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Top Dance Hits
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Blessed with an assertive and beautiful voice, Evelyn 'Champagne' King
successfully navigated the demise of disco and rise of 80's synth-based
dance music with her commercial and artistic viability intact.
While Shame is a Disco classic, her
early 80's chart-topping hits Im In Love and Love Come Down are early
Garage classics.
Born in 1960, Evelyn King was discovered as a teenager subbing in for her
sister cleaning the offices of Philadelphia International's Sigma Sound Studios
in Philadelphia. Apparently, producer Theodore Life (T. Life of Instant
Funk fame) overheard her singing and approached her about recording for him.
Evelyn and her mother agreed and, dubbed Evelyn 'Champagne' King, she was on her
way to stardom.
Evelyn came from a musical family background. Her father Erik was also a singer
and augmented or filled in for performers at New York's legendary Apollo Theater.
By her teens, having relocated to Philadelphia, Evelyn performed singing
engagements in a number of venues across Philadelphia. In 1977, her first recorded
single Dancin Dancin Dancin was released. It generated little
excitement, but was followed by the release of her first album Smooth Talk.
The second single from the album, Shame, was remixed for clubs by David Todd and Al Garrison
and entered national Disco charts
in December of 1977. Shame became a top ten Disco smash. Evelyn's stylish adult-sounding
vocals thrilled audiences.
T. Life produced the next two albums, 1979's Music Box and
his final collaboration with Evelyn, 1980's Call On Me. Call On Me returned
Evelyn to the disco charts at the end of the year with the track Let's Get Funky Tonight.
Prior to her next album, Evelyn switched producers and styles. She
began work with Kashif, a former member of Disco pioneering group B.T. Express and one of the key architects of early 1980's synth-based Soul.
Following the fade of Disco from popularity, she was encouraged to drop the
nickname 'Champagne' and became simply Evelyn King. In addition, Evelyn was
encouraged to sing in a higher register with the assumption it would make her
work more appealing to young people. The result of this audio makeover was the smash hit I'm In
Love from the I'm In Love album. The song topped both Dance and
R&B charts in the summer and fall of 1981.
Working again with Kashif, 1982's Love Come Down was another
chart-topping smash hit with Dance and R&B audiences. Evelyn changed producers once again and
Andre Cymone and Leon Sylvers III were at the helm for 1983's Face To
Face album. The Andre Cymone-produced Action was an assertive cut
popular on dancefloors in the winter of 1983-84. The next album
So Romantic produced the top 15 Dance hit Out Of Touch.
1985's album A Long Time Coming included Your Personal Touch
which brought Evelyn back to the top 5 on the Dance and top 10 on the R&B
charts for the first time in 3 years. The follow-up single High Horse was another top 15 Dance hit.
Two years elapsed before Evelyn's next album, 1998's Flirt. Working
with producers Leon Sylvers III and Ron Kersey, the new album's sound was very
electronic in an effort to remain current. Hold On To What You've Got
was another top 5 Dance chart smash, but the album was disappointing
artistically. 1989's album, Girl Next Door, placed Evelyn in a trendy
House environment but failed to ignite enthusiasm. The same year
personal tragedy struck as Evelyn lost a child. The next
album I'll Keep a Light On was recorded in 1990 but shelved until it
was finally released in Europe in 1995. Although she again appeared on the
dance charts with the single One More Time in 1996, Evelyn King has not recorded
any additional studio albums. She essentially retired from recording at the age of 30.
She does appear occasionally in
concert. A November, 1998 performance at the Apollo Theater in New York proved her pipes are as strong as ever.
