, with a high tenor capable of trying on different feminine vocal styles at a whim.
Sylvester’s gender identity was purposefully inscrutable. His costumes oscillated between feminine extremes, sporting tinsel tutus with bouffanted wigs, but offstage he could be just as muted. Sylvester was equally comfortable trying on “butch” signifiers like leather pants or a close-cropped haircut; both sides lived within him at all times. He insisted that he never thought about his sexual identity onstage, citing a piece of advice given to him by another one of his idols, Josephine Baker: “The illusion you create onstage is all.” Sylvester defied categorization at every opportunity, and shrugged off questions intended to pin him down with the same cool he maintained on record: “Look dear, being gay means absolutely nothing except to straight people,” he sniped to a nosy reporter in 1978.
By the time Sylvester began to cut his own records, having signed to the San Francisco label Blue Thumb, he was still finding a niche. His rock-funk music, performing as ‘Sylvester and the Hot Band’, was far from the synthy, formulaic disco beginning to dominate both the charts and the gay clubs he frequented. Sylvester was a casual disco fan at best, and it wasn’t until he signed with jazz label Fantasy, by way of veteran producer Harvey Fuqua, that he fully leaned into the vision. Sylvester released a soulful self-titled album in the summer of 1977 and followed it up the next year with the glittering ‘Step II’, which remains his most precise and dazzling album.
The album’s opening one-two punch, ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ and ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’, both flaunt Sylvester’s musical genius, but the former is his his crown jewel. Working with a band led by guitarist James ‘Tip’ Wirrick, the singer intended it as a traditional ballad and wrote lyrics off the cuff in the studio. The arrangement morphed into something else entirely once Patrick Cowley, a friend and producer obsessed with Giorgio Moroder and Euro-dance eccentrics, got a hold of the song and infused it with a synthesized disco pulse. (“I’ll always love and be grateful to you,” reads Sylvester’s dedication to Cowley in ‘Step II’s liner notes, “for being right on time.”) “You Make Me Feel” pumps with the same space-age DNA as Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” released just the year before, only with Summer’s wispy voice replaced by Sylvester’s high-wire depiction of the era in San Francisco: “To dance and sweat and cruise and go home and carry on and how a person feels,” as he described it. His falsetto dances along with tense breath control until he screams that orgasmic chorus, a full-throated Pentecostal spiritual transformed into an instant disco crowdpleaser.
Sylvester believed there were “enough love songs in the world like there were enough children,” yet ‘Step II’ throbs with passion. Sylvester covers Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s swaying ‘I Took My Strength From You’, elongating his vocals into gossamer threads and bending the song into a pure devotional. ‘Was It Something That I Said’, a rolling R&B song co-written with Fuqua, opens with a back-and-forth between Sylvester’s beloved backup singers, Martha Wash and Izora Armstead (aka Two Tons o’ Fun, who would later form the Weather Girls). “Child, have you heard the latest?” they titter. “Uh-oh, what’s goin’ on now? About Sylvester breakin’ up?” He recalls receiving a letter with a phone number, only to call and find it disconnected. The fallout leaves him overcome, a miniature tragedy writ large with funky keys, horn licks, and a spoken-word bridge.
‘Step II’ and ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ led Sylvester to international success. On the Billboard Disco Top 100 Chart, the single was billed with ‘Dance (Dance Heat)’ was his first Hot 100 entry the previous August and peaked at no.19 on November25, 1978. The album went gold (celebrated by the label with wine bottles pressed with Step II labels, no less), and Sylvester made a slew of TV appearances where he put on brassy performances for national audiences. He opened for acts such as the Commodores, the O’Jays, and Chaka Khan, and extensively toured Europe with a large band, whipping fans abroad into a Beatles-style mania. Practically overnight, all of Sylvester’s dreams of stardom had become a reality, and he hadn’t forsaken any part of himself to get there.
Sylvester received the keys to San Francisco on March 11, 1979, and ‘You Make Me Feel’ was inducted into the Library of Congress in 2018, formally confirming Sylvester’s impact on American culture at large. Go to any gay club or Pride event worth its salt and you’ll hear ‘You Make Me Feel’ blaring over the speakers at some point, spinning open and sending every person to the dancefloor to commune. Remnants of the ballad version appear on a reprise halfway through ‘Step II’, but look no further than the ascendant, gospel rendition on 1979’s live album ‘Living Proof’, recorded live at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, for hard proof of the song’s divine power, no matter the conduit: Sylvester breaks from the propulsive beat for a slowed-down interlude bolstered by a choir, his voice climbing into an angelic upper register that blows the wind out of you.
Sylvester died at 41 of AIDS in 1988, just a year after his longtime husband, architect Rick Cranmar, died of the same. Cowley, too, died of AIDS in 1982, the same year the two recorded the sleek Hi-NRG blast ‘Do You Wanna Funk?’; Cowley became one of the first publicized deaths from the virus. Sylvester also put a face to the crisis when he led the People With AIDS group in a wheelchair at the 1988 San Francisco Pride Parade. “He’s allowing us to celebrate his life before his death, and I don’t know a single star who has the integrity to do that,” the novelist Armistead Maupin wrote afterward.
“I don’t want much – just a fabulous time,” he said the year Step II came out. “I have quite normal feelings but I like to take on a little bit more excitement than most. I am what I am, I do what I do, I know what I am, I live for what I feel.” Through his extraordinary style and boundless imagination, Sylvester generously paved the way for all of us to do the same.
‘Step II’, a timeless classic, with great dance music, and some of the most beautiful ballads.
The chill of winter may be in the air, but the holidays will be a whole lot hotter this year as the First Ladies of Disco Show will be celebrating their Christmas Show at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan on November 29th and 30th. The show is flamboyantly and skillfully produced by mastermind James Washington and promises to be the fascination of the season.
With this, their firt Christmas-themed special, these heavenly-voiced performers will delight audiences with timeless holiday classics, as well as a few of their world famous high-energy hits’
Already the most talked about heritage group of the twenty-first century, First Ladies of Disco is comprised of legendary, award winning artist whose hits span multiple decades. The ensemble includes two-time Grammy nominee R&B/dance icon Martha Wash, Grammy and Oscar nominee, Linda Clifford, and Norma Jean Wright, lead vocalist of the multi-million selling group Chic.
Martha Wash
Singer, actress, spokesperson and gay icon Martha Wash, is recognized for her distinctive and powerhouse vocals. She first achieved fame as half of the Two Tons O’ Fun, who sang backing for R&B and disco singer Sylvester including on his signature hit ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’. After gaining their own record deal, they released three consecutive commercially successful songs which all peaked at number 2 in the dance charts. The duo was renamed The Weather Girls in 1982 after they released the top-selling single ‘It’s Raining Men’, which brought them to mainstream pop attention. The Weather Girls released five albums and were heavily featured on Sylvester’s albums.
Her release ‘It’s Raining Men’, Still played everywhere was one of the most epic songs to hit the music business. Wash is also known for her transition to house music and her success on the Dance Charts earned her the name ‘The Queen of Clubland’, with C+C Music Factory; ‘Do You Wanna Get Funky’, ‘Everybody Dance Now’, with DJ Todd Tery two duets with friend Jocelyn Brown ‘Keep on Jumping’ and ‘Something Goin’ On (In Your Soul). To name just a few.
Linda Clifford
Linda Clifford, R&B, Disco and House vocalist, is best recognized for her hits, ‘If My Friends Could See Me Now’, ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’ and ‘Runaway Love’. Clifford is also a former ‘Miss New York State’, and appeared in movies such as: ‘The Boston Strangler’ with Tony Curtis, ‘Sweet Charity’ with Shirley MacLaine, and ‘Coogan’s Bluff’, with Clint Eastwood.
Norma Jean Wright
Former lead singer of the group Chic, Norma Jean Wright is known for songs such as, ‘Le Freak’, ‘Everybody Dance’, and ‘I want Your Love’. After her departure from Chic, Wright pursed a successful solo career billed as Norma Jean. Her first top 20 hit, ‘Saturday’, as a solo artist came from her debut album which was produced by Nile Rodgers.
With this, their firt Christmas-themed special, these heavenly-voiced performers will delight audiences with timeless holiday classics, as well as a few of their world famous high-energy hits’. Together on one stage these three ‘First Ladies of Disco’ are receiving rave reviews from people everywhere.
