Deniece Williams

singer

Personal Information

Born Deniece Chandler on June 3, 1951; grew up in Gary, IN; father a security guard and mother a nurse; married three times; two children by first husband Ken Williams (an educator); two by third husband Brad Westerling (a music producer)
Education: Attended Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

Career

Recorded single "Love Is Tears" for Toddlin' Town label, Chicago, 1960s; joined Wonderlove, backup group for singer Stevie Wonder, 1972; signed to Columbia label; released debut album This Is Niecy, 1976; released duet album That's What Friends Are For with vocalist Johnny Mathis, 1978; top pop hit with "Let's Hear It for the Boy," from film Footloose, 1984; released debut gospel album So Glad I Know, 1986; continued to record gospel and secular material, 1990s.

Life's Work

With a four-octave range and a distinctive soprano voice often described as birdlike, Deniece Williams was a fixture of urban and pop radio formats in the 1980s. She placed 24 single releases in the R&B Top 40; the duet "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late," which featured Williams's sometime duet partner Johnny Mathis, and four other songs advanced to the chart's top spot. Williams, who writes or co-writes much of her own material, started her musical life in the gospel genre and returned to gospel in the 1990s, successfully making the transition in middle age to the active musical life that eluded so many other artists.

Williams was born Deniece Chandler in Gary, Indiana, on June 3, 1951. Her father was a security guard and her mother a nurse. "Niecy" Chandler accompanied her family to the local Church of God in Christ, where she sang in the choir. The church discouraged its members from listening to secular music, and her first vocal model was her mother. But when she took a job in a record store as a teenager, she began to encounter the pop music of the day. From the start she gravitated toward virtuoso vocals--she enjoyed the music of the young Patti LaBelle, jazz stylist Carmen McRae, and later the fiery upper-register specialist Minnie Riperton.

Planned Nursing Career

The young record-store employee not only listened to these recordings but sang along with them as well, and her boss, impressed, put her in touch with the independent Toddlin' Town music label in nearby Chicago. She recorded a single called "Love Is Tears" that made it onto the radio in her hometown, but a music career still didn't really seem to be within reach, and she began to think about a career in nursing. That came to an end after she dropped out of Purdue University. She volunteered her services at a Chicago hospital for a time, married educator Ken Williams, and had two children.

Soon, however, Williams found that her musical instincts were ripe for reawakening. She had a cousin from Detroit who worked as a valet for Motown Records superstar Stevie Wonder, and out of that connection came a backstage meeting with Wonder after a concert. Williams impressed Wonder enough to land an audition, along with 25 other women, when a slot in Wonder's backup vocal group, Wonderlove, opened up in 1972. Williams was chosen, and she toured with Wonder for the next four years.

Those four years provided Williams with an education in the ways of the music business--both in making useful contacts and in learning to cope with its excesses. The excesses were on display when Wonder toured with the party-hearty rock band the Rolling Stones. "Here I am all wide-eyed and innocent asking 'What's that man doing sprawled on the floor? Isn't anybody going to help him?'" Williams recalled in conversation with the Chicago Sun-Times. With Williams's marriage having fallen apart, her children were an anchor, not a chore. "I had to go home after a show and change diapers," she told the Sun-Times. "I really needed my kids. If I didn't have them, I don't know where I'd be."

Debut Produced by Maurice White

The useful contacts Williams made included producer Maurice White, whom many considered the brains behind the phenomenally successful vocal group Earth, Wind & Fire. White got Williams signed to the Columbia label and co-produced her debut album, This Is Niecy, which appeared in 1976. "Free," a single taken from This Is Niecy, was a moderate hit in the United States and a chart-topping smash in Great Britain, where Williams found herself performing for Prince Charles.

For her next project Williams offered an album of duets with the middle-aged, middle-of-the-road pop vocalist Johnny Mathis--perhaps an unexpected move for a rising vocalist in the generally youth-oriented urban contemporary field, but one that succeeded brilliantly. The album That's What Friends Are For brought Williams fans across the demographic spectrum without alienating urban listeners; the single "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" rose to the top of both pop and R&B charts (in the process becoming Mathis's first chart single at any level since 1974) and brought Williams her first gold record for sales of 500,000 copies. The album itself also went gold, and its second single, the Motown remake "You're All I Need to Get By," was another strong performer.

