Post by Rob Durkee on May 13, 2013 21:30:39 GMT -5
It's so hard for me to believe she turns 40 Tuesday (5/13/13).
It seems like only yesterday that she was the second black teenage girl to get a #1 pop hit. The late Little Eva was the first with "The Loco-Motion" in 1962.
Likewise, it seems like only yesterday that I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing her. And how that interview would eventually turn into one of my best feel-good moments of my long communications career.
Today, she's Shanice Lorraine Wilson-Knox, a housewife with two children aged about 12 and nine. Back then, though, she was then known simply as Shanice. It's pronounced Shaw-NIECE. She was only 14 in 1987 when she had a debut album and a minor hit single. As a child, she was in an advertisement with the late great Ella Fitzgerald. Imagine, a solo singer talented enough to land a record deal with the legendary Motown label in the early 90's while still a teenager. Her name may not ring a bell with you but perhaps her big #1 hit will. Here it is..
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGXxcSdsXJ4
A huge press conference announced her signing with Motown in 1991. To help publicize her, Motown arranged for her to be highly interview-available. I was assigned to interview her for "American Top 40 With Shadoe Stevens."
A stern warning was given to me when assigned that interview, however. I was told that Shanice was a quiet shy girl. Thus, I was told to approach her with caution. I did...but I vowed to succeed with the interview by doing two things. First, not long after we shook hands, I told Shanice, "Any time you want to stop the interview, just signal or tell me. No questions asked if we stop. OK?"
She said OK.
The second thing I did? Just get her to talk. That is, once I got the tape recorder turned on. I figured if she could sing into a microphone, she could talk, too. Just get her relaxed and get her talking. And that's what happened. When I asked her to recite the commercial she did with Ella Fitzgerald, she blanked. She couldn't remember it. So I quickly changed the subject by telling her, "That's OK. Let's talk about something else."
How many times did we have to stop the tape recorder? None. Along the way, she was almost giggling when she me told how her mom recorded her as a baby singing in her crib at about 3 a.m. She sang the "Get down, get down" part of the Kool and the Gang hit, "Jungle Boogie." That story became one of the better AT40 stories, complete with hearing Shanice singing in her crib.
Shanice and I would meet again about six months later in May, 1992, at Walt Disney World backstage in Orlando. We were there to record the show as part of a promotion. I wasn't sure, though, if she'd remember me. So I approached her slowly and with caution. I got closer. And closer. And suddenly she let out with a huge...
"Oh HI!!!!!!"
I told her "Hi" and said, "I wasn't sure if you'd remember me."
She was quite reassuring, saying "Oh I remember you!"
At that moment, Rod West, the ABC-Watermark GM, said, "Hey, let me get a photo of you two." And he did. Shanice and I stood along a wall, each of us putting an arm around the other's shoulder like we'd known each other all our lives... when Rod's camera flashed.
That photo? It's framed, autographed by Shanice and hanging in my work office wall. I thought my smile in the photo was a tad corny, but she didn't think so. She wrote in part "You look great in this photo."
What a gal. Happy birthday, Shanice.
It seems like only yesterday that she was the second black teenage girl to get a #1 pop hit. The late Little Eva was the first with "The Loco-Motion" in 1962.
Likewise, it seems like only yesterday that I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing her. And how that interview would eventually turn into one of my best feel-good moments of my long communications career.
Today, she's Shanice Lorraine Wilson-Knox, a housewife with two children aged about 12 and nine. Back then, though, she was then known simply as Shanice. It's pronounced Shaw-NIECE. She was only 14 in 1987 when she had a debut album and a minor hit single. As a child, she was in an advertisement with the late great Ella Fitzgerald. Imagine, a solo singer talented enough to land a record deal with the legendary Motown label in the early 90's while still a teenager. Her name may not ring a bell with you but perhaps her big #1 hit will. Here it is..
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGXxcSdsXJ4
A huge press conference announced her signing with Motown in 1991. To help publicize her, Motown arranged for her to be highly interview-available. I was assigned to interview her for "American Top 40 With Shadoe Stevens."
A stern warning was given to me when assigned that interview, however. I was told that Shanice was a quiet shy girl. Thus, I was told to approach her with caution. I did...but I vowed to succeed with the interview by doing two things. First, not long after we shook hands, I told Shanice, "Any time you want to stop the interview, just signal or tell me. No questions asked if we stop. OK?"
She said OK.
The second thing I did? Just get her to talk. That is, once I got the tape recorder turned on. I figured if she could sing into a microphone, she could talk, too. Just get her relaxed and get her talking. And that's what happened. When I asked her to recite the commercial she did with Ella Fitzgerald, she blanked. She couldn't remember it. So I quickly changed the subject by telling her, "That's OK. Let's talk about something else."
How many times did we have to stop the tape recorder? None. Along the way, she was almost giggling when she me told how her mom recorded her as a baby singing in her crib at about 3 a.m. She sang the "Get down, get down" part of the Kool and the Gang hit, "Jungle Boogie." That story became one of the better AT40 stories, complete with hearing Shanice singing in her crib.
Shanice and I would meet again about six months later in May, 1992, at Walt Disney World backstage in Orlando. We were there to record the show as part of a promotion. I wasn't sure, though, if she'd remember me. So I approached her slowly and with caution. I got closer. And closer. And suddenly she let out with a huge...
"Oh HI!!!!!!"
I told her "Hi" and said, "I wasn't sure if you'd remember me."
She was quite reassuring, saying "Oh I remember you!"
At that moment, Rod West, the ABC-Watermark GM, said, "Hey, let me get a photo of you two." And he did. Shanice and I stood along a wall, each of us putting an arm around the other's shoulder like we'd known each other all our lives... when Rod's camera flashed.
That photo? It's framed, autographed by Shanice and hanging in my work office wall. I thought my smile in the photo was a tad corny, but she didn't think so. She wrote in part "You look great in this photo."
What a gal. Happy birthday, Shanice.