First Ladies of Disco has been called “a big bright spot on the live performance circuit” by Beatselectr Magazine. The Huffington Post has said the ladies will deliver nothing short of an ‘electrifying performance’. And now for the first time, they will lend their magical voices to the music that makes the holidays such a special time of the year.
First Ladies of Disco Show deliver the gift of music and songs at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan on November, 29th an 30th.
Sylvester and his girls Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes performing live at War Memorial Opera House
In the mourning city, on March 11, 1979, then San Francisco mayor Diane Feinstein proclaimed the day as ‘Sylvester Day’, recognizing the pioneering art of the supreme diva. That very same day, Sylvester celebrated the release of his third Fantasy Records album ‘Stars’ (co-produced by Patrick Cowley) with a grand-scale, triumphant 3-hour concert at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. The gig was recorded for the live album ‘Living Proof’.
November 27, 1978, San Francisco was mourning of the killing of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone by Dan White, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. That evening, a spontaneous gathering began to form on Castro Street, moving toward City Hall in a candlelight vigil. Their numbers were estimated between 35,000 and 40,000, spanning the width of Market Street, extending the mile and a half (2.4 km) from Castro Street.
The next day, the bodies of George Moscone and Harvey Milk were brought to the City Hall rotunda where mourners paid their respects. Over six thousand mourners attended a service for Mayor Moscone at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Two memorials were held for Milk; a small one at Temple Emanu-El and a more boisterous one at the War Memorial Opera House.
Sylvester & Harvey Milk
While the city was still mourning, preparations were underway for a unique Sylvester concert at the War Memorial Opera House, several parties withdrew. It almost didn’t happen. The Opera House Board was homophobic & tried to stop the show. The lawyers for the promoter prevailed & the show went on.
On March 11, 1979, Sylvester, and his girls Martha Wash, Izora Rhodes, Jeanie Tracy and Sharon Hymes, together with a large band, and the complete 26-piece San Francisco Symphony Orchestra blew of the roof of the 3,000-seat sold out War Memorial Opera House. San Francisco where Sylvester wore the moniker of the Queen of the Castro alongside his Disco title, he blends all the colors in his musical palette into a work of remarkable imagination and spirit.
A genuine original, he was the vèry first ‘modern’ artist to perform in a classic Opera House, he was one of that special breed of performers who come fully to life onstage, who have the unfailing instincts to ignite an audience with sophistication, sass, and style. In a business where clones abound, Sylvester was the real thing.
When asked about heroes, Sylvester is the first on lips of gay men who went out dancing in the 1970’s. Sylvester embodied the disco fantasy in wich race and gender lose their relevance.
Sylvester treated attendees to ballads, covers and medleys, in addition to Sylvester’s own hits. His falsetto sound was a mix of male and female voice. Most intriguing about the venue was the sheer range of material being performed. Sylvester covered everything from the Beatles ‘Blackbird’ to Billie Holiday’s ‘Lover Man’ to Barry Manilow’s ‘Could It Be Magic’.
Sylvester’s reinterpretations of Thelma Houston’s Sharing Something Perfect Between Ourselves and Patti LaBelle’s ‘You Are My Friend’ where the standout of the show as it showcased the genius interplay Sylvester, Rhodes, Wash and Tracy utilized in their live performances. Everybody sang along to the ballad version of You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) at the end of the concert…. These last three songs where much more then just ‘beautiful songs’ in a time of the city’s mourning. There tittle’s say more then enough….
However, Sylvester’s celebratory music was the voice of gay pride. In bars, clubs and concert halls, Martha Wash, Izora Rhodes backed him. The night after his historical sold-out Sylvester Concert at the War Memeorial Opera House on March 11, Mayor Diana Feinstein declared it Sylvester Day and presented him the key to the city. The people where still mourning, but the Queen of Castro was their new hero, if he wasn’t already!
Sylvester performing live, together with the Two Tons Of Fun, ‘Can’t Stop Dancing’
Two months after the concert, on May 21, 1979, thousands of members of San Francisco’s predominantly gay Castro District community took to the streets to protest the lenient sentence received by Supervisor Dan White for the murders of local politician and gay rights activist Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Their anger – combined with the actions of police who arrived to quell the scene – soon boiled over into rioting. The resulting violence affected San Francisco’s LGBT community for decades to come.
Sylvester’s voice helped foster that fight… ‘Sharing Something Perfect…’ ‘Everybody is a Star!’
Sylvester ‘Living Proof’
The Opera House gig was recorded, and subsequently released as a live double album, called Living Proof. The album contained a typically eclectic mix of blues, disco, funk and beautiful ballads. Sylvester feld that Living Proof, is “the best representation of what people had been writing about me since the day I started performing. All the energy is there”.
Living Proof present Sylvester at a key point of transition in his career where he is moving more toward his soul and cabaret roots, and paying homage to the disco that took him over the top. It is also a few years before he would go on to define NRG music.
Sylvester (lead vocals)
Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes (Two Tons of Fun) (background vocals)
Jeanie Tracy (background vocals)
Sharon Hymes (background vocals)
Eric Robinson (background vocals)
The songs:
Overture: Grateful, You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), Dance (Disco Heat)
Body Strong
Blackbird
Medley: Could It Be Magic (Eric Robinson), A Song For You
Happiness
Loverman, (Oh Where Can You Be)
Sharing Something Perfect Between Ourselves
You Are My Friend
Dance (Disco Heat)
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real): dance version/slow gospel version
On the double album are also two studio recordings: ‘Can’t Stop Dancing’ and ‘In My Fantasy’. ‘Can’t Stop Dancing’, a single released from this album, was a huge hit in the disco clubs.
The Seventies and disco soul are HOT! Donna Summer, Sylvester, Amii Stewart, Chic, Martha Wash, Jeanie Tracy, Jody Watley… And now, after hosting together the Golden Globes, Tom Ford has been the first to feature Lady Gaga on both runway and soundtrack as he debuted his Spring/Summer 2016 Womenswear collection in a video that was inspired by the Seventies music TV show ‘Soul Train’ starring Lady Gaga. The American fashion designer has just unveiled a complementing campaign for the same collection. Captured by Nick Knight in Los Angeles, the campaign channels all the energy of Ford’s debut runway film.
While many designers and labels are going places to unveil their new collections, Tom Ford dares to go against the tide of hosting physical runway shows. The American fashion designer has debuted his Spring/Summer 2016 Womenswear collection in a video starring Lady Gaga. He the first to feature Lady Gaga on both runway and soundtrack.
Music: Lady Gaga – ‘I Want Your Love’ (feat. Nile Rodgers), Produced by Rene Arsenault and Billy Mohler for Riot City (weareriotcity.com), mixed by Matty Green
Released in conjunction with Paris Fashion Week, the disco music video features Lady Gaga alongside models Mica Arga, Lexi Bolling, Kayla Scott, Xaio Wen Ju, Valery Kaufman, Aymeline Valade, Lida Fox, Lucky Blue Smith, Alex Dunstan, David Agbodji and Tarun Nijjer. Dancing to the music of Nile Rodgers, the models were captured in a film by Nick Knight.
I have always loved ‘Soul Train’, which used to be on TV in 70s, as it was much about the clothes as the music. I asked Nile Rodgers to collaborate on a new version of one of his greatest hits from that time, ‘I want your love’, and worked with Gaga to record the vocals.
Tom Ford
Tom Ford is also glad about the recent opening of a flagship in his hometown of Houston, his seventh directly operated unit in the U.S. after New York, Las Vegas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Dallas and Miami. “Texas is my birthplace, so there is a special significance in opening my second flagship there,” said the designer.
The campaign has launched on Tom Ford website and is also set to break internationally in the March issues of publications including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and Vanity Fair.
Today, twentythree years ago, Paul Jabara died. A name that doesn’t say anything maybe to our youngsters, but hearing songs as ‘It’s Raining Men’ ‘Last Dance’ and ‘No More Tear’s (Enough is Enough)’ would ring a bell…
He Paul Frederick Jabara, was born in Brooklyn, New York on Januari 31, 1948. He was an American actor, singer, and songwriter of Lebanese ancestry, born in Brooklyn, New York City. – Jabara’s cousin and close friend Jad Azkoul is also a Lebanese-American musician specialising in classical guitar.
