Freda Payne

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Freda Payne
Birth name Freda Charcelia Payne
Born September 19, 1942 (1942-09-19) (age 66)
Detroit, Michigan, United States
Genre(s) Soul, R&B, jazz
Occupation(s) Singer, actress, presenter
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 1963 – present
Label(s) Impulse, Invictus, MGM, ABC, Capitol, Volt
Website Official website

Freda Payne (born Freda Charcelia Payne, September 19, 1942, Detroit, Michigan)[1] is an American singer and actress best known for her million selling, 1970 hit single, "Band of Gold". She has also performed in musicals and acted in movies over the years, and briefly was the host of her own TV talk show.[2] Freda is the older sister of former Supremes member, Scherrie Payne.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Freda Payne grew up listening to different jazz singers, such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.[2] As a teenager, she attended the Institute of Musical Arts; she soon began singing radio commercial jingles, and took part in (and won many of) local TV and radio talent shows.[2]

In 1963, she moved to New York and worked with many different entertainers, including Quincy Jones, Pearl Bailey, and Bill Cosby.[2] The next year, her debut album, a jazz recording entitled After the Lights Go Down Low and Much More!!!, was released on the Impulse! label.[2] This album was re-issued on CD in Japan in early 2002, and again in the United States in 2005. Three years later, she released her second album (another jazz effort) How Do You Say I Don't Love You Anymore, for MGM Records.[2] She also made occasional guest appearances on different television shows including The Merv Griffin Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.[2]

She even added theatrical credits to her repertoire; she understudied Leslie Uggams for the Broadway show Hallelujah Baby in 1967,[3] and appeared with the Equity Theatre in a production of Lost in the Stars. Although she was doing well at supporting herself in the business, none of these things helped her break into stardom.

In 1969, her old friends back home in Detroit, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Edward Holland, Jr., persuaded her to sign with their newly-formed record label Invictus.[2] During that same year, her first Invictus single, "Unhooked Generation" (a minor R&B hit), was released.[4] Shortly thereafter, songwriters Holland/Dozier/Holland, under the pen name 'Edith Wayne and Ron Dunbar' offered her a song entitled "Band of Gold".)[4] In early 1970, the song became an instant pop smash reaching #3 in the U.S. and #1 in the UK; it also gave Payne her first gold record.[2][3] Global sales were estimated at two million.[3] An album of the same name proved to be fairly successful as well.[2] Other Invictus singles included "Deeper and Deeper", "You Brought the Joy", and the Vietnam War protest song "Bring the Boys Home" (U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #12, 1971; her second gold record[3].[4] Her other Invictus albums were Contact (1971), The Best of Freda Payne (1972, a compilation which included four new, unissued songs), and her last Invictus album Reaching Out (1973).[2]

In 1973 she left Invictus and recorded albums for ABC/Dunhill and Capitol, but she never found the commercial success that she had enjoyed with Invictus.[2] She recorded a duet "I Wanna See You Soon" with Capitol stablemates Tavares, which was a radio airplay hit in the UK in 1977.

In 1981, she briefly hosted her own talk show Today's Black Woman, and also found work acting in different movies, Broadway, and other theatre productions throughout the 1980s.[2] Although she was concentrating more on acting by that time, she never gave up music; in 1982, she recorded a single entitled "In Motion" for the Sutra label in New York, and in 1986, she recorded a remake of her old hit "Band of Gold" with Belinda Carlisle.

In 1990, she recorded three songs for Ian Levine's UK Motorcity label: another remake of "Band of Gold," "Memories and Souvenirs," and "Only Minutes Away." In the mid 1990s she released three albums for Dove Music: Freda Payne Sings the (Unauthorized) I Hate Barney Songbook: A Parody (1995, a comedy album), An Evening With Freda Payne: Live in Concert which featured her younger sister Scherrie Payne on background vocals, and her first (and only) Christmas album Christmas With Freda and Friends, which featured a duet between Freda and Scherrie (both 1996).[2] She also continued her acting career appearing in the films, Private Obsession (1995), Ragdoll (1999), Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), and Fire & Ice (made-for-TV, 2001).[2]

In early 2001, Payne released a new album entitled Come See About Me for the Volt Records label (the title track is a remake of The Supremes' hit).[2]

In early 2003, she performed in a show called Love & Payne, with Darlene Love at Feinstein's at the Regency in New York, and at the Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, getting excellent reviews[citation needed].

During the early part of the 21st century, the following compilation albums of her music were released: Lost in Love (which includes nine of her post-Invictus recordings), Band of Gold: The Best of Freda Payne (both 2000), Unhooked Generation: The Complete Invictus Recordings (2001), and The Best of Freda Payne: Ten Best Series (2002).[2]

Payne was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 28, 2005.[1]

On April 22, 2009 Freda appeared on American Idol and sang Band of Gold.

[edit] Personal life

Freda was formerly married to singer Gregory Abbott in 1976, and had a son, Gregory Abbott, Jr. (born 1978). [5]

She also had a relationship with Edmund Sylvers (lead singer of The Sylvers singing group) although she was fifteen years his senior, and Edmund had written and produced her 1982 single 'In Motion'. [6]

[edit] Honors

In 1974, she made the cover of Jet after she was made a Dame of Malta by the Knights of Malta.[7]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

Year Title Album U.S. Pop[8] U.S. R&B[8] U.S. Dance[8] UK[9]
1970 "Unhooked Generation" Band of Gold 43
"Band of Gold" 3 20 1
"Deeper and Deeper" 24 9 33
1971 "Cherish What Is Dear to You (While It's Near to You)" Contact 44 11 46
"Bring the Boys Home" 12 3
"You Brought the Joy" 52 21
1972 "The Road We Didn't Take" 100
1973 "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right" Reaching Out 75
1975 "It's Yours to Have" Payne & Pleasure 81
1977 "Love Magnet" Stares & Whispers 85 18
1982 "In Motion"

[edit] Albums

[10]

[edit] Compilations

[10]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Discogs.com - accessed March 2009
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Biography by Greg Prato". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=FREDA|PAYNE&sql=11:jifqxqr5ldhe~T1. Retrieved on March 27, 2009. 
  3. ^ a b c d Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 301. ISBN 0-214-20512-6. 
  4. ^ a b c Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 136. ISBN 0-85112-250-7. 
  5. ^ http://www.discogs.com/artist/Freda+Payne
  6. ^ http://panachereport.com/channels/old_school_update/FredaGregory.htm
  7. ^ Biodata
  8. ^ a b c "Allmusic.com ((( Freda Payne > Charts & Awards > Singles )))". http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=FREDA|PAYNE&sql=11:jifqxqr5ldhe~T51. 
  9. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 421. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
  10. ^ a b "Allmusic.com ((( Freda Payne > Charts & Awards > Albums )))". http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=FREDA|PAYNE&sql=11:jifqxqr5ldhe~T5. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freda_Payne"
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