Post by Rob Durkee on Sept 30, 2011 14:04:10 GMT -5
SECAUCUS, New Jersey (RTDP) -- Sylvia Robinson, whose music resume includes the 1957 song "Love Is Strange," the 1973 solo hit "Pillow Talk" and the 1980 rap classic "Rapper's Delight" died Thursday, September 29, 2011. She was 75 and had been in a coma. According to publicist Greg Walker and the Associated Press, Robinson died of congestive heart failure. Sources disagree as to the name of the establishment where she died. Most have called it the New Jersey Institute of Neuroscience but some called it Meadowlands Hospital.
According to Joel Whitburn's Record Research, Sylvia Vanderpool (a/k/a Vanterpool) was born in Harlem on March 6, 1936, which was the 100th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo. She began singing while still a student at Washington Irving High School, performing as a 14-year-old in 1950 with Hot Lips Page for the Columbia label. She then burst onto the pop music scene seven years later as half of the duo Mickey and Sylvia. Her singing partner was McHouston "Mickey" Baker. Together, Mickey and Sylvia had a #7 Cash Box pop chart hit in early 1957 with the calypso-flavored "Love Is Strange." The song became famous not just for its melody, but also the unique chat between the two performers. That conversion began with Mickey asking, "Sylvia, how do you call your loverboy?" They'd go back and forth for a while, with Sylvia saying seductively "Oh Loverboy" and Mickey replying "And if he STILL doesn't answer."
"Love Is Strange" went to #1 on one R&B chart and has endured as a classic song over the years. Bo Diddley, who some sources say wrote the song, has recorded it. So has Buddy Holly, who turned it onto a mellow ballad. Ten years after Mickey and Sylvia scored with it, another duo--Peaches And Herb--would have a remake #13 hit with the song in 1967. Mickey And Sylvia would have five other Cash Box chart hits until 1961 but nothing close to the impact made by "Love Is Strange." The duo's followup, "Dearest," barely cracked the top 40 at #39 in 1957. In 1960, "What Would I Do" was a disappointing #47 peaker for the duo on the RCA label.
After the hits stopped for the duo in 1961, Sylvia spent about a dozen years in obscurity before getting a huge break around late 1972-early 1973. She'd already been producing songs like the 1970 hit, "Love On A Two-Way Street" by the Moments. Sylvia was asked to sing a demo for a song intended to be offered to the biggest R&B singer of that time, Al Green. However, Sylvia was so impressive with her sultry, seductive and almost-whispering singing style of the song that everyone associated with it agreed it should be Sylvia's to sing, own and release. As a result, "Pillow Talk" became a #1 hit on one R&B chart. On Cash Box's pop chart, it reached #2 in June, 1973 and became the #29 song for the calendar year 1973. "My Love" by Paul McCartney and Wings kept "Pillow Talk" out of #1.
In 1964, Sylvia married Joe Robinson, the owner of the "Pillow Talk" song label, All-Platinum/Vibration Records. After "Pillow Talk," she had at least 11 more R&B chart releases on Vibration. More importantly, though, she became the owner of another label associated with her husband, Joe, and that was Sugar Hill Records, where history would be made.
Sylvia's son, Joey, who would become a member of the group the West Street Mob, remembered what led to his mom's part of one of R&B music's most historic records: "She saw where a DJ (Lovebug Starski at the Harlem World nightclub) was talking (to the music) and the crowd was responding to what he was saying. And this was the first time she ever heard this before. She said, 'Joey, wouldn't this be a great idea to make a rap record?"
Indeed, she was right. A Harlem-based trio of "Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright, Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien and Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson known as the Sugarhill Gang combined their raps to the melody of the #1 Chic hit, "Good Times." The result was "Rapper's Delight" which Sylvia produced. The recording became the first recognized hip-hop hit song and the first rap record to make the pop top 40, reaching #36 on the Cash Box chart. In its original verson, the song was roughly 15 minutes long but was edited down to just under five minutes (4:55) for a single release. The song's impact was so great that Sylvia would be known as "The Mother Of Hip-Hop."
Dan Charnas, author of the book, "The Big Payback: The History Of The Business Of Hip-Hop" in 2010, recalled, "Back in the days when you couldn't find females behind the mixing board, Sylvia was there. It was Sylvia's genius that made 'Rapper's Delight' a hit." Sylvia would go on to sign Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five.
Ironically, legendary DJ Casey Kasem was never able to introduce "Rapper's Delight," which peaked in popularity in late 1979 and early 1980. "American Top 40" had Casey count down the Top 50 hits of 1979 for the final weekend of that year. Then, for the first weekend of 1980 (January 5, 1980), Casey counted down the top 50 songs of the 1970's. "Rapper's Delight" was heard for only one week on AT40 but the January 12, 1980 show was announced by a substitute host, Mike Cleary. By the time Casey was back to regularly counting down the hits for the weekend of January 19, 1980, "Rapper's Delight" had already fallen out of the top 40....but nevertheless went on to sell over eight million copies.