Paul Jabara was the only son of Olga and Sam Jabara and was the youngest of three children and had two older sisters, Delores and Claudette. His love of music originated almost from birth, and he entertained his family and their friends as soon as he learned to talk. This multi-talented phenomenon began his career a teenager modeling for magazines and appearing in television commercials. As a teenager, he also auditioned for The Sound of Music and was offered a part in the road company, but his parents wouldn’t allow him to go. His first big break came when he was offered a feature role in the original cast of Hair.
Impressionist Paul Jabara cuddles Donald Sutherland as Karen Black and William Atherton are amused in a scene from the film ‘The Day Of The Locust’, 1974. (Photo by Paramount/Getty Images)
In the 1970’s, Jabara was in the Original cast of the stage musicals ‘Hair’ and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’. He took over the role of Frank-N-Furter in the Los Angeles Production of ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ when Tim Curry left the production to film the movie version in England. He appeard in John Schlesinger’s 1969 film ‘Midnight Cowboy’, as one of the attendees at the counterculture party, and in Schlesinger’s 1975 film ‘The Day of The Locust, where he sang the song ‘Hot Voo-Doo’.
But it wasn’t only acting he did. Jabara released his first album, ‘Shut Out’ in 1977. Jabara’s solo albums on the legendary disco label Casablance Records include three duets with Donna Summer; ‘Shut Out’ (1977), ‘Something’s Missing (In My Life)’ (1978) and ‘Never Lose Your Sense Of Humor’ (1979).
Paul Jabara and Donna Summer ‘Something’s Missing (In My Life)’ This power ballad has also been recorded by Karen Carpenter, Freda Payne and Australian pop royalty Marcia Hines… It’s recorded in several versions, one of them with Summer is featured on Jabara’s CD ‘Greatest Hits and Misses’.
In the 1978 film ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ he played the role of Carl, the lovelorn and nearsighted disco goer, and he also contributed as a singer on two tracks on the original soundtrack album, with the songs ‘Disco Queen’ and ‘Trapped In A Stairway’.
Thank God It’s Friday album cover.
Donna Summer in ‘Thank God It’s Friday’.
Paul Jabara wrote Donna Summer’s ‘Last Dance’ from ‘Thank God It’s Friday'(1978) and Barbra Streisand’s song ‘The Main Event/Fight’ from the album ‘The Main Event’ (1979).
‘Last Dance’, featured in the film ‘Thank God Its Friday’, earned Jabara a Grammy Award and the 1978 Academy Award for Best Song. Clearly, his music defined an era and continues to keep us all dancing.
In 1979, Jabara won both Grammy Award for Best R&B Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song performed by Donna Summer, ‘Last Dance’.
Paul Jabara ‘The Third’ album contains the duet with Donna Summer ‘Never Lose Your Sense Of Humor’, a great song with the typical Jabara/Summer sound!
Paul Jabara and Donna Summer ‘Never Lose Your Sense of Humor’.
Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand ‘No More Tears Enough Is Enough’ another monster hit for Paul Jabara (Photo’s by Francesco Scavullo).
1979 was an amazing year for Jabara and Summer. Disco’s big finish in 1979, who could ask for a bigger finish of the greatest era of dance music? The ‘Disco Queen’ and Barbara Streisand together working Paul Jabara’s magic together. This cut was a power house, anyone who experienced the energy that this cut created when it was released will never question it’s reign. Casablanca Records has definitely made a place in music history with this on. The song was a hùge Platinum-certified, #1 Billboard hit.
At right, songwriter Paul Jabara, at the premiere of Bette Midler’s movie, ‘The Rose’, 1979
1981 Jabara starred in yet another John Schlesinger film, the comedy ‘Honky Tonky Freeway’ as truck driver/songwriter T. J. Tupus, hauling lions and a rhino.
Composing myriad hit songs, his credits include many platinum and gold records. He is also known for: ‘Jinxed’ (1981), written for Bette Midler and her movie of the same name, but it was never commercially released. ‘Work That Body’ (1982) a modest hit for Diana Ross. The hit single is included on her Platinum album ‘Why Do Fools Fall In Love’.
He co-wrote The Weather Girls (Sylvester’s former background girls, the Two Tons of Fun: Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes) monster hit ‘It’s Raining Men’ together with Paul Shaffer, which was also recorded by Geri Halliwell and a worldwide hit for the second time in 2001.
The former Two Tons of Fun: The Weather Girls (Matha Wash and Izora Rhodes) with their monster hit ‘It’s Raining Men’ (1984).
Jabara’s album ‘Paul Jabara & Friends’, released in 1983, features guest vocals by a then 20-year-old Whitney Houston on Eternal Love. It also includes the song ‘It’s Raining Men’. An other song Jabara wrote to perform include ‘ Two Lovers’ for Julio Iglesias (1984).
Jabara received many awards for his work throughout his lifetime. Jabara had been honored for creativity and excellence winning numerous awards including The Oscar; Grammy; Golden Globe; People’s Choice Award; Your Choice for the Oscar and many others giving him global recognition.
It has been reported that Jabara co-founded the Red Ribbon Project in 1991, and was credited with conceiving and distributing the first AIDS Red Ribbons. This highly recognized symbol spawned the use of different colored ribbons to quickly raise awareness to other causes and is widely used today.
Paul Jabara died of complications from Aids at the age of 44 in Los Angeles on September 29, 1992. He is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. As a tribute at his memorial service, his friends and collaborators got together and performed a song he wrote entitled, We’re Gonna Win. Later recorded by long-time friend Donna Summer.
Martha Wash, one of the original members of The Weather Girls, re-recorded several years later, together with drag supermodel RuPaul the It’s Raining Men. Again, it became a huge hit! Like it also was for ex-Spice Girl, Geri Halliwell.
‘A Hot Jabara Summer Night’ 2012
In 2005, a workshop of a musical entitled Last Dance played New York City. It was a musical assembled from Jabara’s well known disco songs and told the story of a modern day teenager who goes back in time to spend one night at Studio 54.
Paul Jabara’s music lives on. Not only ‘the big names’ in the industry still performing his songs. Every season of Idols or .. Got Talent, we can here some of his songs performed by the ‘new’ artist. We hear his music still in films, and in clubs, and sometimes in the most fantastic long versions or remixes. Yes, it’s still a Hot Jabara Summer Night then. And it will always be……
For over 40 years, Martha Wash has kept people on their feet as the Queen of dance music, dominating the genre with a gospel-infused voice that fueled a string of Top 10 hits.
Martha Wash began her music career as a backing singer for Sylvester. With fellow backing singer Izora Rhodes, she was half of Two Tons of Fun who would later be renamed The Weather Girls. As such, they were responsible for providing much of the firepower behind several of Sylvester’s earliest releases. Especially the voices of Martha and Sylvester fit perfect, and they where an amazing team.
Sylvester, ‘Stars’ with the hit’s ‘Can’t Stop Dancing’, gay anthem and tittle song ‘Stars’, and the Lieber and Stoller classic ‘I Who Have Nothing’ (Martha Wash recorded the song later together with Luther Vandross as a beautifull ballad).
After Sylvester’s hit album’s Step II, with the mega hits ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’, and his album ‘Stars’ Sylvester wanted something different, something special.
With the San Francisco Symphony, his own band with Patrick Cowley, and Martha Wash, Izora Rhodes, Jeanie Tracy, Sharon Hymes and Eric Robinson as background singers, Sylvester gave a sold out, black tie concert at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, as the first ‘non-classic’ act ever held in an Opera House.
Sylvester, ‘Living Proof’, 1979 Live recorded at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, as first ‘non-classic’ act ever. Sylvester absolutely set the stage and paved the way for all the rest … in many many ways.
After singing some of his classics, they perfomed Thelma Houston’s beautiful ballad ‘Sharing Something Perfect Between Ourselves’ a song where Sylvester and Martha’s voices fits perfect together: Sharing something perfect! The song was followed by Patti Labelle’s classic, ‘You Are My Friend’! While singing this song, it was a good reason for Sylvester to introduce his girls: “Everything I èver needed, was here right all the time”. “You see..these girls: Martha and Izora. I met them three years ago”. “We had our first rehearsel in a Volkwagen on our way to Marin county. And these girls have stuck with me all through èverthing yah, and they are here right now, and I want you to know that! You see… I don’t know if you all have noticed or not, but these women could sing yahh! ….Honey, your ear has to bé in your foot! Tonight here these women could sing! They don’t need these dresses! They don’t need that juwellery! They don’t need that hair! These women could sing yah!! Now folks, seeing is believing… right? I told you everything I could tell yeah… now it’s them to entertain……”
And they did!! Three voices that fit sóo perfect! They blew of the roof. Especially Martha Wash showed the world what she could! Not only on record she sounds clear. But live even better!
