hypersongs

Linda Lewis

An East London singer-songwriter with a five-octave range, a Reprise artist from 1971 whose second album Lark (1972) holds "Old Smokey", later sampled in Common's "Go!", and whose "It's in His Kiss" reached number 6 in the UK in 1975.

From stage school to Reprise

Linda Ann Fredericks was born in east London on September 27, 1950, in Custom House according to Wikipedia and Canning Town according to the Guardian obituary. She was a stage-school child with non-speaking film roles, including A Hard Day's Night, and around 1964 sang with John Lee Hooker at a club, which led to an introduction to Ian Samwell and the manager Don Arden and a deal with Polydor. The label feared Linda Fredericks would be confused with Linda Kendrick, also on its roster, and she took the name Lewis in honor of Barbara Lewis. Her 1967 single "You Turned My Bitter into Sweet" became a Northern Soul favorite. In 1970 she replaced Marsha Hunt as lead vocalist of The Ferris Wheel.

She signed to Reprise, and her debut solo album Say No More came out in 1971, with Lark in 1972. She sang on Cat Stevens's Catch Bull at Four in 1972 and toured with him, and did backing vocals on David Bowie's Aladdin Sane in 1973. Her influences, she said, were Harry Nilsson, Billie Holiday, Smokey Robinson and Joni Mitchell, and she claimed a five-octave range.

Chart years and later work

"Rock-a-Doodle-Doo" reached number 15 in the UK in 1973, and "It's in His Kiss" reached number 6 in 1975, from Not a Little Girl Anymore (Arista), which peaked at number 40 on the album chart. She opened at Knebworth on July 5, 1975. Official Charts counts five Top 75 singles for her. Later albums include Hacienda View (1979), Second Nature (1995, successful in Japan) and Kiss of Life (1999); she lived in Los Angeles for part of the 1980s and 1990s. A Rhino anthology of her Reprise years, Reach for the Truth, appeared in 2002.

She played Glastonbury in 1971 and again in 1984 and 2003, and her voice was on sessions for Rod Stewart, Joan Armatrading, Jamiroquai, Marc Bolan and Elton John, according to the obituary. Her "Reach for the Truth" was sampled in Midfield General's "Reach Out" in 2000, and "Old Smokey" in Common's "Go!" in 2005. She died on May 3, 2023, aged 72. Joan Armatrading said she had a beautiful voice and was a really lovely person, and Cat Stevens called her a good soul-friend and fine artist. Wikipedia describes her as the first Black British female singer-songwriter in the UK charts. A blue plaque was placed at her Chiswick home on September 27, 2024.

Albums

Songs

  • Old Smokey Lark · 1972

    A Lark track and 1972 single that did not chart, whose bridge Common sampled for "Go!" in 2005.

Sources

  1. Linda Lewis, Wikipedia
  2. Linda Lewis obituary, The Guardian (via Yahoo)
  3. Lark (album), Wikipedia
  4. Linda Lewis, Official Charts