Thursday, November 20, 2014

Flashback Who's That ...

Stroll with me to 'Brewster Place' the mini-series a song with no words just 'moans' and you're drawn in to the vocal stylings of Vesta Willams, then flash to singer Sting's song 'We'll Be Together' you hear the background vocals of 'again' Vesta Williams 'wailing'.  As a session singer she sang jingles for 'Revlon', 'Diet-Coke', 'Nike' and backed Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, StingStephanie Mills, Anita Baker and Gordon Lightfoot.


Her debut album was released on A&M entitled 'Vesta' was warmly received.  Her followed album '4 U' featured the single 'Sweet Sweet Love'.   She was known for her four-octave vocal range.  Although Williams never had any albums certified gold nor any Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, she scored six Top 10 hits on the United States Billboard R&B chart.  Williams was known for "Sweet Sweet Love", "Special", and her signature song "Congratulations".  During her A&M records stay, she released four CD's.  Weight was always the issue that her label focused on instead of the voice, which made things difficult, for Vesta at times.   In A&M last stitch effort they teamed her with then 'new' comer Brian McKnight and Anita Baker's producer Michael Powell for her 'Everything-N-More' though a 'very' solid offering, it went nowhere.  


After being dropped from her label, Williams very frustrated lost over one hundred pounds (going from a size 26 to 6) thinking that she would satisfy label and marketing heads.  A few years later signed to a new label Williams released her 'Relationships', another stall.  Needing to bring money in, she became a radio jock.  It would take almost a decade before she recorded another CD on ANOTHER new label 'Distant Lover' was released, Vesta was older, and her audienced was older, the climate had changed.  Yes STILL a great singer, with no airplay.   Later years found Williams depressed, she lost her residence after 18 years of living in the 'Miracle Mile' section of Los Angeles, 

On September 22, 2011, Williams was found dead living in a hotel room in El Segundo, California, coroners ruled 'her passing by 'natural death' from 'hypertensive heart disease'.

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