The politics of the music industry, can drive you to drastic measures. Her big break came from Jazz artist/Producer Norman Connors, on a Stylistics remake of 'Betcha By Golly Wow' which lead to her signing to the Buddah records label, which later was purchased by Arista records. At first Arista records had big dreams for Phyllis wonderfully gifted instrument, her debut album for the label was 'Somewhere In My Lifetime' which was produced by Pop singer Barry Manilow, 'Lifetime' received a lot of buzz and praise, but didnt move numbers, the way label honcho Clive Davis wanted, things went soar rather quick, the two had differences from the start, Phyllis visioned her career, one way and Clive visualized it another. In 1980 she was paired with 'then' huge r&b producers James Mtume and Reggie Lucas' who produced her 'Under Your Spell' opus featuring the enormous hit single 'You Know How To Love Me'. Things started to come together for Hyman, she was Queen of the commercial jingles, and having a hit record, people started taking notice. She got cast in the Broadway play 'Sophisticated Ladies' the life story of jazz legend Duke Ellington. She received a Tony award nomination for her role, in between Broadway and touring it was time to record the followup to her 'breakthrough' album 'Under Your Spell ' which she reluctantly recorded called 'Can't We Fall In Love' it was well received, giving her the first top ten song of her career. It didnt crossover, but that didnt seem to matter much to her, because she was having the time of her life on Broadway with Duke Ellington's play, her 'STAR' was shining brightly. That didnt set well with label honcho Davis. The pair's relationship grew more hostile. He wanted her to focus on the music, he had two songs that he was holding for her called 'Too Tough' and 'Tonight I Gave In' but Phyllis was being a Prima Donna and found any excuse to not deal with her label president, so he gave those songs to Angela Bofill who was on the same label. The songs were huge hits for Bofill, needless to say it really pissed off Hyman. She finally went into the studio to record her 'Goddess Of Love' album, the album and single 'Riding The Tiger' flopped and she and Arista parted ways. In 1985 she signed with Kenny Gamble and Kein Huff's Philadelphia International records where she released her 'gold' selling album 'Living All Alone' album, which was the highlight of her career. Still Hyman wanted more and believed that she deserved more, so her demons of not feeling worthy enough continued to grow. Due to the financial constraints that Philadelphia International records was going through at the time, it took six years for Phyllis to find another label home to release 'Prime Of My Life' though It was well received, containing two top ten r&b hits records, but no crossover success. Hymans demons and depression grew more and more apparent, she became difficult to deal with, hostile and unruly. The talent that she possessed, she was worthy, she was good enough, but it never seemed to be enough to give her the accolades that was deservant of her mega watt talent. So when the news came June 30th 1995, of her suicide, hearts were broken, but few who knew her seemed surprised.
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