Linda Clifford

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944, it wasn't the "big apple" but the "windy city" that gave Linda her entree into disco history.
Her actual career highlights started with winning the coveted 1966 crown of "Miss New York State." At the national level she lost her bid for Miss America to Miss Kansas. That year the Miss America contest had moved to NBC and it was the first year it was telecast in color. Linda's rich ebony skin and flawless looks surely added to that historic telecast.
Having taken voice/acting lessons and with an eye on an acting and/or a singing career she set about using her title to land her some minor roles in some major films. First came the role of a corpse in the 1968 thriller "The Boston Strangler" alongside Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda. That same year she played a secretary in Clint Eastwood's "Coogan's Bluff." While roles were not exactly pouring in Linda supplemented her income with cabaret singing. First with the Jericho Jazz Singers, then she formed her own group and toured the country as Linda & The Trade Winds. Another stab at movies with a part as an extra in 1969's "Sweet Charity" failed to jump start her acting career, but it would be a later key to her success though. Her touring brought Linda to Chicago where she decided to set-up base.
In 1973 after performing around the "windy city" for several years she was introduced to Marv Stuart. A solo deal resulted in her first single, released under the Paramount Records banner. "(It's Gonna Be) A Long Long Winter" b/w "March Across The Lands" connected Linda to future disco artist and a later RSO label-mate Leroy Hutson, and Chicago legend Curtis Mayfield. Another single "Turn The Key Softly" was released soon afterwards on the Gemigo subsidiary, both failed to chart.
During the next several years Linda continued to perform around Chicago waiting for her big break. While performing at The Playboy Club she met and married her husband, drummer Nick Coconato. Things seemed to be picking up for Linda when Mayfield decided to launch his own label, Curtom Records. Naturally Curtis signed Clifford immediately and work began on her first full length album. Pop, soul, R&B, and a stab at the emerging "disco sound" were the spices used to flavor 1977's "Linda."
The standout dance tracks are "You Can Do It," a self-determination anthem set to a sultry, mid-tempo groove, and "From Now On," (her first 12" single) a Bunny Sigler composition that pits a clavinet-driven beat against glossy orchestrations to create an ideal disco showcase for Clifford's gospel-tinged vocals. The other material is mostly covers of pop and soul hits, including Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic" and the Bee Gees' "Be Tender With My Love." The best of these covers is Clifford's doo wop take on Rod Stewart's "Tonight's The Night," a clever remake that provides a good vehicle for her brassy vocal persona. However, the presence of all these covers points up the big problem with this album: its reliance upon covers keeps it from establishing a strong persona for Linda. Despite this, "Linda" boasts an appealingly slick production by ex-Motown staffer Gil Askey and clearly highlights the promise that would soon be realized on her next album.
For Linda Clifford's second album, producers Gil Askey and Curtis Mayfield wisely left behind the overabundance of cover tunes that weighted down her debut outing to concentrate on original material. The result is "If My Friends Could See Me Now," the opus that earned Clifford her disco diva status. It starts with a bang via the title track, which transforms this classic show tune from "Sweet Charity" into a driving slice of orchestrated disco. It provides an ideal vehicle for Clifford's brassy vocal persona and is further sweetened by expert call and response support from the Jones Girls on backup vocals. The coup de grâce is provided by "Runaway Love," a funky, Latin-accented dressing down of an unfaithful lover that intersperses its silky rhythms with spoken word bits in a Millie Jackson-styled feminist vein. These were her second and third promotional-only 12" singles, the former earned her a Grammy Nomination for Best Disco Single in 1978.
With disco music at it's fevered pitch and Linda amongst it's royalty, Marv Stuart brought in the cream of the crop for her third album. Sharing producer credits were: Juergen Koppers, Ron Tyson and Norman Harris, and of course...Curtis Mayfield. She was so hot at this point that she even merited being photographed by the renowned Francesco Scavullo! The album chocked full of stunning numbers was an immediate hit with the release of the 12" single of "Lonely Night." The late night crowd took to "I Just Wanna Wanna" and "King For A Night." Besides the splendid dance tracks the album offered up a sampling of smooth R&B numbers geared to showcase her versatility and appeal to radio. While the album, "Here's My Love," was still climbing up the charts and had yet to reach it's potential, work began quickly on it's follow-up. Perhaps to continue the momentum her career had generated or to cash in on her star status.
By 1979 Linda was on a roll when she released her critically acclaimed "Let Me Be Your Woman," album. It was released in two versions, a single album edition with edited tracks and a deluxe edition that stretched the album's tracks to cover four sides' worth of vinyl. The album featured her feminist inspired "Don't Give It Up" as well as her classic rendition of Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," both favored in the ultra long formats. The album was lavishly produced and yet seemed to mark the end of an era.
By 1980 disco was dying and Linda, perhaps sensing this, utilized her connection with Curtis Mayfield to once again broaden her range of recorded output. The duet album "The Right Combination" was definitely geared at radio and a crossover sound. The effect worked, giving Linda and Curtis a number 14 hit with "Between You, Baby And Me." The album covered new territory and hi-energy fans of Linda's weren't buying it, however those that appreciated her talent reveled in it's release. It did expose her to a new audience that had previously regarded her as a "disco act."
