Randy Crawford

Heard most often as the beaming voice of the Crusaders' Top 40 U.S. hit "Street Life" (1979) and the number two U.K. smash "One Day I'll Fly Away" (1980), Randy Crawford is one of the most multifaceted singers of her generation. She is both jazz and soul -- with a rock-solid gospel foundation -- and with uncommon agility and a natural avoidance of histrionics, she has incorporated myriad genres and styles including rock, country, disco, house, and trip-hop. Crawford responded to her mainstream emergence with five consecutive albums, from Now We May Begin (1980) through Nightline (1983), that simultaneously hit the pop, R&B, and jazz charts. Although she is known primarily as an eclectic interpreter, it was with her own "Almaz" (1986) that she scored a second U.K. Top Ten hit. Over three decades into her career, Crawford earned her first Grammy nominations with Feeling Good (2006) and No Regrets (2008), lean and jazz-based recordings with Crusader Joe Sample. Crawford retired near the end of the 2010s, having performed and recorded for half a century. Born in Macon, Georgia, Veronica Randy Crawford is a native of Cincinnati, where her family moved before her first birthday. She first sang in church and school choirs and in glee clubs. At the age of 15, she landed her first professional club gig, and spent her summer break that year performing in St. Tropez. Crawford had gained work as a demo singer and was still in her teens when a date in New York -- opening for George Benson -- led to a recording contract with Columbia. The short-lived deal resulted in "Knock on Wood" (1972) and "Don't Get Caught (In Love's Triangle)" (1973), singles produced respectively by Motown affiliates Al Cleveland and Johnny Bristol. Crawford subsequently relocated to Los Angeles and performed in and around the city at a variety of venues. It wasn't long before she was cast in Cannonball Adderley's musical-styled concept album based on the story of John Henry. Crawford starred beside Joe Williams and Robert Guillaume in the role of Caroline, heard on Big Man: The Legend of John Henry (1975), issued shortly before Adderley died from a stroke. Crawford's Columbia sides were so obscure that the liner notes of Big Man stated that the LP marked the 21-year-old singer's recorded debut. At the urging of Quincy Jones, Crawford performed "Everything Must Change," a ballad written and originally sung by Bernard Ighner for Jones' Body Heat, at a November 1975 concert by the World Jazz Association All Star Band. Show producer Stewart Levine was impressed enough to help Crawford get a deal with Warner Bros. The live recording of "Everything Must Change" became the opening song of Crawford's like-titled 1976 Warner debut, produced by Levine. Everything Must Change concluded with another part of Crawford's set that night, a rendition of the Big Man song "Gonna Give Lovin' a Try," sung in tribute to Adderley. An appropriate introduction in terms of its diverse material and supporting players, Everything Must Change also contained interpretations of songs by the Beatles ("Don't Let Me Down") and Keith Carradine ("I'm Easy," the album's second single), and a version of Charlene's contemporary "I've Never Been to Me," cut six years before Motown's re-release of the original became a Top Ten pop hit. Two of the key session musicians on the album were the Crusaders' Joe Sample and Larry Carlton. Dust had barely formed on the LP by the time Miss Randy Crawford was racked in 1977. An early milestone in Crawford's career, the set was produced by Bob Montgomery at Muscle Shoals' FAME Studios, where formative influence Aretha Franklin had recorded some of her classic Atlantic sides. Miss Randy Crawford most notably featured a stirring version of the Eagles' "Desperado." The next year, Crawford contributed lead vocals to ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett's "Hoping Love Will Last," another early instance of her expectation-confounding nature. Crawford experienced her biggest year yet in 1979, releasing Raw Silk, her Stephan Goldman-produced third album, and fronting the Crusaders' "Street Life." A crossover hit, "Street Life" provided Crawford with her commercial breakthrough, reaching number 17 on the R&B chart and peaking at number 36 on the Hot 100. It went to number five in the U.K. -- where the singer would have greater chart success for the remainder of her career -- and increased interest in Raw Silk, which entered Billboard's R&B and jazz charts. Crawford returned quickly in 1980 with Now We May Begin. Whereas her previous LPs varied considerably (if discerningly so) in its sources, Crawford's fourth full-length was based on original material penned by "Street Life" co-writers Will Jennings and Joe Sample, and also included Crawford's own "Tender Falls the Rain." Sample and Crusaders partners Wilton Felder and Stix Hooper served as producers. The LP yielded another one of Crawford's signature performances in "One Day I'll Fly Away," for two weeks a number two hit in the U.K. (beaten first by Kelly Marie's "Feels Like I'm in Love," then by the Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me"). Although it didn't fare as well, "Last Night at Danceland" (number 68 U.S. R&B, number 61 U.K. pop), a seamless mix of soul, jazz, country, and disco, exemplified Crawford's versatility as much as anything else in her fast-growing body of work. Annual albums from Crawford continued for the next few years, during which she worked extensively with producer Tommy LiPuma. Biggest of all was Secret Combination, a 1981 release that yielded a pair of Top 20 U.K. hits with "You Might Need Somebody" and an update of Tony Joe White's "Rainy Night in Georgia" (popularized by Brook Benton). The overseas success culminated in Crawford taking the trophy for British Female Solo Artist -- her nationality notwithstanding -- at the 1982 Brit Awards. Another irony is that neither "You Might Need Somebody" nor "Rainy Night in Georgia" charted in the U.S. Additional singles "When I Lose My Way" and "Secret Combination" were minor Stateside R&B hits at least and helped make the album Crawford's first domestic Top Ten jazz entry (number 12 R&B, number 71 pop). Windsong and Nightline followed respectively in 1982 and 1983 and entered the pop, jazz, and R&B charts, promoted with singles such as "One Hello" (written by Carole Bayer Sager and Marvin Hamlisch), the new wave-inspired "Nightline," and power ballad "Why." Crawford returned to the Hot 100 between albums in 1984 with "Taxi Dancing," a duet with Rick Springfield for the soundtrack of the Springfield vehicle Hard to Hold. She would issue two more albums in the decade. The high-tech 1986 effort Abstract Emotions, produced almost entirely by Reggie Lucas, featured Crawford's apex as a composer, "Almaz," written at the request of her neighbor, an Eritrean refugee who asked her for a song about his wife. Rich & Poor, a collaboration with admirer and Sade producer Robin Millar, capped the '80s with a clutch of hits on the R&B chart. A version of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," recorded for the soundtrack of Lethal Weapon 2 and featuring David Sanborn and Eric Clapton, went to number four. It was trailed by "Wrap-U-Up," a number 15 single, and then by the number 16 single "I Don't Feel Much Like Crying," penned by Babyface and L.A. Reid. Last was "Cigarette in the Rain," topping out at number 38. Crawford recorded on a fairly consistent basis throughout the '90s, starting with Through the Eyes of Love (1992) and Don't Say It's Over (1993), and continuing with Naked and True (1995) and Every Kind of Mood (1997). These albums added six songs to her total of charting R&B singles. She remained impossible to pigeonhole as her collaborative network and range of material expanded. Two of the most popular songs from her first '90s offering were a duet with Italian singer Zucchero ("Diamante") and a number 30 R&B hit Journey cover ("Who's Crying Now"). In addition to an update of "Almaz," her last effort of the '90s included interpretations spanning soul, sophisti-pop, and trip-hop -- Rose Royce's "Wishing on a Star," Double's "Captain of Her Heart," and Massive Attack's "Hymn of the Big Wheel" -- and a house remix of her earlier take on George Benson's "Give Me the Night." It was around the same time that "Street Life" resurfaced as an antiheroine theme of sorts for the Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown. Crawford entered the next decade with Permanent (titled Play Mode outside North America), ranging from classic pop material like "Wild Is the Wind" and "Alfie" to contemporary pop-R&B originals such as the Max Martin-styled "Fire & Rain." Renewed interest in "One Day I'll Fly Away" occurred in 2001 when Nicole Kidman sang the song in the jukebox musical Moulin Rouge. After a five-year gap between album projects, Crawford teamed again with Joe Sample, and as a duo the longtime friends released Feeling Good in 2006, followed by No Regrets in 2008. Produced by Sample with Tommy LiPuma, these PRA Records dates were among Crawford's leanest and most jazz-rooted output, mixing originals, standards, and covers of relatively contemporary songs with nods to the likes of Nina Simone, Fred Neil, and Sarah McLachlan. Feeling Good was highlighted by a smoldering version of Curtis Lewis' "All Night Long" that earned Crawford a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. No Regrets became her second Grammy-nominated recording when it was up for Best Jazz Vocal Album. It's a testament to Crawford's undervalued presence and resistance to rigid specialization that the Recording Academy recognized her work in two fields well over 30 years after her career began. Into the late 2010s, Crawford continued touring, and also sang "Windmills of Your Mind" for David Sanborn's Time and the River. She retired in 2018.
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