![]() ![]() Motown releases a live LP from the December Motortown Revue shows in mid-1969 and Blinky is featured on two songs, Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose” and “I Wouldn’t Change The Man He Is.” Black radio deejays later flip the record and the B-side gets some airplay but does not chart. The A-side, which covers the big 1966 hit Starr wrote for the blue-eyed soul group Shades Of Blue, reaches Number 92 on the Pop charts. Prior to the LP’s appearance, Motown releases “Oh How Happy/Ooo Baby, Baby” as a Blinky & Edwin Starr single on Gordy in July. The buzz surrounding Blinky at Motown causes Quality Control head Billie Jean Brown to conceive pairing her for duets with Edwin Starr, fresh off his first big smash “25 Miles.” She enlists Frank Wilson to co-produce and, along with other Motown producers, they record record enough tracks in Spring 1969 for and album. She sings very well and she communicates.” Wilson Lindsay of The Detroit Free Press calls her “a very pretty girl from Los Angeles (who) has everything going for her that stars are made of. Motown revives The Motortown Revue for an eight-day run at Detroit’s Fox Theater during the Christmas/New Year holiday season and along with the Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips and Stevie Wonder, Blinky is among the artists who perform, helping to promote her first Motown single. “She’s always gonna dig deep, you know?” Released on Motown in November 1968, this brilliant single gets a fair amount of radio airplay but unjustly never cracks the Top 100, peaking at 128 on the Pop chart. “We needed a song that would stretch her vocal chords because we knew she had a lot of depth to her,” Nick Ashford would later say. They cut about a half dozen tracks together.įor her first Motown single, Ashford and Simpson take a dynamic, blues-tinged composition originally intended for Valerie, “I Wouldn’t Change The Man He Is,” and give it to Blinky. Producer Hal Davis cuts a few tracks with her and she moves to Detroit, where Motown then assign Ashford and Simpson to produce her. ![]() Motown bills her as “Blinky” and she begins touring regularly as an opening act for the Temptations, an arrangement that would last two years. ![]() They introduce her to their manager, Motown exec Shelly Berger, and she signs with the label. Produced by Simpson, the tracks include a mix of traditional material, six Andrae’ Crouch compositions and the Billie Holiday song, “God Bless The Child.” Two singles are released from the LP, “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands/Hark, The Voice” and “God Bless The Child/Heartaches.”Ĭhanging over to secular music, she catches the attention of the Temptations Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks while performing at the Los Angeles celebrity disco hangout Maverick’s Flat. In 1967, Atlantic Records releases her solo debut LP, Hark The Voice, on which she’s billed as Sondra Williams (Miss Heartaches). Still professionally known as Sondra Williams, she releases her first solo single on Vee-Jay Records in 1964, “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands/Heartache.” Williams sings lead on “It’s A Blessing,” showcasing her already mature powerful, earthy voice, a voice that she would later describe as “raspy.”Ī second single on Simpson from the LP, also with both sides written by Andrae’ Crouch, is credited to “The Cogic Singers: Teen Age Gospel Wonders Of California” and additionally lists the featured soloists on the label on “It Will Never Lose Its Power,” Gloria Jones is credited as lead vocalist while on “I Don’t Need Nobody Else,” Sondra Williams gets lead credit. Credited to “The Cogic’s,” both sides of “It’s A Blessing/Since I Found Him,” are written by Andrae’ Crouch. Singles from the It’s A Blessing LP are released on Simpson Records (owned by “Bishop” Richard Simpson and distributed by Vee-Jay) in ’64. The Cogics record one LP, It’s A Blessing, in 1964 on the Vee-Jay subsidiary Exodus Records. They include a young Andrae’ Crouch and his twin sister Sandra Crouch, Edna Wright (sister of Darlene Love and later lead singer of Honey Cone) and three other future Motowners, Gloria Jones, Frankie Kahrl (who would record as Frankie Karl and, on Gordy in the late ‘70s, as Frankie Kah’rl) and organist Billy Preston. In 1959, at 14, she is a founding member of an amazingly stellar group of young gospel artists, The Cogics (named for The Church Of God In Christ). Later, in high school, this morphs into “Blinky.” Her childhood nickname “Blink-Blink” is derived from her habit of frequently blinking her eyes. Williams is a preacher in Stockton when she begins performing at age 6. Born Sondra Williams in 1944 in Oakland, California, she moves to Southern California early in life. ![]()
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