Vicki Sue Robinson,

Early Life and Career

Born in Harlem, New York, her father was African-American Shakespearean actor, Bill Robinson, and her mother Marianne was a folk singer billed as Jolly Robinson. Vicki Sue Robinson spent most of her early years being raised in Philadelphia returning with her family to New York City when she was ten. She had given her first public performance in 1960 at the age of six, when she accompanied her mother on stage at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Ten years later, at the age of sixteen, Robinson made her professional performing debut when she joined the Broadway cast of the musical Hair. Robinson remained with Hair for six weeks moving to a new Broadway production Soon, whose cast included Peter Allen, Barry Bostwick, Nell Carter and Richard Gere.

After the show's short run Robinson appeared in the off-Broadway play Long Time Coming, Long Time Gone in which she and Richard Gere played Mimi and Richard Farina. New York magazine opined Robinson "sings with gentle power, accompanying herself on guitar and dulcimer, and moves with astounding confidence." [1]

Robinson also had bit parts in the films Going Home (1971) and To Find A Man (1972). After a sojourn in Japan Robinson returned to Broadway in 1973 joining the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Robinson made her recording debut as one of several Hair veterans invited to sing background on Todd Rundgren's Something, Anything album released in 1972. In 1973 she spent time in Japan with Itsuro Shimoda with whom she did session work on his album Love Songs and Lamentations and toured nationally.

Turn the Beat Around

In 1975 Robinson was providing vocals at a New York recording session for the album Many Sunny Places by Scott Fagan a singer she'd performed with in Greenwich Village clubs. Warren Schatz, a producer/engineer affiliated with RCA was struck by Robinson's voice and saw her potential as a disco-oriented artist. Schatz invited Robinson to cut some demos including a remake of the Foundations' "Baby Now That I've Found You" which became Robinson's first solo release. Despite that track's failure, RCA green-lit Schatz's producing Robinson's debut album Never Gonna Let You Go. The title cut - a Schatz original - became a #10 disco hit but another album track: "Turn the Beat Around" began to build "buzz" and was expediently released as a single: topping the disco charts on March 20 1976 "Turn the Beat Around" broke on Top 40 radio in Boston in May almost immediately topping the charts there. Despite failure to crack the major markets of New York City and Los Angeles "Turn the Beat Around" reached the U.S. Top 10 in August, overall spending some six months on the Billboard Hot 100 and propelling the Never Gonna Let You Go album to #49. "Turn the Beat Around" would chart internationally reaching #14 in Canada [2], #44 in France [3], #11 in the Netherlands and #12 in South Africa. The track would earn Robinson a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Note: Above was taken from Wiki's site [here].

To Sir with Love
(beefed up a little)


Turn the beat around...