Kathy Sledge - Heart (1992)

It always astounds me how many lead singers of successful groups who attempt to break out with solo careers rarely achieve success and end up releasing just one solo album.  For every success like Beyonce there are dozens of non-starters. One of those is Kathy Sledge, lead singer of sibling girl group Sister Sledge from Philadelphia.  The girls started recording in 1971 and had their first hit in the UK in 1973 with "Mama Never Told Me".  While they had a few minor R&B hits over the next few years, it was the release of disco classic "We Are Family" that shot them to stardom and a successful chart run in the US and UK until 1985, when they released their last major label album. In 1992, when her sisters decided to regroup for an album of remakes of their hits, And Now...Sledge...Again (from which they had three Top 20 hits in the UK), Kathy finally decided to pursue a solo career and was signed to Epic Records.  She used an array of popular producers to keep her sound current, resulting in an album of funky dance pop and R&B ballads. Her first single, "Take Me Back To Love Again", wasn't a huge pop or R&B hit, but the dance remixes helped it reach #1 on the Billboard dance charts.  The album's title track was the follow-up single, but it failed to make a similar impression, only reaching #16 on the dance charts, and after her final single "All Of My Love" failed to chart, she was dropped from Epic.  She would appear on the dance charts again, however, when her remake of Stevie Wonder's "Another Star" ignited dance floors in 1995.  She released two other singles on the Narcotic label that year, "Another Day" and  "Good Times".  In 1997 she reappeared on the dance charts as the featured vocalist on Robert Miles' "Freedom" and then again in 2001 as the featured vocalist on Sylk 130's "Rising".  But realizing that her greatest success was with her sisters, she has continued to tour the world off and on with Sister Sledge, appealing to their old-school fans and making new ones with remixes of their classics.  And she again appeared on the Billboard dance charts just last year with a song with Adam Barta called "Give Yourself Up", and managed to look younger and more attractive than ever at 52 in the video!  Here's hoping there are more dance hits to come. (Correction - thanks to Robert I now know that that isn't Kathy in most of the "Give Yourself Up" video but her look-alike daughter lip syncing.  Kathy is only in a few shots.  But she still looks great!)

Video for Take Me Back To Love Again

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1		Heart
2		Take Me Back To Love Again
3		Every Little Way
4		Reason For This
5		You Win Some, You Lose Some (Gabby's Song)
6		I Think Of You
7		Baby, Baby, Baby
8		Pleasure
9		Careful
10		All Of My Love
11		Since I Found You
12		Take Me Back To Love Again (Radio Remix)