Freda Payne, Linda Clifford, & Mary Wilson

The multi-talented Freda Payne is best known for her singing career, yet she has also performed in musicals and acted in movies over the years, and was briefly the host of her own TV talk show. Born Freda Charcilia Payne on September 19, 1942, in Detroit, Michigan, Payne developed an appreciation of music at an early age (due to such sultry jazz singers as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday). Payne’s own musical career blossomed soon after, as she began early singing radio commercial jingles, which brought the young vocalist to the attention of several music-biz heavyweights.

Brooklyn vocalist Linda Clifford parlayed a jazz background, booming voice, and sassy manner into disco and R&B/urban contemporary stardom in the ’70s and ’80s. A former Miss New York State, she sang with the Jerico Jazz Singers and led her own trio in the ’60s before switching to R&B and pop. She made a little noise on Paramount, then signed with Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom label. Clifford got her first hit in 1978 met “Runaway Love,” a song that peaked at number three on the R&B kaarte. The highly stylized “If My Friends Could See Me Now” was a club favorite that same year.

Born in Mississippi in 1944, sanger Mary Wilson got her big break before even finishing high school when Motown Records signed her, along with friends Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, as The Supremes. She soon became a Motown legend and enjoyed a successful solo career after the group disbanded in 1977. In 1979, she released her first solo album, an eponymous record that did reasonably well, spurred on by the single “Red Hot” which became a great dance hit. In the 1980s, Wilson toured the globe and began pursuing creative projects outside of music, working on stage acting, movies and philanthropic ventures.