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.
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FREDA PAYNE TICKETS
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Biography
Freda Payne grew up listening to different
jazz singers, such as
Ella Fitzgerald and
Billie Holiday.
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.
In 1963, she moved to
New York and worked with many different entertainers, including
Quincy Jones,
Pearl Bailey, and
Bill Cosby.
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.
How Do You Say I Don't Love You Anymore
, for MGM Records.''.
She even added theatrical credits to her repertoire; she understudied
Leslie Uggams for the
Broadway show
Hallelujah Baby
in 1967,
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.
During that same year, her first Invictus
single, "Unhooked Generation" (a minor
R&B hit), was released.
[3] Shortly thereafter, Eddie Holland offered her a song entitled "
Band of Gold", which he co-wrote (under the
pen name Edythe Wayne) with Ronald Dunbar.
In early 1970, the song became an instant
pop smash reaching #3 in the
US and #1 in the
UK; it also gave Payne her first
gold record.
Global sales were estimated at two million.
An album of the same name proved to be fairly successful as well.
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
[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).
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.
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.
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).
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).
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).
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.
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).
Payne was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 28, 2005.
On April 22, 2009 Freda appeared on
American Idol and sang
Band of Gold.
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]
Honors
In 1974, she made the cover of
Jet
after she was made a
Dame of Malta by the
Knights of Malta.
[7]
Discography
Singles
| Year
| Title
| Album
| U.S. Pop [8]
| U.S. R&B | U.S. Dance | 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"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Albums
- 1964: ''After the Lights Go Down Low and Much More
|!''
- 1966: How Do You Say I Don't Love You Anymore
- 1970: Band of Gold
(U.S. Pop #60, U.S. R&B #17)
- 1971: Contact
(U.S. Pop #76, U.S. R&B #12)
- 1973: Reaching Out
- 1974: Payne & Pleasure
(U.S. R&B #55)
- 1975: Out of Payne Comes Love
- 1977: Stares and Whispers
- 1978: Supernatural High
- 1979: Hot
- 1995: Freda Payne Sings the (Unauthorized) I Hate Barney Songbook: A Parody
- 1996: An Evening With Freda Payne: Live in Concert
- 1996: Christmas With Freda and Friends
- 1999: Live in Concert
- 2001: Come See About Me
[10]
Compilations
- 1972: The Best of Freda Payne
(U.S. Pop #152, U.S. R&B #44)
- 1991: Greatest Hits
- 2000: Lost in Love
- 2000: Band of Gold: The Best of Freda Payne
- 2001: Unhooked Generation: The Complete Invictus Recordings
- 2002: The Best of Freda Payne: Ten Best Series
Filmography
Concerts
- 2006: Flashbacks: Soul Sensation
– Compilation [11]
- 2009: Freda Payne: High Standards
with Stanley Turrentine and Jerome Richardson [12]
- 2009: Live in Concert
with The Stylistics
As an Actress
- 1973: Book of Numbers
[13]
- 1997: Sprung
[13]
- 1999: Ragdoll
[13]
- 2000: Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
[13]
- 2001: Deadly Rhapsody
[13]
- 2007: Cordially Invited
[13]
See also
- List of soul musicians
- List of disco artists (F-K)
- List of people from Detroit
- List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand
- Guests on Soul Train
- List of performers on Top of the Pops
References
- Discogs.com - accessed March 2009
- Biography by Greg Prato
- The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits
- The Book of Golden Discs
- http://www.discogs.com/artist/Freda+Payne
- http://panachereport.com/channels/old_school_update/FredaGregory.htm
- Biodata
- Title Unavailable
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- Title Unavailable
- VIEW DVD Listing
- Arkadia DVD Listing
- IMDB
- IMDB
- IMDB
- IMDB
- IMDB
- IMDB