Veronica "Randy" Crawford (born February 18, 1952) is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 as a solo artist. However, she has appeared on the Hot 100 singles chart twice. The first time was in 1979 as a guest vocalist on The Crusaders' top-40 hit " Street Life". She also dueted with Rick Springfield on the song "Taxi Dancing", which hit number 59 as the B-side of Springfield's hit "Bop Til You Drop". She has had five top-20 hits in the UK, including her 1980 number-two hit, " One Day I'll Fly Away", as well as six UK top-10 albums. Despite her American nationality, she won Best British Female Solo Artist in recognition of her popularity in the UK at the 1982 Brit Awards. In the late 2000s, she received her first two

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

nominations.

Career

Crawford first performed at club gigs from

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

to Saint-Tropez, but made her name in the mid-1970s in New York, where she sang with jazzmen

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, pla ...

and Cannonball Adderley. She signed with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

and released her first single, "Knock On Wood" / "If You Say the Word" in 1972. Adderley invited her to sing on his

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''Big Man: The Legend Of John Henry'' (1975). During a brief tenure at

, Crawford recorded "Don't Get Caught in Love's Triangle". She is also one of the vocalists on Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns' ''A Blow For Me, A Toot To You'' (1977). In 1978, Crawford sang vocals on "Hoping Love Will Last", the opening song on side two of '' Please Don't Touch!'', which was the second solo album by the former

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book o ...

guitarist Steve Hackett. She led R&B veterans The Crusaders on the transatlantic hit " Street Life" (1979). A specially re-recorded version was featured in the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

for the films ''Sharky's Machine'' and ''Jackie Brown'', and appeared in commercials in the early 2000s. She later recorded for Warner Bros. Records. Crawford was named the 'Most Outstanding Performer' at the 1980 Tokyo Music Festival. Crawford also recorded the love theme ("People Alone") for the film soundtrack of '' The Competition'' on

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wi ...

in 1980. Her follow-up

solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Comics * ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series * Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ' ...

efforts included " One Day I'll Fly Away" (1980) and " You Might Need Somebody" (1981), which became soul standards, and a cover of the Tony Joe White song, popularised by Brook Benton, " Rainy Night in Georgia". The album, '' Secret Combination'' (1981) stayed on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

for sixty weeks, after which her profile dipped, despite a return to the UK Top Ten with "

Almaz The Almaz (russian: Алмаз, lit=Diamond) program was a highly secret Soviet military space station program, begun in the early 1960s. Three crewed military reconnaissance stations were launched between 1973 and 1976: Salyut 2, Salyut 3 ...

" in 1986. In June 1981, Crawford also released another hit, "One Hello", from the album ''Windsong''. She continued to record for Warner Bros through the 1990s, but was unable to score either a big R&B hit or major crossover success. ''Naked And True'' (1995) brought Crawford back to her roots: it included

's " Give Me the Night", and confirmed her soul heritage by featuring Funkadelic members

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading ...

, Bernie Worrell and the Fred Wesley Horns. She enjoyed her highest profile of the decade when rising starlet Shola Ama had a worldwide hit with her 1997 cover of "You Might Need Somebody". Crawford recorded a live session with Joe Sample on July 24, 2007, at Abbey Road Studios for '' Live from Abbey Road''. The episode she shared with David Gilmour and Amos Lee was screened on the Sundance Channel in the US and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

in the UK. She has sung with Bootsy Collins, Johnny Bristol,

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

, Al Jarreau, Rick Springfield, Katri Helena, Michael Kamen, Zucchero,

David Sanborn David William Sanborn (born July 30, 1945) is an American alto saxophone, alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental Pop music, pop and R&B. He released his first solo ...

, Steve Hackett, the Spanish band Presuntos Implicados, the Norwegian jazz-rock band

Lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock ( magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or ...

and Joe Sample amongst others. Randy Crawford was set to perform "The Farewell South Africa" tour in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

and

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

in October 2018 but it was cancelled due to her suffering a stroke. This would have been Crawford's final performance prior to retiring.

Discography

* '' Everything Must Change'' (1976) * ''Miss Randy Crawford'' (1977) * ''Raw Silk'' (1979) * ''

Now We May Begin ''Now We May Begin'' is an album by the American R&B singer Randy Crawford, released in 1980 on Warner Bros. Records. The album got to No. 10 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 30 on the US Billboard Magazine, Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Top R&B ...

'' (1980) * '' Secret Combination'' (1981) * ''Windsong'' (1982) * '' Nightline'' (1983) * '' Abstract Emotions'' (1986) * ''Rich and Poor'' (1989) * '' Through the Eyes of Love'' (1992) * '' The Very Best of Randy Crawford'' (1993) * ''Don't Say It's Over'' (1993) * ''Naked and True'' (1995) * ''Live in Zagreb'' (1995) * ''Best of Randy Crawford'' (1996) * ''Every Kind of Mood: Randy, Randi, Randee'' (1997) * ''Permanent'' (2000) * ''Play Mode'' (2001) * ''Feeling Good'' (2006) * ''No Regrets'' (2008)

Collaboration

* 1978 : '' Please Don't Touch!'' by Steve Hackett - Lead vocals on "Hoping Love Will Last". * 2017 : ''Time and the River'' by David Sanborn - Lead vocals on “Windmills of my Mind”.

Awards

Grammy Awards

, - , align="center" ,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

, "All Night Long" (with Joe Sample) , Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance , , - , align="center" , 2009 , ''No Regrets'' (with Joe Sample) , Best Jazz Vocal Album , , -

Brit Awards

, - , align="center" , 1982 , Randy Crawford , Best British Female Solo Artist , , -

References

External links

Randy Crawford at Vh1
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Randy 1952 births 20th-century African-American women singers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 21st-century African-American women singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers American jazz singers American rhythm and blues singers American soul singers Brit Award winners Columbia Records artists Living people MCA Records artists Musicians from Macon, Georgia Smooth jazz singers Warner Records artists