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Top Dance Hits
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Sylvester was a star, plain and simple. He was one of the first openly gay Pop
music stars, and, unlike a group like the Village People, he was not a caricature. Sylvester
was for real. His shows were wild and his personality flamboyant, but underneath
was a sincere, talent-filled entertainer.
Sylvester James was born in 1946 in Los Angeles. He made his stage debut with the
San Francisco-based Cockettes, an androgynous theatrical group, on New Year's Eve
1970. Later in the 1970's, Sylvester put together the rock-oriented Hot Band. He
began recording for the Blue Thumb label but sales were disappointing. Returning
to San Francisco, he began to build up a loyal audience with his outrageous stage
shows. After meeting Harvey Fuqua, talent scout for Fantasy Records, Sylvester
set to work on his first solo album. He recruited Izora Whitehead and Martha
Wash as backup singers and dubbed them Two Tons O' Fun. The combination of
Sylvester's lead vocals and the Gospel-tinged backup was magic. The album
Sylvester was released in 1977 and the single Down, Down, Down
backed with Over and Over, written by Ashford and Simpson, broke into the top 20
of the Disco chart.
For his next album, 1978's Step II, Sylvester enlisted the assistance of a relatively
unknown remixer, Patrick Cowley. Cowley's driving beat and shimmering keyboards turned
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) into a Disco classic and one of the biggest Disco
hits of the year. The 12-inch single also featured
Dance (Disco Heat), a showcase for Two Tons O' Fun. The next album,
1979's Stars included only 4 extended tracks and the trio of I (Who Have Nothing), Stars, and
Body Strong broke into the Disco
top 5 in the spring.
Although most Disco acts avoided live albums, Sylvester was at his strongest on stage. Taking advantage of his exciting stage performance, the live album Living
Proof was released in late 1979 to the delight of fans. Recorded at San Francisco's
War Memorial Opera House, the album is a tour de force. Ranging from his Disco hits to
an interpretation of Billie Holliday's Lover Man, it is a powerful statement of Sylvester's
talent. Sylvester began the 1980's on the Disco chart with Can't Stop Dancing, a track from Living
Proof. Midway through the year, Two Tons O' Fun branched off on their own
and topped the Disco chart with their first album. Late in the year Sylvester released
the album, Sell My Soul. Harvey Fuqua had suggested he
branch out into a wider variety of music as Disco's popularity began to fade.
Recorded without Patrick Cowley, the single I Need You failed to make the Disco top 5.
By 1981, Sylvester returned to working with Patrick Cowley and contributed vocals
to Cowley's Disco hit Menergy. He also contributed vocals to Herbie Hancock's top 10 Disco hit Magic Number. One of his last collaborative efforts with Patrick Cowley was Do You Wanna Funk, a top 3 Dance hit in the fall of 1982. The album All
I Need in 1983 kept Sylvester's voice prominent in dance clubs.
Unfortunately, Patrick Cowley became one of the first victims of the AIDs epidemic
and Sylvester's music never completely recovered. 1984's Call Me suffered
from lack of strong production.
Sylvester didn't return to the Dance top 10 until 1985 with Take Me To
Heaven and Sex from the album M1015. For his next album,
1987's Mutual Attraction, Sylvester finally signed with a major label,
Warner Brothers. His remake of Stevie Wonder's Living For the City and
Someone Like You were major Dance hits. The latter became his second chart-topping
Dance hit. Sadly, this was to be his only full-length studio album recorded for
Warner Brothers. Sylvester succumbed to the AIDs virus on December 16, 1988.