Sylvester, on stage with the Two Tons of Fun. Martha Wash (left) and Izora Rhodes (right).
…and fun they had!
Friends forever: Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes as the Two Tons of Fun. Their first album, with the hits ‘Earth Can Be Like Heaven’ and ‘Get The Feeling’.
Typical Patrick Cowley sound ‘Get The Feeling’.
When they left to pursue a career on their own, they achieved success with a handful of disco-oriented tracks, like ‘Earth Can Be Like Heaven’ and ‘Get The Feeling’, both with Partick Cowley, culminating in the 1982 release ‘It’s Rainging Men’, Written and produced by Paul Jabara and who wrote a lot of great dance anthems like Donna Summer’s ‘Last Dance’ and Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand’s ‘No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)’.
‘It’s Raining Men’ a worldwide hit that peaked at No. 2 on the UK Single Chart, No. 1 in Australia, No. 1 on the Euro Hot 100, No. 46 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 34 on the U.S. R&B chart, and No. 1 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart. It reached the top ten in numerous other countries. ‘It’s Raining Men’ receives regular play in dance clubs and R&B radio to this day: it stands as one of the classic songs of the late-disco and Hi-NRG era. The Weather Girls scored moderate, lesser-known hits with ‘Dear Santa (Bring Me a Man for Christmas)’ and ‘No One Can Love You More Than Me’ in 1985.
The Weather Girls ‘Succes’, 1982
The former Two Tons of Fun: The Weather Girls (Matha Wash and Izora Rhodes) performing life at The Tube their monster hit ‘It’s Raining Men’ And fun they had! (1984).
The 80’s, and 1990’s brought a lot of succes. But also a lot of sadness. In 1982, Patrick Cowley tragically died, during those very early days in the Age of AIDS, not long after he founded Megatone Records. But not only Patrick Cowley died, many friends and people in the industry, passed away in that time. Like singer Frank Loverde (Die Hard Lover) and Paul Jabara (1992). As the panic and reality around the pandemic gained steam-cutting down man after man (and woman!) in its prime during the eighties Martha Wash worked tirelessly on many AIDS benefits. She helps raise much needed funds and awareness about the disease.
Later, when the Weather Girls disbanded, Wash continued to lend her vocals to various dance and ‘house music’ tracks. Several of them became massive pop, R&B and dance hits. She sang lead vocals on all three of Black Box’s U.S. top-forty hits, including the top-ten smashes ‘Everybody Everybody’ and ‘I Don’t Know Anybody Else’ as well as ‘Strike It Up’. But when the music videos for these songs were released, Martha was nowhere to be found, as imposters lip-synched her greatest hits however, she was not featured in any of the music videos as it was customary for Katrin Quinol, a French model, to be used to lip-sync the lyrics. All three of these hit singles (still!) continued to receive regular club-play and mainstream radio airplay as of late April 2010. In addition, Wash sang lead vocals on the lesser-known Black Box tracks, ‘Fantasy’, which charted at No. 5 in Great Britain, ‘Open Your Eyes’, and ‘Hold On’. All six of these songs appear on the Black Box album ‘Dreamland’. Also, she performed uncredited lead vocals on Seduction’s ‘You’re My One And Only (True Love)’, and the lead vocals on C+C Music Factory’s ‘Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)’ which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991.
C & C Music Factory and Martha Wash performing Do You Wanna Get Funky?
In reaction to her lack of credit on a number of successful dance songs, and exclusion from their accompanied music videos, Wash sued Black Box label RCA to receive proper credit and appropriate royalties as the vocalist on all of these songs. In an out-of-court settlement, made in December 1990, Martha Wash received financial compensation and a recording contract from RCA, as well as a guarantee to be properly credited for her work in recordings. Wash later sued Clivilles and Cole, the producers for C+C Music Factory, along with the C+C record label Sony for ‘fraud’, deceptive packaging and commercial appropriation’, with $500,000 in damages; all parties settled by 1994. As a result of the settlement, Sony made an unprecedented request to MTV to add a disclaimer that credited Wash for vocals and Davis for ‘visualization’ to the ‘Gonna Make You Sweat’ music video, and a performance in the the video clip ‘Do You Wanna Get Funky’.
Under RCA, Wash released her solo debut album in 1992, with a cover photo só beautiful. The album scored three top ten club/dance hits including ‘Carry On’ and ‘Give It to You’, both of which reached number one.
Martha Wash first solo album.
Martha Wash ‘Carry On’.
In 1994, Wash covered Jean Knight’s ‘Mr. Big Stuff” for the soundtrack of the film Disney’s ‘D2: The Mighty Ducks’. Two years later, in 1996, she recorded a cover version of Elton John’s ‘I’m Still Standing’ for the soundtrack of the film ‘The First Wives Club’. Also in 1996 she recorded with a duet with longtime friend Jocelyn Brown the single ‘Keep On Jumping’. And that was what they did in clubs worldwide. A year later there was an other Todd Terry single: ‘Ready For A New Day’ and ‘Somethin Going’ On’. And 1997 she gave us alo a great duet with RuPaul singing…. ‘It’s Raining Men’. It became, again, a mega hit.
Martha Wash and Jocelyn Brown
Always to be found for charity, she was asked for the ‘Small Voices, Sounds Of A Better World’ project, in 1999. The tittle of the song says it all: ‘Listen To The People (Listen To The Sound of a Better World). In 2011 the song was used for the Arabian Spring movement, for more freedom, human rights and democraty. The single contains some great versions of this timeless song.
Small Voices Calling – Feat. Martha Wash, Listen To The People (Listen To The Sound of a Better World), 1999
Martha Wash, considered a gay icon since The War Memorial Concert in 1979 a few months after the vey Harvey Milk, continues to record new music into the 21st century such as her first new single in more than 5 years, ‘You Lift Me Up’, a fusion of gospel and house, which is the first song produced on her own label, Purple Rose Records in 2005. Wash performed in the opening ceremony of the World’s first ‘Out Games’ in Montreal in July 2006 and she performed at numerous Human Rights Campaign events in the U.S. The gay-themed podcast Gay Pimin’ with Jonny McGovern dedicated an episode to Wash and she obliged them with an extended telephone interview.
In 2006 Wash appeared as a guest on GSN’s ‘I’ve Got A Secret’, and performed ‘It’s Raining Men’ for the all-gay panel.
DJ Tony Moran’s compilation CD ‘The Event’ featured a single featuring Martha entitled ‘Keep Your Body Working’. It reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart for the week ending December 22, 2007.
Martha Wash ‘I’ve Got You’ (Click photo to enlarge).
Martha Wash ‘Ive Got You (Official Music Video), 2011
She was a performer at the annual Big Gay Day in Brisbane, Australia on March 9, 2008 and she also performed at the Chicago Gay Pride Street Fest on June 28, 2008, at the Nightingale as part of the Birmingham, England, Bank Holiday festival on August 23, 2008, at Washington, DC Capital Pride on June 14, 2009, and at the Opening Ceremony of the NAGAA Gay Softball World Series in Milwaukee, WI on August 31, 2009. In April 2011, the song and accompanying music video for the song ‘I’ve Got You’ were released. On Oct. 1, 2012, she was on ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of ‘It’s Raining Men’, where she ‘blew of the roof’ this classic with Paul Schaffer, six back-up singers, three female dancers and three male acrobats descending from the sky.
In January 2013 Martha Wash released a solo album ‘Something Good’. The album, which has largely garnered very positive reviews, opens with the rock-oriented ‘Alright’, then moves on to the ballad, ‘Destiny’. There are a mere eight tracks on this album, which might put off some potential buyers, but every song is a winner. Quality, people! Pure timeless quality! Martha Wash is a two-time Grammy Nominee, known for her distinctive and powerful dramatic soprano voice. Ms. Wash has been dubbed ‘The Queen of Clubland’ due to her ongoing success in the dance music genre. Martha’s fame would have made her mentor, the late disco pioneer Sylvester, proud. Vèry proud!
Martha Wash ‘Something Good’.
For Martha Wash, it certainly is her time to shine!