A second marriage, which soon ended in divorce, didn't slow Williams down. She was a consistent hitmaker in the early 1980s; her virtuosic yet gentle voice impressed listeners with her vocal skills, yet had a quality that made it blend seamlessly into pop arrangements. Working in collaboration with veteran producer Thom Bell, she scored top-level chart singles with "Silly" (1981, from the album My Melody) and "It's Gonna Take a Miracle," which was drawn from 1982's Niecy album and once again landed Williams in the pop top ten. Williams herself took on co-production chores with her next two releases, I'm So Proud (1983) and 1984's Let's Hear It for the Boy.

Song Appeared on Film Soundtrack

Let's Hear It for the Boy featured as its title track a prominent selection in that year's hit film Footloose, and the song, which the St. Petersburg Times dubbed "the background music of 1984," brought Williams her second pop number one. After that, Williams's popularity waned somewhat as what was known as black pop declined and hip-hop and harder-edged R&B styles came to the fore. Williams continued to record secular music, winning critical acclaim for such albums as Water Under the Bridge (1987). From the late 1980s onward, however, her main musical focus was gospel.

Maurice White produced Williams's gospel debut, So Glad I Know, which was released in 1986. The singer didn't abandon her R&B production stylings. "We felt that people had grown accustomed to hearing Deniece Williams in an R&B format, so why change?" Williams explained to the Ottawa Citizen. Nevertheless, gospel definitely gave Williams a chance to display her vocal abilities to the fullest, and several of her gospel albums have been honored with Grammy awards. Williams and the equally vocally athletic Contemporary Christian singer Sandi Patty took home a Best Gospel Performance by a Duo or Group honor, and Williams garnered two solo Grammys soon after that.

Williams married again, to producer Brad Westerling, and in 1991 drew on her experiences in child-raising to record the album Lullabies to Dreamland. "I didn't consider radio play," Williams told the Chicago Sun-Times. "I wanted to do something for children and their parents." She performed twice for Pope John Paul II, in 1991 and 1993, and continued to record. Her 1998 gospel album, This Is My Song, won Williams her fourth Grammy award, this one for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. Along with several other 1980s stars, Williams appeared on the "Colors of Christmas" touring holiday concert in the late 1990s.

Awards

Selected: Grammy awards for albums So Glad I Know (1986) and This Is My Song (1998); Grammy nomination for It's Gonna Take a Miracle, 1983.

Works

Selected discography

• This Is Niecy, Columbia, 1976.
• Songbird, Columbia, 1977.
• That's What Friends Are For, Columbia, 1978 (with Johnny Mathis).
• When Love Comes Calling, Columbia, 1979.
• My Melody, Columbia, 1981.
• Niecy, Columbia, 1982.
• I'm So Proud, Columbia, 1983.
• Let's Hear It for the Boy, Columbia, 1984.
• Hot on the Trail, Columbia, 1986.
• So Glad I Know, Sparrow, 1986.
• Water Under the Bridge, Columbia, 1987.
• As Good as It Gets, Columbia, 1988.
• Lullabies to Dreamland, Word, 1991.
• Greatest Gospel Hits, Sparrow, 1994.
• Best of Deniece Williams: Gonna Take a Miracle, Columbia, 1996.
• This Is My Song, Harmony, 1998.

Further Reading

Books

• Contemporary Musicians, volume 1, Gale, 1989.
• Slonimsky, Nicolas, ed. emeritus, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians, centennial ed., Schirmer, 2001.

Periodicals

• Chicago Sun-Times, March 25, 1992, p. Features-4.
• Ottawa Citizen, August 18, 1993, p. B6.
• St. Petersburg Times, November 26, 1999, p. Weekend-17.

