Starleana Young is an artist who had her greatest success before she decided to go solo. She was born in West Virginia in 1961, and indulged her love for singing in church choirs until her family moved to New Jersey, where she joined the band Symphonic Express. While touring with the group, Starleana and band member Curt Jones were asked by producer Steve Washington to join his funk collective Slave in 1977. Starleana's first appearance was on their third album The Concept. Since Slave was such a large group, Washington decided to create an off-shoot group named Aurra in 1980, and asked Starleana and Jones to be in it. Though initially a multi-member group, by the time the second album was released, Aurra ended up being focused around Starleana and Jones as a duo. They released four albums for Salsoul Records, but then had a falling out with Washington. During this break Starleana released her first solo single in 1983, "Heartbreaker", using her full name Starleana Young. The duo then moved to Next Plateau/Ten Records and released their last and most successful album as Aurra in 1985. Then, due to legal battles with Washington over the group name, they renamed themselves Déjà and had success under that name in 1987. But Starleana left after just one album to pursue a solo career, as she felt that she and Jones had grown apart, and she had problems with their management. She was replaced by Mysti Day and Déjà released only one more album before they broke up. Starleana signed with Virgin Records, which released her self-titled debut. She released the single "I'll Take You There", a remake of the Staples Singers' classic. It was produced by her husband J.T. Taylor, the lead singer of Kool & The Gang, and was a modest R&B hit. She followed it up with the unsuccessful ballad "Stronger And Better". The album itself was also not a hit. I think this is, in part, due to the fact that the two singles weren't a good representation of the album. The majority of the album was produced by Ian Prince, who was more of a pop producer, so while most songs have a trace of funk, they have more of a pop feel. The two singles were more soulful. It's a shame the album wasn't successful, as Starleana has a great voice and should have had the success of her contemporaries like Karyn White and Pebbles, but instead she disappeared from the music world altogether. Thankfully she had past success to comfort her.BONUS: Here is a link to Starleana's 1983 single Heartbreaker
Video for I'll Take You There
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| 1 | I'll Take You There | |
| 2 | Supernatural | |
| 3 | Stronger And Better | |
| 4 | Work Me Over | |
| 5 | Life After Love | |
| 6 | Let's Face It | |
| 7 | Welcome To My House | |
| 8 | Unchain Your Heart | |
| 9 | Guilty | |
| 10 | Crazy For Loving You |