The ballad ‘Proud’ is particularly heartbreaking and beautiful; the lyrics reminding me a bit of Bette Mider’s ‘To Deserve You’, Martha’s cover of Aerosmith’s ‘Dream On’ is a surprise, and wonderfully covered by old girl. Her second single ‘It’s My Time’ a power ballad, was written by Swedish singer and songwriter Helena Johansson. An amazing beautiful song, wich reflects Martha Wash powerful voice, has already been successfully remixed as a club number from ‘Something Good’. And the title tune, ‘Something Good’, with a light dance tempo, also seems ripe for the remixing.
In March 2013 she was the special guest for the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus in their spring production ‘Big Gay Sing 6: Club Night Out’. Like every year, we could find Martha performing at World Pride, last year summer 2014 she performed in Toronto, Canada.
First Ladies of Disco: Martha Wash, Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King and Linda Clifford launch new single ‘Show Some Love’ (Photo by Mike Ruiz).
2014, Martha Wash, Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King and Linda Clifford came together and created in 2015 the show ‘First Ladies of Disco’ inspired by James Arena’s book ‘First Ladies of Disco: 32 Stars Discuss the Era and Their Singing Careers’, a best seller in the United States, Canada and Europe.They paying tribute to some of the people that are not in the show, but were part of the disco era, like Donna Summer, and even Sylvester. These legendary vocalists are coming together to bring you what will be one of the most talked about shows in dance music history.
Martha Wash, not only one of the greatest voices in modern music. But also one of the most beautiful and loyal persons in the music business. Loyal to her friends, her colleagues, her fans, and countless ‘unknown’, Always working tirelessly on many benefits, and helps to raise much needed funds.
But now: it certainly is her time to shine! Honey, your ear has to bé in your foot!
Today we remember and honors the memory of the Original disco diva Sylvester who would have been 68 today. Sylvester James, Jr. (September 6, 1947 – December 16, 1988), better known as Sylvester, was an American disco and soul singer-songwriter, known for his (vèry) clear high voice (occasionally a rich baritone voice), and flamboyant and androgynous appearance. He was often described as a drag queen, although he repeatedly rejected such a description. He was ‘just’ Sylvester!
There’s little doubt of the lasting cultural influence Sylvester had on Disco and Hi-NRG Dance music of the 70’s and 80’s or how strains of his genius continues to ripple through today’s music. His sound has inspired artists in both style, uncompromising creativity and sampled to fuel their own endeavors.
Sylvester was born on September 6, 1947, and grew up in a religious household. The family attended the Pentecostal Palm Lane Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles, where young Sylvester developed his love of music singing in the church’s choir.
He recognized his homosexuality from an early age, and at age eight, engaged in sexual activity with a far older man at the church—at the time rumored to be the church organist—although he would always maintain it was consensual, and not sexual molestation. Taken to a doctor after receiving injuries during anal sex, the doctor first informed his mother Letha that her son was gay, something that she could not initially accept, viewing homosexual activity as a perversion and a sin. News of Sylvester’s same-sex activity soon spread through the church congregation, and feeling unwelcome and persecuted for his homosexuality, he stopped attending when he was thirteen.
He left home in his teens due to a dysfunctional relationship with his mother and step-father because of their inability to accept his sexuality. Now homeless, young Sylvester spent a great deal of time with his grandmother, Julia Morgan, who enjoyed some success as a blues singer in the 1920s and 30s. Unlike his mother, she was accepting of his sexuality and was said to have had a great many gay male friends.
Sylvester joined a troupe of drag queens named the Disquotays in his teens, fixing the crew’s wigs and outfits and floating from party to party under the cover of night to dodge laws forbidding drag in California. Wandering the town decked out in feminine attire, and known for throwing spectacular house parties with guests like legendary singer Etta James, they were a significant influence on Sylvester.
The Disquotays disbanded and Sylvester, bored with life in Los Angeles, he found his way to San Francisco in 1969. It was there, in the queer, roving melting pot of the Castro. Upon arriving Sylvester found kindred, outside the box, spirits in San Francisco, most notably with SF’s Queer, gender bending, premier tripping, glitter doused, drag/theatre troupe The Cockettes.
His vocal stylings of Blues greats Josephine Baker and Billie Holiday standards brought down the house when he opened for many of the Cockettes wildly chaotic and grand productions. Yet his appearances with the group – and especially his soaring solos – quickly turned Sylvester into an underground sensation.
He worked with them until after their infamous New York City debut and disappointingly short Broadway run. He left the Cockettes in the midst of their tour of New York City to pursue a solo career. Sylvester decided that he wanted to buckle down and get serious. Now was the time to work on his own vision of his music.
Back in San Francisco, a seed had been planted, and Sylvester began to perform solo as the doyenne Ruby Blue, a jazz and soul persona influenced by his grandmother that he’d first assumed with the Cockettes. He played at the Rickshaw Lounge in Chinatown, singing standards by early icons like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Lena Horne. Ruby came about, in Sylvester’s words, to inhabit “the mystery of it. The freedom of it. The glamour of it.” Here, the genesis of Sylvester’s music was born, rich in soul and spiritual traditions, with a high tenor capable of trying on different feminine vocal styles at a whim.
‘Sylvester’s falsetto alone evoked a universe of timeless, idiosyncratic talents and influences’, writes Brian Chin in the package’s liner notes of the ‘Sylvester and the Hot Band’ cd, it’s so true hearing ‘God Bless The Child’
In 1972, Sylvester appeared at The Temple with the then-unknown Pointer Sisters. Defiant and unapologetically gay, critics sometimes described him as a drag queen, a description Sylvester rejected. ”I am Sylvester”, he said, refusing to be categorized. When David Bowie failed to sell out his first San Francisco show, he told reporters, “They don’t need me; they have Sylvester”.
A decade after Stonewall, Sylvester was visible, defiant, proud, and unapologetically gay. He was often described by reviewers as a drag queen, although he repeatedly rejected the description.
That same year, Sylvester supplied two cuts to Lights Out San Francisco, an album complied by the KSAN radio station and released on the Blue Thumb label. In 1973, Sylvester & his Hot Band released two rock-oriented albums on Blue Thumb (their self-titled debut was also known as Scratch My Flower (due to a gardenia-shaped scratch-and-sniff sticker adhered to the cover).
Before disco, before ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ and ‘You Are My Friend’ 25-year-old Sylvester emerged from the underground scene in San Francisco with a longhaired rock band, recording two influential albums for Blue Thumb Records. Infused with a love of the blues, a deep emotional connection with Billie Holiday and a flair for flamboyance, the Sylvester and his Hot Band tackled with boundless energy a dizzying sampler of American music, from Neil Young to Ray Charles, from James Taylor to ‘My Country ’Tis Of Thee’. His version of ‘God Bless The Child’ is memorable! A musical treasure! The kind of music he loved more then disco!
Sylvester was a sweet individual who had the talent to take you to the dance floor, then take you to church, and bring you back to the dance floor without you knowing.
Signed a solo act to Fantasy Records in 1977, and working with the production talents of legendary Motown producer Harvey Fuqua. His third album, self titled, ‘Sylvester’, the first with his new, East Bay based label, Fantasy, was vèry well received by critics as his fans.
Sylvester enlisted the talent of two amazing singers whose background were, like Sylvester’s own, deeply rooted in the experience of the Gospel music. Martha Wash and Izora Armstead, collectively became his muses, best friends and back up singers he lovingly dubbed The Two Tons of Fun. These women were the last pieces of the puzzle Sylvester had been searching for to help create the perfect sound that’d thrust him and his music onto the world’s exploding Disco stage.
Two singles were issued from the album. The first single, a self-penned song called ‘Down, Down, Down’, charted at #18 in the Billboard Dance chart. The following single ‘Over and Over’ written by the iconic duo Ashford & Simpson failed to make any impression on the charts, at the time. On the track “I’ve Been Down”, the lead vocals are performed by Izora Rhodes and Martha Wash.
Sylvester, Step II
Later Sylvester collaborated with singer, writer and producer, Patrick Cowley, another, out, popular and rising star of the San Francisco, Hi-NRG, Disco sound scene. Cowley’s synthesizer and Sylvester’s voice proved to be a magical combination, and pushed Sylvester’s sound in an increasingly dance-oriented direction. This resulted in 1978’s his fourth album, Step II, Sylvester’s perfect alchemy of music, rhythm, talent and timing paid off spawning two big hits ‘You Make Me Feel, Mighty Real’, written by James Wirrick, and ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’, written by Eric Robinson. On Step II you find also some amazing beautiful soulful ballads.
