Sylvia Robinson

Sylvia Vanterpool Robinson (born March 6, 1936 in New York , † September 29, 2011 in Secaucus , New Jersey ) was an American singer, musician and producer. She became known in the late 1950s as one half of the duo Mickey & Sylvia with Mickey Baker and the hit Love Is Strange . In the 1970s she was successful as Sylvia solo, including the hit Pillow Talk . In the late 1970s she founded the hip-hop label Sugarhill Records and was responsible for two of the most successful early rap recordings: Rapper's Delight (1979) and The Message (1982). Because she contributed significantly to the breakthrough of rap, she is also known as The Mother of Hip-Hop .

Life

Beginnings and successes with Mickey Baker

Sylvia Vanterpool's parents had immigrated from Saint Thomas in the US Virgin Islands . She was born in New York and grew up in the Harlem neighborhood . In the 1950s she began a successful career as a rhythm and blues singer. At the age of 14, when she was still attending Washington Irving High School, she was discovered by talent scouts from Columbia Records and made her first blues recordings with trumpeter Hot Lips Page . As Little Sylvia , she recorded solo singles. In the mid-1950s she met Mickey Baker , who taught her to play the guitar and with whom she performed.

In 1956 they were signed by Bob Rolontz for the RCA label . He produced the single Love Is Strange with them , which they released the following year under the stage name Mickey & Sylvia . The song, written by Baker and Vanterpool using music by Bo Diddley , went straight to number 1 on the R&B charts and rose to number 11 on the official charts . It became a classic and for other performers too Success. The Everly Brothers had a hit in the British charts in 1965 and Sonny & Cher (under the pseudonym Caesar & Cleo ), Peaches & Herb and Buddy Holly recorded the song successfully in the 1960s. Later the recording of Donnie Elbert and country versions of Buck Owens & Susan Raye and Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton were minor hits in the respective genre charts. In 1987 Love Is Strange was one of the key scenes in the movie Dirty Dancing . In 2004 the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame .

For the duo Mickey & Sylvia it remained the only big hit. The follow -up single There Ought to Be a Law was once again a top 10 hit in the R&B charts. Although they covered a few R&B hits afterwards, they did not make it into the R&B charts, but were regularly represented in the general pop charts. But they didn't make it into the top 40. 1961 they were at It's Gonna Work Out Fine by Ike & Tina Turner represented as an accompanist. The song reached number 14 on the Hot 100 (R&B number 2), but Baker and Vanterpool were not officially named as performers.

Career as a producer and solo singer

A little later the duo split up. While Mickey Baker continued his career in Paris from 1962, Sylvia Vanterpool withdrew. She married Joe Robinson in 1964 and took his last name. For the first few years they ran a club in the Bronx . In 1968 they were again successful in the music business, but this time in the background. They settled in New Jersey and founded a recording studio and the All Platinum Records label . Among other things, they signed the Moments and produced a number of hits in which Sylvia Robinson was also involved as a songwriter. The biggest hit was Love on a Two-Way Street , which reached number 1 on the R&B charts and number 3 on the official charts. The song was also sampled by Alicia Keys in the 2009 million- selling Empire State of Mind . Other successful musicians on the label were Donnie Elbert , the Whatnauts and Brother to Brother .

In the early 1970s, Robinson had also written the song Pillow Talk for Al Green , but he didn't take it over. She decided to pick up the microphone again and recorded the song herself. It became her second R&B number one hit and a million seller . It came in at number 3 in the pop charts and in the UK it was 14th. The recording was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Female Vocal Performance - R&B . With Didn't I and Soul Je t'aime , a cover version of Je t'aime… moi non plus in disco style together with Ralfi Pagan , she had two other smaller hits in the Hot 100. She always released during the 1970s own singles again and thus also entered the R&B charts.

Robinson had her greatest international success as a songwriter and producer in 1975 with the disco song Shame, Shame, Shame . She offered the song to Shirley Goodman , an R&B singer who was also successful in a duo in the 1950s. They recorded the song under the artist name Shirley & Company and thus had a number one hit in Germany and Austria and was represented in the charts worldwide.

