Vicki Sue Robinson

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Vicki Sue Robinson (May 31, 1954 – April 27, 2000) was an American theatre and film actress and singer, closely associated with the disco era of late 1970s pop music; she is most famous for her 1976 hit, "Turn the Beat Around."^[1]

Early life and career

Born in Harlem, New York, to African-American Shakespearean actor Bill Robinson by his wife Marianne, a folk singer billed as Jolly Robinson, Vicki Sue Robinson was reared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for most of her early years, 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."^[2]

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,^[3] #44 in France,^[4] #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.

Follow-up

Again with Schatz producing, Robinson cut the Vicki Sue Robinson album for release in the fall of 1976: although its lead single, a cover of Bobby Womack's "Daylight" was only a minor hit (#61), the album reached #45. Robinson's next Hot 100 appearance was in August of 1977 with her version of David Gates' "Hold Tight" (#67) but its parent album, Half and Half - produced by Schatz - was not released until 1978 and without the impetus of a major Pop hit it charted no higher than #110. In 1979 Robinson contributed the track "Easy to Be Hard" to the Schatz production Disco Spectacular - an album of dance versions of songs from the musical Hair inspired by the release film version - and recorded what would prove to be her final album, Movin' On; Schatz was credited as the album's executive producer but the production credit was to T. Life. Movin' On's tracks were ignored even in the dance clubs: Robinson did however score a 1979 club hit with "Nighttime Fantasy," a track written and produced by Norman Bergen and Reid Whitelaw recorded for the film Nocturna. Also in 1979 Robinson appeared in a film made by the same production company as Nocturna, titled "Gangsters," which also featured T. Life and Cissy Houston and the first credited screen role for Jean Smart.^[5]

The 1980s

In 1980 Robinson moved from RCA to another major label Ariola but she was dropped following one 7" release, "Nothing But a Heartache." Subsequently Robinson reteamed with Schatz for releases on a number of dance-oriented labels: Prelude, Ariola, Promise, Perfect and Profile, with the last-named releasing her dance version of "To Sir With Love," which became a surprise Top Ten hit in Australia in 1983. Robinson's next release, a remake of "Everlasting Love," in 1984 was her last recording for almost fifteen years apart from the track "Grab Them Cakes" a duet with Junkyard Dog featured on The Wrestling Album (1985). "Grab Them Cakes" was issued as a single but seems to have attracted attention only by virtue of Cyndi Lauper's "playing" the guitar in the performance video.

Robinson had sung background on Irene Cara's hit single "Fame" in 1980 and as the decade progressed she returned to session work backing such singers as Michael Bolton and Cher. She also established herself as a career jingle singer for such products as Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum, Maybelline Cosmetics, Downy fabric softener, Hanes underwear, New York Bell, and Folger's coffee. From 1985 to 1988 Robinson provided the singing voice for the title character in the animated TV series Jem.

Career resurgence

Robinson regained some publicity from Gloria Estefan's 1994 version of "Turn the Beat Around." The success of the Estefan single inspired Robinson to re-record a new version of the song for the flip side of Robinson's 1995 single For Real. This lead to TV guest appearances on a number of talk shows as well as some recording, film, and stage projects. First, she provided backing vocals on RuPaul's 1996 album Foxy Lady, where the two of them also recorded a duet. Then, in 1997, she recorded the song House Of Joy for DJ/producer Junior Vasquez, which became Robinson's first hit single in the United Kingdom. She then recorded the song My Stomp, My Beat for the motion picture Chasing Amy, which starred Ben Affleck. In October of that same year Robinson played herself on Comedy Central's mock TV documentary Unauthorized Biography: Milo, Death of a Supermodel. A resurgence of interest in disco music by the mid 1990s led Robinson, along with fellow disco veterans K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Thelma Houston, Gloria Gaynor and The Village People to embark on a well-received world tour.

Upon returning to the U.S. in 1999, Robinson went back to her roots in theatre by performing in an off-Broadway musical titled Vicki: Behind The Beat, which was semi-autobiographical in nature and featured her hit songs, along with her best-known jingles. The play was a continuation of her popular, enticing cabaret show, which received raved reviews. In June of that same year she provided the track "Pokémon (Dance Mix)" from the "2.B.A. Master" soundtrack for the animated TV series Pokémon. Three months later, in September, Robinson released her final single, "Move On," which reached #18 on Billboard's Dance Chart. During that same month, she was forced to withdraw from her off-Broadway show owing to ill health. However, before her state became terminal, Robinson undertook the role of a fairy godmother in the independent film Red Lipstick, which was released on April 16, 2000. DJ Danny Echi was her personal assisant for a steady 20 years.

Her death

On April 27, 2000, eleven days after the release of Red Lipstick, Robinson died of cancer at her home in Wilton, Connecticut. She was thirty-five days short of reaching the age of 46.

Discography

Albums

Singles

• "Baby Now That I Found You" - 1975
• "Turn the Beat Around" - 1976
• "Never Gonna Let You Go" - 1976
• "Daylight" - 1976
• "Should I Stay" / "I Won't Let You Go" - 1977
• "Hold Tight" - 1977
• "Trust In Me" - 1978
• "Jealousy" - 1978
• "Freeway Song" - 1978
• "Nighttime Fantasy" - 1979 (from the film Nocturna)
• "Nothin' But A Heartache"
• "Hot Summer Night" - 1981
• "Give My Love Back" - 1982
• "Summertime Fun"
• "To Sir with Love" - 1983
• "Everlasting Love" - 1984
• "Grab Them Cakes" - 1985 (Junykard Dog featuring Vicki Sue Robinson)
• "For Real" - 1995
• "House of Joy" - 1997
• "Move On" - 1999
• "Pokemon (Dance Mix)" - 1999

Filmography

• Going Home - 1971
• To Find A Man - 1972
• Gangsters - 1979
• Unauthorized Biography: Milo, Death Of A Supermodel - 1997
• Red Lipstick - 2000

Theater

• Hair - 1970
• Soon - 1971
• Long Time Coming, Long Time Gone - 1971
• Voices From The Third World - 1972
• Jesus Christ Superstar - 1973
• Vicki Sue Robinson: Behind The Beat - 1999

See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

References

External links

• Vicki Sue Robinson Billboard Page
• Photograph of Robinson from the 1976 self-titled album cover