Both singles proved commercial hits both domestically and abroad, topping the American Dance Chart and breaking into the U.S. pop charts. The album itself was also a success, being certified gold and was described by Rolling Stone magazine as being ‘as good as disco gets’. Sylvester propelled his falsetto far above his natural range into the ether and rode machine rhythms that raced toward escape velocity, creating a new sonic lexicon powerful, camp, and otherworldly enough to articulate the exquisite bliss of disco’s dance floor utopia.
Sylvester’s fame increased following the release of his solo album, and he was employed to perform regularly at The Elephant Walk gay bar in The Castro, an area of San Francisco known as a gay village. He became a friend of Harvey Milk – known locally as the ‘Mayor of Castro Street’- who was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, and performed at Milk’s birthday party that year.
In both August and December 1978, Sylvester visited London, England to promote his music; he proved hugely popular in the city, performing at a number of different nightclubs and being mobbed by fans. It was while in the city that he filmed the music video for ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’. Back in the U.S., Sylvester began to appear on television shows to advertise his music, appearing on Dinah Shore, American Bandstand, The Merv Griffin Show and Rock Concert.
He also undertook a series of tours across the country, opening for both Chaka Khan and The Commodores, and performing alongside The O’Jays, and L.T.D. As a result, he earned a number of awards and performed at several award ceremonies.
Performing ‘Dance Disco Heat’ and ‘You Make Me Feel Mighty Real’, Ohhh this boy could sing! Sylvester was amazing to work with …really talented, a pro in every sense of the word! Wow…. As Cherrill says “In time they will be regarded as nostalgic reflections of the disco era” …and as we now know they are!
In the spring of 1978, Sylvester successfully auditioned for a cameo appearance in the film The Rose starring gay icon actress and singer Bette Midler. In the film, he plays one of the drag queens singing along to Bob Segar’s ‘The Fire Down Below’, in a single scene that was filmed in a run-down bar in downtown Los Angeles.
November 27, 1978, San Francisco was mourning of the killing of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone by Dan White, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. That evening, a spontaneous gathering began to form on Castro Street, moving toward City Hall in a candlelight vigil. Their numbers were estimated between 35,000 and 40,000, spanning the width of Market Street, extending the mile and a half (2.4 km) from Castro Street.
The next day, the bodies of George Moscone and Harvey Milk were brought to the City Hall rotunda where mourners paid their respects. Over six thousand mourners attended a service for Mayor Moscone at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Two memorials were held for Milk; a small one at Temple Emanu-El and a more boisterous one at the War Memorial Opera House.
Sylvester & Harvey Milk
Sylvester continued to reaffirm his connection to the gay community of San Francisco, performing at the main stage at the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade. Further, during his summer 1979 European Tour to Holland, Germany, Italy and the UK. In the United Kingdom, he performed at the London Gay Pride Festival in Hyde Park. They spread their glitter-riddled gospel all over the world.
That same year, Sylvester met singer Jeanie Tracy through Harvey Fuqua, and they immediately became good friends. A large black woman, Sylvester felt that Tracy would work well with his Two Tons O’ Fun, and invited her to join his backing singers, which she proceeded to do. Subsequently, befriending the Tons, she would work for Sylvester for the rest of his life.
On March 11, 1979, after two million selling albums, Sylvester, and his friends Martha Wash, Izora Rhodes, Jeanie Tracy, Sharon Hymes and Patrick Cowley, together with a large band, and the complete 26-piece San Francisco Symphony Orchestra blew of the roof of the 3,000-seat sold out War Memorial Opera House. San Francisco where Sylvester wore the moniker of the Queen of the Castro alongside his Disco title, he blends all the colors in his musical palette into a work of remarkable imagination and spirit.
A genuine original, he was the vèry first ‘modern’ artist to perform in a classic Opera House, he was one of that special breed of performers who come fully to life onstage, who have the unfailing instincts to ignite an audience with sophistication, sass, and style. In a business where clones abound, Sylvester was the real thing.
It was the first time èver in music history that a non-classic singer performed, with the whole orkestra, a concert on stage in an Opera House. Sylvester treated attendees to ballads, covers and medleys, in addition to Sylvester’s own hits. His falsetto sound was a mix of male and female voice. Most intriguing about the venue was the sheer range of material being performed. Sylvester covered everything from the Beatles ‘Blackbird’ to Billie Holiday’s ‘Lover Man’ to Barry Manilow’s ‘Could It Be Magic’. Sylvester’s reinterpretations of Thelma Houston’s Sharing Something Perfect Between Ourselves and Patti LaBelle’s ‘You Are My Friend’ where the standout of the show as it showcased the genius interplay Sylvester, Rhodes, Wash and Tracy utilized in their live performances. Everybody sang along to the ballad version of You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) at the end of the concert…. These last three songs where much more then just ‘beautiful songs’ in a time of the city’s mourning. There tittle’s say more then enough….
Sylvester, Living Proof, 1979 Live recorded at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, as first ‘non-classic’ act ever. Sylvester absolutely set the stage and paved the way for all the rest … in many many ways.
However, Sylvester’s celebratory music was the voice of gay pride. In bars, clubs and concert halls, Martha Wash, Izora Rhodes backed him. The night after his historical sold-out Sylvester Concert at the War Memeorial Opera House on March 11, Mayor Diana Feinstein declared it Sylvester Day and presented him the key to the city. The people where still mourning, but the Queen of Castro was their new hero, if he wasn’t already!
Welcome to the church of Sylvester. His gospel-tinged disco made us feel mighty real
The Opera House gig was recorded, and subsequently released as a live double album, called Living Proof. The album contained a typically eclectic mix of blues, disco, funk and beautiful ballads. Sylvester feld that Living Proof, is “the best representation of what people had been writing about me since the day I started performing. All the energy is there”.
The voice of dance music Sylvester and the Two Tons of Fun (Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes) performing live ‘Can’t Stop Dancing’
On the double album ‘Living Proof’ are two studio recordings: ‘Can’t Stop Dancing’ and ‘In My Fantasy’. ‘Can’t Stop Dancing’, a single released from this album, was a huge hit in the disco clubs.
Sylvester, Stars, 1979
When Sylvester was invited to appear at the Stars party at the Embarcadero in May 1978 he was inspired to write the song ‘Star (Everybody is one)’ to celebrate the event. Stars was a huge disco extravaganza and set the standard for future parties in San Francisco. When you purchased your ticket for Stars you were given a can. After using a can opener to get to your ticket you also found a poster a brochure and a T-Shirt, quite a package! It was just one month before the Stars party when Sylvester and Patrick Cowley sat down and composed the song for the event.
Sylvester would proceed to tell the press that Stars was his first completely disco album, but that it would also probably be his last. He premiered the album’s four tracks – ‘Stars (Everybody Is One)’, ‘I Who Have Nothing’, ‘I Need Somebody To Love Tonight’ and ‘Body Strong’, on March 11, 1979, at a sold-out show in the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House.
Two months after the concert, on May 21, 1979, thousands of members of San Francisco’s predominantly gay Castro District community took to the streets to protest the lenient sentence received by Supervisor Dan White for the murders of local politician and gay rights activist Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Their anger–combined with the actions of police who arrived to quell the scene–soon boiled over into rioting. The resulting violence affected San Francisco’s LGBT community for decades to come. Sylvester’s voice helped foster that fight… ‘Everybody is a Star!’. From that moment ‘Stars’ became an anthem for the gay community.
1979 brought three Billboard awards and an appearance in the movie, The Rose, starring Bette Midler. Memorable: performing with Bette Midler ‘The Fire Down Below’.
In 1980, Sylvester also reached tabloid headlines after he was arrested on a visit to New York City, accused of being involved in the robbery of several rare coins. After three days of incarceration, he was released on a police bail of $30,000. Sylvester was never charged, and police later admitted their mistake after it was revealed that the real culprit had posed as Sylvester by signing cheques in his name.
Returning to San Francisco after this event, it was here that Sylvester produced his next album for Fantasy Records, ‘Sell My Soul’. Largely avoiding disco after the genre had become unpopular following the much publicized Disco Sucks movement, Sell My Soul instead represented a selection of soul-inspired dance tracks. Recorded in two weeks, Sylvester worked largely with backing singers and musicians whom he was unfamiliar with, and regular collaborators Rhodes and Cowley were entirely absent. Reviews were generally poor, describing the album as being average in quality. The only disco song on the album, ‘I Need You’, was released as a single, but fared poorly then. Later. ’till today, using ‘studio live session’ recording tapes, some great ‘remix’ versions appeard.