In the late 1970s, the Robinsons invested in the Chess Records label . However, they took over financially and got into tax difficulties. Finally, All Platinum was also affected and had to declare itself bankrupt.

The beginning of the hip-hop era

Meanwhile, Sylvia Robinson had discovered the burgeoning hip-hop music and was particularly enthusiastic about a live rap by Lovebug Starski to the beat of Good Times von Chic . Since no one in the underground scene was ready to participate, she recorded the play Rapper's Delight with three friends of her son Joey and named the trio Sugarhill Gang after an area in New York where they grew up. To do this, she founded the new label Sugarhill Records . The single was released in 1979 and became the first major commercial rap hit. In Europe it consistently reached top 5 positions, as well as in the US R&B charts. It only lagged behind in the Hot 100 and just got into the top 40.

While the Sugarhill Gang was mostly denied full recognition because they did not emerge from the hip-hop scene, the Robinsons soon signed an established hip-hop act, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five . They also had their first small chart successes from 1980. With the song The Message co-produced by Sylvia Robinson , they created another classic of rap music, which was released by Sugarhill Records and also became an international hit. Another long-lasting hit from this time is White Lines by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel.

The Sugar Hill label became a leading hip hop label with sales in the millions, but again financial inconsistencies arose and difficulties with asserting themselves against the emerging competition. This company did not have a long-term existence either. It also resulted in Sylvia and Joe getting divorced, although they continued to stay together afterwards. She also remained musically active. In 1982 she had her last own hit with It's Good to Be the Queen . The song was a response to It's Good to Be the King , a fun rap by comedian Mel Brooks from his recently released film History of the World . But she continued to produce other artists and published them on her own labels. Among other things, she produced Angie Stone and started Naughty by Nature .

Only after the death of Joe Robinson in 2000 and a devastating studio fire in 2002 did she retire and leave the music business to her children. Sylvia Robinson died in 2011 at the age of 75 in a Secaucus, New Jersey hospital .

Discography

Albums

Solo albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	R&B
1973	Pillow talk	US70 (12 weeks) US	R&B16 (11 weeks) R&B

More albums

• Sweet Stuff (1975)
• Sylvia (1976)
• Lay It on Me (1977)

Singles

Little Sylvia

• Little Boy (1951)
• A Million Tears (1952)
• Drive Daddy Drive (1952)
• The Ring / Blue Heaven (1953)

Mickey & Sylvia

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	R&B
1957	Love is strange	US11 (18 weeks) US	R&B1 (15 weeks) R&B	Authors: Mickey Baker, Sylvia Robinson, Bo Diddley Grammy Hall of Fame
	There Ought to Be a Law	US47 (5 weeks) US	R&B8 (3 weeks) R&B	with Dearest on a single Authors: Bob Gibson, John Bennett
	Dearest	US85 (2 weeks) US	-	with There Ought to Be a Law on a single Authors: Bob Gibson, Bo Diddley, Prentice Herman Polk Jr.
1958	Bewildered	US57 (5 weeks) US	-	1948 R&B hit for the Red Miller Trio and for Amos Milburn Writer: Teddy Powell, Leonard Whitcup
1960	What would I do	US46 (9 weeks) US	-	Original: Shirley & Lee (1955) as That's What I'll Do ; Author: Leonard Lee with This Is My Story on a single
	This is my story	US100 (1 week) US	-	1955 R&B hit for Gene & Eunice ; Authors: Gene Forrest , Eunice Levy with What Would I Do on a single
1961	Baby you're so fine	US52 (6 weeks) US	-	1960 R&B hit for Joe & Ann as Gee Baby ; Authors: T. Texas Tyler, Jimmy Johnson, Jay Robinson, Sam Gibson with Lovedrops on a single
	Lovedrops	US97 (1 week) US	-	1955 R&B hit for Gene & Eunice ; Authors: Jay Robinson, Sam Gibson with Baby You're So Fine on a single