In 1980, Linda released her, "I'm Yours" album. The album saw Linda's return to the top of the Billboard Dance/Disco chart. One of the hottest songs on the album, "Red Light," (written by Lesley Gore's brother Michael) featured on the massive soundtrack album to the movie "Fame," held the #-1 slot on the Billboard Disco/Dance charts for 9 weeks. (The "Fame" album went to #-1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Album Chart.) The follow-up, "Shoot Your Best Shot" became her second #1 disco hit of the year, topping the Billboard Disco/Dance chart for four weeks. The album proved that Linda knew her audience and gave them what they wanted, they in turn made this one of her most successful selling albums.
At the time Linda recorded "Red Light" she was seven months pregnant with her second child -- her daughter Gina. Wanting her children to grow up to be "human beings," she knew it was time to turn her focus to her family. After a label change to Capitol she released the 1982 smash "I'll Keep On Loving You." The album is my personal favorite. The bulk of the album is written and produced by Michael Gore and features her club smash "Don't Come Crying To Me" as well as my favorites "Never Say Never" and "Only The Angles Know." At this point she put her recording career, so to speak, on hold. She instead took her career in a new direction that would allow her to spend more time at home -- jingles. You heard her and didn't even know it on ads for (among others) Tropicana, Maybelline, McDonald's, Miller Lite, Michelob Lite, Oldsomobile, Pontiac, and the themes to The Phil Donahue Show and the cop-drama, Chicago. Linda was also on TV herself, as the host of one of the first home-shopping TV shows -- "Home Shop Chicago".
By 1984 with both children in school Linda decided it was time to once again record. A local label was being formed in Chicago and it's first artists were Linda Clifford and fellow Chicagoans, The Emotions. Red Label Records did achieve minor success with Osborne & Giles, The Emotions and Linda, however after a brief run the label folded. Her 1985 release "Sneakin' Out" brought her quickly back to the top of the dance charts. The first release "A Night With The Boys" shot up the charts. The video filmed here at the now defunct gay bar Trianon was her first video and it featured a breathtakingly stunning Clifford surround by some of Chicago's hunkiest men. The title track was her second single from the album, a smooth late night classic. A third 12" single, the shuffle-beat delight, "You're Mine" rounded out the album. Without a doubt the success of this album helped the tiny label stay afloat and most definitely bank rolled her next release.
1985 marked the release of her last full length album. "My Heart's On Fire" produced only one hit, "The Heat In Me" and quickly disappeared. The label folded thereafter and Linda was without a contract. CRC Records released "Runaway Love" with a rare instrumental on the b-side and Fama Records remixed "If My Friends Could See Me Now" in 1990.
Her next release was 1993's "Whatcha Gonna Do" on Gold Karat Records. At this point I was involved with Chicago Music Magazine as a columnist and was D.J.-ing and booking talent for the Chicago club Roscoe's. I approached Nick, Linda's husband, and tried to set-up a promotional spot at the club. I proposed her performing her new song and perhaps one or two others, signing some autographs, and generally getting herself out in front of an audience that consisted of clubgoers that weren't around during her glory days of the late 1970's.
I offered what I considered a reasonable sum of money for 1-3 songs, plus a featured article and press coverage in the magazine. Nick asked for an unreasonable sum of money for Linda who hadn't had a hit record out in 8 years. His unwillingness to negotiate obviously caused it to never materialize. I was particularly disappointed having been a longtime supporter and programmer of her music and felt that it would have been a great opportunity to give something back to the Chicago audiences that had been there from the start. In all fairness to Linda herself, I never spoke with her personally, but wished I had, perhaps things might have been different.
The dry spell continued for another 4 years until Linda contributed vocals to old pal Leroy Hutson's 1997 release "Closer To The Source." As a songwriter, Linda was signed in 1999 to Warner-Chappell Music and has since co-written with many producers including, Justin Strauss, Tommy Farragher, Cosgrove & Clark, Jim Dyke, Ronnie Ventura., Joey Negro, The Groove Armada, Jimmy Greco and The Artful Dodger.
Now adults, daughter Gina is a singer/dancer ("she can sing her ass off!") and son, B.J., is a bass player. And when not on the road, Linda is a stage presence coach. Among her clients (ages 4 through 32) are, for example, girls going to pageants like Miss America, etc. who come to her to learn "stage presence, lyric sensitivity and how to really perform a song on a stage for an audience." She loves this. She recently wrote and sang on the massive UK club hit, "Philly Groove" produced by Danny Krivit and Romain (remixed by Joey Negro); released on the innovative ZTT Records label.
In 2000 a dream was realized, Linda's West End debut, "Changin'," was nothing short of a labor of love for West End Record's owner, Mel Cheren. The original version, a sleaze classic by Sharon Ridley (Tabu Records, 1976) had been a personal favorite of his since it was released. After he introduced the song to Paradise Garage D.J. Larry Levan (who remembered dancing to it at The Flamingo), it became one of Levan's favorite closing theme songs at the Garage. He'd often play the song especially for Mel -- as would other D.J.s around town when they wanted to "tip their hats" to him if he was in the club.
The idea to have Linda Clifford cover "Changin'" originally struck Mel a couple years ago when he was thinking about re-opening West End Records. Delayed by the business of getting West End back in the game, it was over a year before he sent Linda a tape of the Sharon Ridley version. She loved it, played it for Ralphi Rosario (with whom she'd just worked on his album) and he loved it too. Mel suggested the two go ahead and record it together. They did, with Linda penning a few additional saucy lyrics. The song a classic is now given the classic Clifford treatment and forever more will be known as one her greatest recordings.
(Taken from http://www.discomuseum.com/LindaClifford.html)