Sylvester Sell My Soul, 1980
Sylvester’s fifth and final album for Fantasy Records was ‘Too Hot to Sleep’, in which he once again eschewed disco for a series of groove soul tunes, ballads, and gospel-style tracks. Missing the Two Tons entirely, Tracy was instead accompanied by a new backing singer, Maurice ‘Mo’ Long, and because the three of them had all grown up in the Church of God in Christ, they decided to refer to themselves as the C.O.G.I.C. Singers. The album also featured a number of tracks in which Sylvester avoided his usual falsetto tones to sing in a baritone voice.
In 1978, he entered into a relationship with a young white model named John Maley; Sylvester later devoted the song ‘Can’t Forget the Love’ on his ‘Too Hot to Sleep’ album to his young lover. Maley ended the relationship to move to Los Angeles, later recollecting that Sylvester “was a lovely man, and I owe him a lot”. In 1981, Sylvester entered into a relationship with a slim brunette from Deep River, Connecticut, named Michael Rayner. Living in San Francisco, Michael Rayner, a floral designer, unlike his predecessors, did not move into Sylvester’s house. Their partnership ended when Rayner admitted that he had not fallen completely in love with Sylvester. But their friendship stayed. Michael Rayner was considered a star in his trade, a master of his craft, and widely admired for creating truly innovative floral arrangements. These beautiful flower arrangements you could find on Sylvester’s Art Deco’s tables, and on stage.
On jazz pianist Herbie Hancock’s thirty-second album ‘Magic Window’ – released on September 29, 1981 – Sylvester sung ‘Magic Number’ also in his ‘low-voice’, together with Jeanie Tracy on backingvocals, Ray Parker Jr. on guitar and Sheila Escovedo on percussion. ‘Magic Number’ was available in several different (long)versions.
1981 Sylvester Too Hot To Sleep
1981 Sylvester Too Hot To Sleep (second cover)
Disco star Sylvester performs on the stairs at Greg’s Blue Dot in Hollywood, a popular gay club back in 1981. He is introduced by owner Greg Hammond
With the success of these world wide hits came more time under the often harsh and conservative public spotlight. Sylvester kept his unabashed flame on high whether performing for the very white, afternoon, talk show, television circuit or for a writhing throng of his adoring people at San Francisco’s largest dance club, The Trocadero.
Both the Two Tons and Sylvester came to suspect that Fantasy Records had failed to pay them all of the money that they were owed from the sale of their records. Sylvester left Fantasy and in November 1982 he filed a lawsuit against them; it ultimately proved successful in establishing that the company had been withholding money from him totaling $218,112.50. Nevertheless, Fuqua proved unable to pay anything more than $20,000, meaning that Sylvester never saw the majority of the money that was legally owed to him. Sylvester grew to despise Fuqua, and forbade his friends from ever mentioning his name.
They created the so called ‘Megatone’ sound. A true Hit machine with artist like Paul Parker, Jeanie Tracy and Sarah Dash. On many of their hits you hear Sylvester’s voice as backing vocal.
Sylvester eventually left Fantasy Records joining forces with his friend and Dance music mentor, Patrick Crowley and his partner Marty Blecman, at Magatone Records ensconced in the Castro on Noe Street. Sylvester and Megatone created four more albums and the mega huge, infectious dance track ‘Do You Wanna Funk?’
Sylvester, All I Need, 1982 with the hits ‘Do You Wana Funk’, ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Be With You’
Sylvester’s ‘girls’, the Two Ton’s of Fun, transformed as well. The duo was renamed The Weather Girls in 1982 after they released the top-selling single ‘It’s Raining Men’, “Hi, we are your weather girls”. ‘It’s Raining Men’ brought them to mainstream pop attention, and continues, like Sylvester’s songs, to be played the world over.
In 1982, Patrick Crowley tragically died, during those very early days in the Age of AIDS, not long after he founded Megatone Records, and the huge succes of the album ‘All I Need’, his own album ‘Mind Warp’, and Paul Parker’s ‘Too Much To Dream’ with the mega-hit ‘Right On Target’. Sarah Dash her album was sadly not finnished. Only two songs were released, “Low Down Dirty Rythem’ and ‘Lucky Tonight’ together with background vocals by Sylvester and Jeanie Tracy.
Sylvester, Call Me, 1983
In 1983, Sylvester became a partner of Megatone Records. That year he also brought out his second album with the company, ‘Call Me’, but it was not a big commercial success. Four songs from the album were released as singles, although only ‘Trouble in Paradise’ entered the top 20 of the U.S. dance charts; Sylvester later related that the song was his ‘AIDS message to San Francisco’.”
Sylvester was emotionally moved by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and began helping out at the Rita Rockett Lounge for patients of the disease at the San Francisco General Hospital as well as performing at various benefit concerts to raise money and awareness to combat the spread of the disease. In February 1984 he also performed a ‘One Night Only’ retrospective of his work at the prestigious Castro Theatre.
Sylvester still toured both domestically and in Europe, although he found that demand for his performances was decreasing, and that he was now playing to smaller venues and singing to a pre-recorded tape rather than to a live band as he had in the late 1970s
Sylvester M-1015, 1984 with dance hits ‘Rock The Box’, Take Me To Heaven’ and the amazingly beautiful ballad ‘Shadow Of A Heart’
His next album, entitled ‘M-1015’ (1984), was more frenetic and pumping than his previous releases, having embraced the recently developed genre of Hi-NRG, but it also included elements of electro . The major figures behind the album had been Kessie and Morey Goldstein, and Sylvester himself had not written any of the tracks. The album also contained increasingly sexually explicit lyrics, in particular in the songs ‘How Do You Like Your Love’ and ‘Seks’.
1984 was also the year that he did a duet with singer Earlene Bentley, who worked often with British songwriter, producer, and DJ, Ian Levine, who loved her outrageous, campy vocal style. ‘Stargazing’ became a hit in the United Kingdom. That year, he also entered into a relationship with an architect named Rick Cramner, and together they moved into a new apartment in the hills, where Sylvester decorated his powder room with posters and memorabilia of Divine, the drag queen, actor and singer whom he had briefly known when they were in The Cockettes.
In 1985, he fulfilled a lifelong ambition by working with the singer Aretha Franklin. Doing background vocals before, ione of his dreams came true as he was summoned to sing back-up vocals – together with best-friend Jeanie Tracy – for Aretha Franklin on her Who’s Zoomin’ Who comeback album.
Jim Gilstrap, Vicki Randle, Jeanie Tracy and Sylvester had a great time during the Aretha sessions, 1985
Sylvester, vèry rare live performance, ‘Stormy Weather’
Sylvester’s partner, Rick Cranmer, became aware that he was infected with HIV in 1986. With no known medical cure, his health deteriorated rapidly, and he died in September of 1987, leaving Sylvester devastated. Sylvester lived in denial about his own status and decided not to get to tested, even when he developed a persistent cough, often a sign of a late-stage HIV infection.
Despite this, Sylvester began work on an album, moved into a new apartment in the Castro, and continued to perform. However with his health deteriorating, he was unable to embark on a full tour.
As the panic and reality around the pandemic gained steam-cutting down man after man in his prime during the eighties Sylvester worked tirelessly on many AIDS benefits, many times together with Joan Rivers, long before others did. He help raise much needed funds and awareness about the disease until his own HIV infection began to take it’s toll.
Sylvester’s final album, ‘Mutual Attraction’ (1986), was produced by Megatone but licensed and released by Warner Bros. On the album, Sylvester had worked with a wide number of collaborators, and included new tracks alongside covers of songs by Stevie Wonder and George Gershwin. Mutual Attraction gave us some great songs, like ‘Living For the City’ (Stevie Wonder), the tittle song ‘Mutual Attraction’, and million seller ‘Someone Like You’, that reached number one on the Billboard dance charts. The 12-inch single of ‘Someone Like You’ featured an original cover art by Keith Haring.
Warner Bros booked him to appear on the New Year’s Eve edition of The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, during which Joan Rivers described him as a drag queen; he corrected her by stating that he was not a drag queen, proclaiming simply “I’m Sylvester!” The appearance was also notable for Sylvester publicly declaring his relationship with Rick Cranmer despite the fact that Cranmer’s family were largely unaware of either the liaison or his sexuality.