Sylvia

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		UK	US	R&B
1973	Pillow talk	UK14 (11 weeks) UK	US3 gold (21 weeks)US	R&B1 (13 weeks) R&B	Authors: Sylvia Robinson, Michael Burton
	Didn't I	-	US70 (5 weeks) US	R&B21 (7 weeks) R&B	Authors: Al Goodman, Billy Brown, Michael Burton, Sylvia Robinson
	Soul Je t'aime	-	US99 (2 weeks) US	R&B39 (7 weeks) R&B	with Ralfi Pagan Disco version of Je t'aime… moi non plus ( Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin , 1969) Authors: Serge Gainsbourg, Sylvia Robinson
1974	Alfredo	-	-	R&B62 (6 weeks) R&B	Theme melody of the film Alfredo, Alfredo (with Dustin Hoffman , IT 1972) Authors: Carlo Rustichelli, Hank Hunter
	Private performance	-	-	R&B62 (2 weeks) R&B	Authors: Sylvia Robinson, Michael Burton
	Sweet stuff	-	-	R&B16 (16 weeks) R&B	Authors: Harry Ray, Sylvia Robinson, Al Goodman
	Sho Nuff Boogie (Part I)	-	US80 (4 weeks) US	R&B45 (11 weeks) R&B	Sylvia & the Moments Authors: Harry Ray, Al Goodman, Sylvia Robinson
	Easy Evil	-	-	R&B68 (6 weeks) R&B	Authors: Sylvia Robinson, Michael Burton
1976	LA Sunshine	-	-	R&B54 (7 weeks) R&B	Authors: Michael Burton, Revell Terry
1977	Lay it on me	-	-	R&B65 (9 weeks) R&B	Authors: Robert Tate, Moe Mooore, Sylvia Robinson, Tommy Keith
1978	Automatic lover	-	-	R&B43 (9 weeks) R&B	Authors: Gary Unwin, Patty Unwin
1982	It's good to be the queen	-	-	R&B53 (9 weeks) R&B	Answer Song to It's Good to Be the King by Mel Brooks (from the movie The Crazy History of the World , 1981) Authors: William Peter Wingfield , Mel Brooks

More singles

• Frankie and Johnny (as Sylvia Robbins, 1960)
• Don't Let Your Eyes Get Bigger Than Your Heart (as Sylvia Robbins, 1964)
• Our Love (as Sylvia Robbins, 1964)
• Gimme a Little Action (1974)
• Pussy Cat (1975)
• The Lollipop Man (1977)
• We Can't Hide It Anymore (with Chuck Jackson, 1977)
• Rock Me Baby (1987)

swell

1. ^ Sylvia Robinson: Hitmaker who co-founded Sugar Hill Records and became known as 'the mother of hip-hop' , Pierre Perrone, Independent, October 4, 2011
2. ^ Sylvia Robinson, Mother of Hip-Hop, dead. (No longer available online.) In: Sister 2 Sister Magazine. September 29, 2011, archived from the original on October 15, 2014 ; accessed on January 8, 2015 . 
3. ^ Sylvia Robinson, Pioneering Producer of Hip-Hop, Is Dead at 75 , obituary in the New York Times (with different place of death: Edison , New Jersey).
4. ↑ ^{a b c} US R&B singles: Joel Whitburn : Joel Whitburn presents Hot R&B Songs 1942-2010 . Billboard Books, New York 2011, ISBN 0-89820-186-1 . / US R&B albums: Joel Whitburn : Joel Whitburn's Top R&B Albums 1965–1998 . Billboard Books, New York 1999, ISBN 0-89820-134-9 .
5. ↑ Mickey & Sylvia in the US charts
6. ↑ ^{a b} Pillow Talk (Sylvia) in the gold / platinum database of the RIAA (USA)
7. ↑ Chart sources: UK US

Web links

• The Rise and Fall of Hip-Hop's First Godmother: Sugar Hill Records' Sylvia Robinson (Billboard)
• First Family of Hip Hop Remembers Sylvia Robinson, Rap Music's OG and World's Best Grandmother (Bravo)
• Sylvia Robinson at Allmusic (English)
• Sylvia Robinson at Music VF
• Sylvia Robinson at Discogs (English)