Cheryl Lynn

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Cheryl Lynn (* 11. March 1957 as Cheryl Lynn Smith in Los Angeles , California ) is an American disco - and soul singer . She is best known for the disco classic Got to Be Real (1978). The music database Allmusic recognizes her “captivating voice and great pitch”.

Career

Cheryl Lynn started singing as a little girl in a church choir. An appearance on the game show The Gong Show brought the singer a lot of attention in 1976. An engagement as "Wicked Witch of the West" in the musical The Wiz followed in the same year. In 1977 she signed a record deal with Columbia and the following year she was booked as a guest singer for the band Toto’s song Georgy Porgy .

In 1978 Lynn made her breakthrough in American show business straight away with the single Got to Be Real and her debut album Cheryl Lynn . For both works she received a gold award . Got to Be Real also established itself as a disco classic and can also be found on countless compilations and soundtracks. The music channel VH1 voted the song at number 21 of the greatest dance songs of all time. The song was also inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In the pop charts of her homeland, she was still unable to build on this success - Got to Be Real remains her only top 40 hit. In the R&B charts, on the other hand, she was one of the big names with a total of 18 hits until the end of the 1980s. In addition to Got to Be Real , Lynn achieved another number one with Encore in early 1984 . Her other top 10 hits on the R&B charts include Shake it Up Tonight (1981), the duet If This World Were Mine with Luther Vandross (1982) and finally Every Time I Try to Say Goodbye (1989).

Vandross also produced her LP Instant Love in 1982, and three years later she toured the United States with him. The LP It's Gonna Be Right , released in the same year, was the first of her career to miss the top 200 in the US. More or less successful records were released by the end of the decade - the title track of their 1989 LP Whatever it Takes was also their last hit in the American R&B charts (number 26).

Although Lynn remained active in the music business in the following decades, she only released records sporadically. As a background singer she worked for Richard Marx (albums Rush Street and Paid Vacation ) and Luther Vandross ( Your Secret Love ), among others . In early 1995, Lynn signed a contract with the Japanese independent label Avex Trax, which subsequently released three remix albums and finally a new studio CD, Good Time . This sold around 100,000 times.

23 years after Lynn's biggest hit, Got to Be Real , the song went platinum in the US in 2001. Three years later, the singer wrote the song Sweet Kind of Life with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for the soundtrack to Big Sharks . In 2008, Lynn's appearance followed at the concert evening David Foster & Friends , which was later published on the accompanying DVD.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK US US
1978 Cheryl Lynn - US23
gold
gold

(30 weeks)US
First published: 1978
1979 In love - US167 (4 weeks)
US
First published: 1979
1981 In the night - US104 (13 weeks)
US
First publication: 1981
1982 Instant love - US133 (20 weeks)
US
First published: 1982
1983 Preppie - US161 (5 weeks)
US
First published: 1983

More albums

  • 1985: It's Gonna Be Right
  • 1987: Start Over
  • 1989: Whatever It Takes
  • 1995: Good Time
  • 1996: Got to Be Real: The Best of

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK US US
1978 Got to Be Real
Cheryl Lynn 		UK70 *
silver
silver

(3 weeks)UK 		US12
platinum
platinum

(18 weeks)US
First published: November 1978
* Chart entry only 2010
1979 Star Love
Cheryl Lynn 		- US62 (10 weeks)
US
First published: March 1979
Georgy Porgy
Toto 		- US48 (10 weeks)
US
First publication: April 1979
with Toto
1981 Shake It Up Tonight
In the Night 		- US70 (7 weeks)
US
First published: July 1981
1983 Encore
Preppie 		UK68 (3 weeks)
UK 		US69 (8 weeks)
US
First published: January 1983
1985 Fidelity
It's Gonna Be Right 		UK97 (1 week)
UK 		-
First published: July 1985
1996 Good time,
good time 		UK96 (1 week)
UK 		-
First published: February 1996

More singles

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date of birth + bio, IMDB
  2. ↑ Bio, Allmusic
  3. ^ "VH1's 100 Greatest Dance Songs" from October 2000, disco-disco.com
  4. ^ [Joel Whitburn: Top R&B Singles 1942-1995 , 1996 ISBN 0-89820-115-2 ]
  5. ↑ Charts, Allmusic
  6. ↑ "Cheryl Lynn Comes Back with Gonna be Right," Jet Magazine, Aug. 1985
  7. ^ News "The US-to-Tokyo-Express", June 1996, Billboard
  8. ↑ About the soundtrack, IMDB
  9. ↑ Program note 3sat shows David Foster & Friends
  10. ↑ a b Chart sources: UK US
  11. ↑ Music Sales Awards: US UK

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lynn, Cheryl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, Cheryl Lynn (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American disco and soul singer
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California