When "Pillow Talk" was a hit, Sylvia was simply idenfified by her first name. In the fall of 1982, we had another Sylvia, a different solo woman named Sylvia Allen who had a pop and country hit with "Nobody."
Sylvia Robinson is survived by three sons, Joey, Leland and Rhondo, plus 10 grandchildren. Her husband, Joe, died of cancer in 2000.
According to Joel Whitburn's Record Research, Sylvia Vanderpool (a/k/a Vanterpool) was born in Harlem on March 6, 1936, which was the 100th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo. She began singing while still a student at Washington Irving High School, performing as a 14-year-old in 1950 with Hot Lips Page for the Columbia label. She then burst onto the pop music scene seven years later as half of the duo Mickey and Sylvia. Her singing partner was McHouston "Mickey" Baker. Together, Mickey and Sylvia had a #7 Cash Box pop chart hit in early 1957 with the calypso-flavored "Love Is Strange." The song became famous not just for its melody, but also the unique chat between the two performers. That conversion began with Mickey asking, "Sylvia, how do you call your loverboy?" They'd go back and forth for a while, with Sylvia saying seductively "Oh Loverboy" and Mickey replying "And if he STILL doesn't answer."
"Love Is Strange" went to #1 on one R&B chart and has endured as a classic song over the years. Bo Diddley, who some sources say wrote the song, has recorded it. So has Buddy Holly, who turned it onto a mellow ballad. Ten years after Mickey and Sylvia scored with it, another duo--Peaches And Herb--would have a remake #13 hit with the song in 1967. Mickey And Sylvia would have five other Cash Box chart hits until 1961 but nothing close to the impact made by "Love Is Strange." The duo's followup, "Dearest," barely cracked the top 40 at #39 in 1957. In 1960, "What Would I Do" was a disappointing #47 peaker for the duo on the RCA label.
After the hits stopped for the duo in 1961, Sylvia spent about a dozen years in obscurity before getting a huge break around late 1972-early 1973. She'd already been producing songs like the 1970 hit, "Love On A Two-Way Street" by the Moments. Sylvia was asked to sing a demo for a song intended to be offered to the biggest R&B singer of that time, Al Green. However, Sylvia was so impressive with her sultry, seductive and almost-whispering singing style of the song that everyone associated with it agreed it should be Sylvia's to sing, own and release. As a result, "Pillow Talk" became a #1 hit on one R&B chart. On Cash Box's pop chart, it reached #2 in June, 1973 and became the #29 song for the calendar year 1973. "My Love" by Paul McCartney and Wings kept "Pillow Talk" out of #1.
In 1964, Sylvia married Joe Robinson, the owner of the "Pillow Talk" song label, All-Platinum/Vibration Records. After "Pillow Talk," she had at least 11 more R&B chart releases on Vibration. More importantly, though, she became the owner of another label associated with her husband, Joe, and that was Sugar Hill Records, where history would be made.
Sylvia's son, Joey, who would become a member of the group the West Street Mob, remembered what led to his mom's part of one of R&B music's most historic records: "She saw where a DJ (Lovebug Starski at the Harlem World nightclub) was talking (to the music) and the crowd was responding to what he was saying. And this was the first time she ever heard this before. She said, 'Joey, wouldn't this be a great idea to make a rap record?"
Indeed, she was right. A Harlem-based trio of "Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright, Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien and Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson known as the Sugarhill Gang combined their raps to the melody of the #1 Chic hit, "Good Times." The result was "Rapper's Delight" which Sylvia produced. The recording became the first recognized hip-hop hit song and the first rap record to make the pop top 40, reaching #36 on the Cash Box chart. In its original verson, the song was roughly 15 minutes long but was edited down to just under five minutes (4:55) for a single release. The song's impact was so great that Sylvia would be known as "The Mother Of Hip-Hop."
Dan Charnas, author of the book, "The Big Payback: The History Of The Business Of Hip-Hop" in 2010, recalled, "Back in the days when you couldn't find females behind the mixing board, Sylvia was there. It was Sylvia's genius that made 'Rapper's Delight' a hit." Sylvia would go on to sign Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five.
Ironically, legendary DJ Casey Kasem was never able to introduce "Rapper's Delight," which peaked in popularity in late 1979 and early 1980. "American Top 40" had Casey count down the Top 50 hits of 1979 for the final weekend of that year. Then, for the first weekend of 1980 (January 5, 1980), Casey counted down the top 50 songs of the 1970's. "Rapper's Delight" was heard for only one week on AT40 but the January 12, 1980 show was announced by a substitute host, Mike Cleary. By the time Casey was back to regularly counting down the hits for the weekend of January 19, 1980, "Rapper's Delight" had already fallen out of the top 40....but nevertheless went on to sell over eight million copies.
When "Pillow Talk" was a hit, Sylvia was simply idenfified by her first name. In the fall of 1982, we had another Sylvia, a different solo woman named Sylvia Allen who had a pop and country hit with "Nobody."
Sylvia Robinson is survived by three sons, Joey, Leland and Rhondo, plus 10 grandchildren. Her husband, Joe, died of cancer in 2000.
