Zoneboy
03-22-2011, 07:14 AM
Link (http://spinningsoul.com/2011/03/riploleatta/)
Soul and Disco singer Loleatta Holloway died Monday evening following a brief illness. She was 64 years old.
Holloway’s death was confirmed Monday by her manager, Ron Richardson.
The lady with the big voice got her start as a gospel singer, recording with Albertina Walker and the Caravans. In the early 1970s, she signed a recording contract with the Aware Recrods. Holloway recorded two albums for the label, both of them produced by Floyd Smith—Loleatta (1973) and Cry to Me (1975). Holloway later married Smith. Her first single from the second album, the ballad Cry to Me (video below) rose to No. 10 Billboard R&B and No. 68 on the Hot 100, but before the label could really establish Holloway, it went out of business.
Top Philadelphia arranger and producer Norman Harris quickly signed her in 1976 for his new label, Gold Mind. The first release from the album Loleatta was another Sam Dees ballad, Worn-Out Broken Heart, which reached No. 25 R&B, but the B-side, Dreaming, climbed to No. 72 on the pop chart and launched her as a disco act.
Eighteen songs of hers charted on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, including four No. 1s. However, it was a ballad that proved to be another big R&B hit for her. Only You was written and produced by Bunny Sigler, who also sang with Holloway on the track, and it reached NO. 11 in 1978.
Soul and Disco singer Loleatta Holloway died Monday evening following a brief illness. She was 64 years old.
Holloway’s death was confirmed Monday by her manager, Ron Richardson.
The lady with the big voice got her start as a gospel singer, recording with Albertina Walker and the Caravans. In the early 1970s, she signed a recording contract with the Aware Recrods. Holloway recorded two albums for the label, both of them produced by Floyd Smith—Loleatta (1973) and Cry to Me (1975). Holloway later married Smith. Her first single from the second album, the ballad Cry to Me (video below) rose to No. 10 Billboard R&B and No. 68 on the Hot 100, but before the label could really establish Holloway, it went out of business.
Top Philadelphia arranger and producer Norman Harris quickly signed her in 1976 for his new label, Gold Mind. The first release from the album Loleatta was another Sam Dees ballad, Worn-Out Broken Heart, which reached No. 25 R&B, but the B-side, Dreaming, climbed to No. 72 on the pop chart and launched her as a disco act.
Eighteen songs of hers charted on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, including four No. 1s. However, it was a ballad that proved to be another big R&B hit for her. Only You was written and produced by Bunny Sigler, who also sang with Holloway on the track, and it reached NO. 11 in 1978.