Flora Yvonne Fair Strain (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Coleman; October 21, 1942 – March 6, 1994) was an American singer, best known for her 1975 recording of " It Should Have Been Me".

Life and career

Flora Yvonne Coleman was born in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

on October 12, 1942. She dropped out of high school in the eleventh grade to marry Leroy Fair, and gave birth to their son shortly after. At the recommendation of her husband, she joined the Chantels and then the

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

Revue in 1961. While performing with Brown, she recorded a few singles for King Records, including "I Found You", which he later re-worked into his own signature hit "

I Got You (I Feel Good) "I Got You (I Feel Good)" is a song by the American singer James Brown. First recorded for the 1964 album '' Out of Sight'' and then released in an alternate take as a single in 1965 and included on the compilation album of the same name, it w ...

". She later linked up with Chuck Jackson who took her to

Motown Records Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

. Fair had a small part as a singer in the Motown produced film '' Lady Sings the Blues'' (1972). While on Motown, she was the opening act for the Temptations,

the Jackson 5 The Jackson 5, later known as the Jacksons, are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was formed in Gary, Indiana in 1964, and originally consisted of brothers Jackie, Ti ...

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...

, and

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

. Fair worked with producer Norman Whitfield on a series of singles: "Love Ain't No Toy", "Walk Out the Door If You Wanna", and her

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of " Funky Music Sho' 'Nuff Turns Me On". All these featured on her only album in 1975 titled '' The Bitch Is Black'', which was re-released on CD for the first time more than 30 years later. Her cover of "It Should Have Been Me" reached the low end of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

in 1976. The track proved a big hit in the UK, where it climbed to number 5 in February 1976, Fair's only UK hit record. In addition, the song featured in a special episode of

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...

programme ''

The Vicar of Dibley ''The Vicar of Dibley'' is a British sitcom. It consists of three series, which aired on BBC One from 10 November 1994 to 1 January 2000, and several specials, the most recent of which aired on 23 December 2020. It is set in the fictional Oxfor ...

'', entitled "The Handsome Stranger", originally broadcast on 25 December 2006. By the 1980s, Fair had retired from recording and would occasionally perform in small clubs and bars around

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. She worked as

Dionne Warwick Marie Dionne Warwick ( ; born Marie Dionne Warrick; December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. During her career, Warwick has won many awards, including six Grammy Awards. She has been inducted into the Hollywood Wa ...

's wardrobe coordinator. In 1991, Fair appeared on a TV movie called ''Mr. Roadrunner'', starring

Jools Holland Julian Miles Holland (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Marc Almond, Jayne County, To ...

and

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

, lip-synching her signature song, "It Should Have Been Me". Fair died at the age of 51, from

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, on March 6, 1994.

Personal life

Fair was married to Leroy Fair and later to Sammy Strain, who was a member of both

Little Anthony and the Imperials Little Anthony and the Imperials is an American rhythm and blues/soul vocal group from New York City founded by Clarence Collins in the 1950s and named in part for its lead singer, Jerome Anthony "Little Anthony" Gourdine, who was noted for his h ...

and

the O'Jays The O'Jays are an American Rhythm and blues, R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in summer 1958 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert, Walter Lee Williams, William Powell, Bobby Massey, and Bill Isles. The O'Jays made their first chart appea ...

. Strain is one of the few artists in music history that is a double

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...

Inductee, having been inducted with the O'Jays in 2005, and the Imperials in 2009. Fair had two children: Leroy Fair Jr. with her husband Leroy Fair and Venisha Brown with

. Her daughter Venisha Brown struggled with

drug addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behavior that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use can ...

and was arrested multiple times; she died from complications from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

at the age of 53 in 2018.

In popular culture

Fair was portrayed by

Tika Sumpter Euphemia LatiQue "Tika" Sumpter (born June 20, 1980) is an American actress and producer. Sumpter began her career as the host of '' Best Friend's Date''. From 2005 to 2010, she appeared in the daytime soap opera ''One Life to Live''. In 2010, ...

in the 2014 James Brown biopic, '' Get on Up''.

Discography

Albums

Singles

As a background singer

*1978:

Patti LaBelle Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American Rhythm and blues, R&B singer and actress. She has been referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godmother of Soul". LaBelle began ...

– "

You Are My Friend "You Are My Friend" is a ballad co-written and recorded by American singer Patti LaBelle, released as the second single off her self-titled debut album, in 1978 on the Epic label. While it only reached as high as number sixty-one on the Billbo ...

" b/w "I Think About You" (

Epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

8–50487) *1980:

The Commodores Commodores, often billed as The Commodores, are an American funk and Soul music, soul group. The group's most successful period was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Lionel Richie was the co-lead singer. The members of the group met as m ...

– "Jesus Is Love" (Motown)

References

External links

Yvonne Fair Flora Yvonne Fair Strain (''née'' Coleman; October 21, 1942 – March 6, 1994) was an American singer, best known for her 1975 recording of " It Should Have Been Me". Life and career Flora Yvonne Coleman was born in Richmond, Virginia on Oct ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fair, Yvonne 1942 births 1994 deaths James Brown vocalists King Records artists Smash Records artists Motown artists Musicians from Richmond, Virginia Musicians from the Las Vegas Valley 20th-century African-American women singers 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers American soul singers American funk singers Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Nevada