Nerissa - Nerissa (1993)

Recently I rewatched the controversial Ken Russell film Whore, and on second viewing, I liked the movie much less, but noticed the background music, which included some house cuts that I had never heard before.  A bit of searching revealed that the songs were by artists who were signed to Select Records, one of whom was Nerissa.  The name was familiar and I recalled that I had the cassingle of Nerissa's funky remake of the Dramatics' hit ballad "In The Rain".  I then remembered that it indicated on that cassingle that the song came from Nerissa's self-titled album.  I had never managed to find that album - until now!  Nerissa Vitello is a New York based singer.  I can't find much on her background, other than that she was a music/voice major at Laguardia School of the Arts in the 1980s.  This led to her house song from the Whore soundtrack, "Tell Me All Your Secrets", which was Nerissa's first single in 1990 on Active Records, a sublabel of Select.  Her next single, "In The Rain", didn't appear until 1993, with her self-titled album soon following.  "In The Rain" was produced by house music legend Todd Terry, but instead of being an upbeat house number, it had a laid back R&B vibe.  The remix, featuring rapper Ski, got some attention.  But the single wasn't the best representation of the album, which was mostly upbeat house tunes with a few slower R&B numbers, including a remake of Randy Crawford's classic "Almaz".  Her next single was the house stomper "Stars", which returned her to dance floors, and the song has popped up on house compilations ever since.  But it failed to reach past the dance market, and no other singles were released, though her track "The Cure", another more downbeat Todd Terry production, did pop up on the House Party 3 soundtrack. It seems that since then Nerissa has continued to perform, as her StarNow profile indicates appearances in supporting roles in film and music, and there are also a couple of recent Youtube videos of her performing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at private functions.  Let's hope she hits the studio again soon!

Video for In The Rain (Remix)

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1	The Cure
2	Stars
3	Where Do We Go From Here
4	Show Me Love
5	Nothing Can Come Between Us
6	In The Rain
7	Memories Of Love
8	Go On Get Out
9	Night And Day
10	Almaz (You Lucky, Lucky Thing)
11	In The Rain (Remix)