On-line

• http://allmusic.com
• http://music.lycos.com

— James M. Manheim

See Deniece Williams Lyrics

• Born: June 03, 1951, Gary, IN
• Active: '70s, '80s, '90s
• Genres: Rhythm & Blues
• Instrument: Vocals
• Representative Albums: "Gonna Take a Miracle: The Best of Deniece Williams," "Niecy," "My Melody"
• Representative Songs: "Let's Hear It for the Boy," "Free," "It's Gonna Take a Miracle"

Biography

Deniece Williams grew up singing in a Pentecostal church, which was strict on the congregation listening only to gospel music. During the late '60s, she was a candy striper in a Chicago hospital. Outside of wanting a 1959 Thunderbird, she had no serious ambitions. Nontheless, she still had interest in listening to music. Her favorites were Carmen McRae for her diction and Nancy Wilson, who, for Williams, exemplified class and elegance. However, her mother, also a singer, was her idol. The Gary, IN, native was also fond of Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Minnie Riperton, and Patti LaBelle. (The latter two she tried to emulate before her introduction into the music industry.)

In need of employment and with college on the back burner, the fledgling singer was introduced to Wonder by John Harris, her cousin from Detroit, who happened to be on tour as a valet for Wonder (and was also his childhood friend). Her cousin arranged for Williams to meet Wonder backstage at a concert. Six months later, the gifted vocalist was flown into Detroit by Wonder for an audition. Among the 26 who auditioned, Williams, who sang "Teach Me Tonight," was only one of three who was hired by Wonder. The three became known as Wonderlove.

Williams being hired by Wonder was a big surprise. Soon after the audition, she toured with Wonder, who was the opening act for the Rolling Stones at the time. Her touring with Wonder lasted for several years. Though her stint with Wonder was a great experience and opportunity, it was also difficult considering Williams had to make many adjustments professionally and personally (she had two sons prior to taking the gig: one 4 months old, the other 18 months).

Williams left Wonderlove in 1975 and teamed up with producer Maurice White, the leader of Earth, Wind & Fire. Under White's direction, Williams learned the business of music and was able to unwind and express herself musically. Under the Columbia banner, Williams released her first album entitled This Is Niecey. It featured the Billboard R&B number two single "Free," which also sealed the Top 25 on the pop charts. The song was personal to Williams, who felt restricted while with Wonderlove. The album also featured "Cause You Love Me Baby" and "That's What Friends Are For."

In 1977 the album Song Bird was released, and it featured the number 13 single "Baby, Baby My Love's All for You." The following year the dynamic singer scored her first number one song on both the R&B and pop charts with "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late," which was a duet with the legendary Johnny Mathis. The follow-up single, "You're All Need to Get By," was also recorded with Mathis and it was a Top Ten single.

Still under White's tutelage, Williams moved over to White's American Recording Company (ARC) and stumbled a few times with several releases before scoring the smash hit "Silly." Written by Williams and produced by famed producer Thom Bell, she sang this song from her own personal experience as well. The single became a Top Ten gem. In 1982 Bell returned the sweet songstress to number one with the single "It's Gonna Take a Miracle."

Always writing from her own experience, Williams wrote the Top Ten single "Do What You Feel" based on the ordeals of someone else. (A believer in the song at the time, she no longer employs those beliefs.) In 1984 Williams recorded the number one hit "Let's Hear It for the Boy." Featured on the Footloose soundtrack, the single was produced by music virtuoso George Duke, who initially thought the song was too pop-ish and would not work. However, Duke's production savvy proved to be as paramount as Williams' vocals.

In 1984 the sensational singer recorded "Black Butterfly." From a African-American perspective, Williams immediately bonded with the song. The song would become a prelude to the uplifting gospel material Williams would record a few years later. With her label, Columbia, uninterested, Williams released the gospel album From the Beginning on Sparrow Records. The album featured the Grammy Award-winning single "They Say." The same year she also won a Grammy for "I Surrender" and another for "I Believe in You" in 1987. ~ Craig Lytle, All Music Guide

Greatest Gospel Hits Buy this CD	Gonna Take a Miracle: The Best of Deniece Williams Buy this CD	This Is My Song Buy this CD	This Is Niecy [Bonus Track] Buy this CD	This Is Niecy [Bonus Track] Buy this CD
Love Songs Buy this CD	17 Greatest Hits: Collection Buy this CD	Change the World Buy this CD	Change the World Buy this CD	Love, Niecy Style Buy this CD

Show More Albums Show Fewer Albums

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)