Sylvester, Mutual Attraction, 1986
In 1986 Sylvester teamed up with Until December. Fronted by Consolidated’s Adam Sherburne, Until December was a dance-oriented rock band based in San Francisco that was active in the early to late 1980s. Their self-titled album ‘Until December’ was released in 1985 on 415 Records, which contained their biggest hit ‘Heaven’. Other notable tunes were ‘Until December’, ‘Live Alone In Shame’, and ‘Free Again’. Until December toured the U.S. as a headliner and with seminal 80’s bands such as Yazoo and New Order. The band was especially popular in the leather subculture.
Sylvester, and Until December re-recorded the song ‘Free Again’, with vocals by Until December’s frontman Adam Sherburne and Sylvester, and with backing vocals by Sylvester and Kitty von Beethoven. ‘Free Again’ was available in different remix versions (Free Again My Sin, Free Again Touch Me, a.o.). Some remixed by Ken Kessie (Megatone)
In late 1987, Sylvester was hospitalized for sinus surgery, having been diagnosed with AIDS. On discharge from hospital, he was looked after by his mother and his background singer and friend Jeanie Tracy. While other friends came to visit him, he would proceed to give away many of his treasured items to his friends, and wrote his will. However, in May 1988, he was hospitalized again this time due to pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP).
He would never perform again. Although, he had lost a considerable amount of weight and was unable to walk, his last public appearance was at the Castro Street Fair in October of 1988. The MC on the main stage introduced him pointing up to where he sat on his apartment balcony overlooking the Fair action at Castro and Market. The crowd, numbering in the tens of thousands, gave him a rousing ovation that lasted for nearly 15 minutes. People openly wept realizing, as he frailly waved to the crowd from his wheelchair – being pushed along the entire route by his manager Tim Mckenna, who also had AIDS. McKenna died on January 3, 1990 -, soaking in the love that showered down on him. Most realized in all likelihood this would be the last time any of us would ever see our hero. “He’s allowing us to celebrate his life before his death, and I don’t know a single star who has the integrity to do that,” the novelist Armistead Maupin wrote afterward.
Sylvester was open about the fact that he was dying, and continued to give interviews to the media. His main focus was to highlight the impact AIDS was having in the African-American community.
Sylvester died two months later at the age of 41 on December 16th, 1988. Two weeks before Sylvester died, he told his minister of the Love Center Church in East Oakland, that he was ‘ready’. For Thanksgiving 1988, his family spent the holiday with him, although he had developed neuropathy and was increasingly bed-ridden and reliant on morphine. His good friend Jeanie Tracy took care of Sylvester during his last days.
Sylvester had planned his own funeral, insisting that he be dressed in a red kimono and placed in an open-top coffin for the mourners to see, with his friend Yvette Flunder doing his corpse’s makeup. He wanted Jeanie Tracy to sing at his funeral, accompanied by choirs and many flowers. The whole affair took place in his church, the Love Center, with a sermon being provided by Reverend Walter Hawkins. The event was packed, with standing room only, and the coffin was subsequently taken and buried at his family’s plot in Inglewood park Cemetery.
In his will, Sylvester had declared that royalties from the future sale of his music be contributed to two HIV/AIDS charities, Project Open Hand, and the AIDS Emergency Fund.
After his death, Megatone Records launched Immortal, the unfinnished album. Pressure from the label to ‘butch up’ his image would result in him attending meetings in full-on drag. A drag photo shoot, which he staged and presented to label heads as a gag (calling it his ‘new album cover’) would later grace the cover of Immortal after Sylvester died; it was the label’s way of paying tribute to his spirit. It contained Sylvester’s final studio recordings and was compiled by Marty Blecman.
Sylvester, Immortal, 1989 His ‘unfinnished’ last album
In the late 1990’s, performance artist Djola Branner (co-founder of the highly influential Pomo Afro Homos troupe) created his acclaimed solo piece and CD Mighty Real around the life of Sylvester. On September 20, 2004 Sylvester’s anthem record, You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame. A year later, on September 19, 2005, Sylvester himself was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame for his achievement as an artist. A biography of Sylvester, titled ‘The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, The Music’ was authored by Gamson and published in the same year.
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) was inducted into the Library of Congress in 2005, formally confirming Sylvester’s impact on American culture at large. In 2010, and a biography, ‘The Fabulous Sylvester’, was published. The TV series Unsung aired an episode on Sylvester, that was later made available through YouTube. ‘Sylvester: Mighty Real’, an official feature-length documentary on the life and career of Sylvester, entered production; it featured interviews with members of Sylvester’s family and other artists and musicians who have been inspired by, but by 2012 the film’s progress had halted.
In August 2014, an Off-Broadway musical titled ‘Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical’ opened at Theatre At St. Clement’s in New York City. It was co-directed by Kendrell Bowman and Anthony Wayne, the latter of whom also performed as the titular character. Wayne stated that he discovered Sylvester’s story through a television documentary, and was subsequently “inspired by his drive to be who he was regardless of what he went through”, performing a concert of Sylvester’s songs with friends Anastacia McCleskey and Jacqueline B. Arnold as the Two Tons o’ Fun before deciding to begin work on the musical.
In 2014 Sylvester was one of the inaugural honorees in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco’s Castro’s neighborhoud noting LGBTQ people who have ‘made significant contributions in their fields’.
Till today, we hear Sylvester’s songs in clubs and on the radio. Many of them are timeless. Also populair by other great artist like Jimmy Somerville and Jason Walker
Jimmy Sommerville performing live ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) at les années bonheur de Patrick Sébastien. He makes us feel mighty real!!
Sylvester and Patrick Cowley’s ‘I Need Somebody To Love Tonight’ sung by ‘wonderboy’ Jason Walker
I often think about what Sylvester might think about the world we live in today. What would he sing today? How would he feel about Pose on television? How would he feel about the rising of so many black queer artists working of the camera (or microphone) and behind the scenes? How he’d feel that he birthed a generation – black – gay men that dream dreams that are big and ambitious. My hope is he would feel mighty real.
We remember Sylvester in appreciation for his indomitable spirit, his supreme artistry, his advocacy for those fighting the HIV/AIDS crisis, and his many contributions to our community.
Today, pop and dance music icon Martha Wash announced the release of her much anticipated single, ‘Dream On’, a fresh, rousing version of the Aerosmith classic. ‘Dream On’ is the latest single from Ms. Wash’s critically-acclaimed album ‘Something Good’ – which marks the two-time Grammy nominee’s first offering in 20 years and the first official album on her own independent record label, Purple Rose Records.
Started as one of Sylvesters background singers in the 70’s, Martha Wash’s distinctive, powerhouse voice has guided some of pop and dance music’s biggest hits straight to the top of the charts – from the perennial classics ‘Earth Can Be Like Heaven’ and ‘It’s Raining Men’ to #1 Billboard hits like ‘Everybody, Everybody’, ‘Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)’, and ‘Give It To You’, just a few to name, in a lóng list of dance-floor fillers.
Considered to be one of the music industry’s most respected artists, the legendary singer recently reclaimed her position on the top of the charts with her last single ‘I’m Not Coming Down’. The song quickly shot up the Billboard Dance Chart to the #2 position. In fact, since its release last year, the Something Good set has generated three well-received singles, including the stirring ballad and lead single ‘I’ve Got You’. Following the success of the album’s previous singles, ‘Dream On’ promises to continue that hot streak and has already been picked up by online outlets and mainstream radio stations nationally and internationally and is rapidly gaining traction.
Dream On is indicative of the direction I chose to take with the entire album. I am so proud of Something Good, because it really showcases my versatility. I’m giving you the dance flavor, but I’m also giving you pop, soul and a little Aerosmith…all Martha-ized. It’s been 20 years since people have heard new music from me, so I am trying to reach everyone with this one. I want them to see how I’ve grown musically.
Martha Wash
She continues, “This album is also special because it signifies the first official lift-off for Purple Rose Records. My vision for this label is to provide an opportunity, not only for my own music to be heard, but for other artists who need a platform as well. This is me moving my career to the next level”
Purple Rose Records is slated to release a plethora of new music in early spring of 2015, including singles from the First Ladies of Disco (Linda Clifford, Evelyn Champagne King & Martha Wash) and Bill Wadham (lead vocalist of 80’s pop band Animotion).
Purchase the ‘Something Good’ album at your local store, at Amazon or iTunes. Come into the beautiful world of Martha Wash.
Yakymour 