BRANDYE THE MOST FAMOUS AND UNKOWN GIRLGROUP PART 2

 

 

Donna D. Sadler

Donna Davis

On June 25th, Donna Davis saw the light of day.

Music has been an important part of her life since she was born. She reports of an ear operation that she had to undergo as a young child. She wore a thick bandage around her head, but as soon as she heard music she jumped up and danced "Singing was always on of my favorite things to do".

Cynthia and I were roommates on the collage and sang on campus. When we met Pam in 1975 we had no experience in the music business. Pam was our entry, and what an entry it was.

Brandye Promotion Flyer 2017

We started with a 17 day session, so we got off to a really good start I would say.

She doesn't describe a single artist as her greatest musical influence, but says, “when you grew up in Detroit, Motown was“ all around us ”. You practically breathed it. I also worked briefly in the Motown post office packing the 45 singles, my father was friends with the Gordy family. If you drove past Hitsville USA you could see all the stars waiting outside to record inside. Our first song together was Sonny Munro “Open the door to your heart. Weeks after the session we rehearsed at my home and heard that Sonny would appear on TV with the song. So we kept our rehearsals short and watched the TV show. That was the first time we heard our voices on a recording. "That was the thrill."

Towards the end of 1976 we really took off with records that had achieved gold and platinum status. We heard our songs all the time on the radio.

Brandye Live in Las Vegas 2017

On the subject of royalties from the albums, Donna says, “Yes, we get paid for records we made with James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Johanny Taylor. But with the album Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr. - I Hope We Get To Love In Time, which was a huge hit in the 70s, we don't get a cent.

On request how this is possible, since they are also mentioned on the sleeve, so def. After receiving credits, Donna was very surprised. She said Pam was in LA at the time, where the album was released earlier than Detroit, where the rest of the group lived, and called her in the middle of the night to tell her they didn't get any credits. Which weighed heavily on the group in this case, as they had made the complete vocal arrangements for the album.

When asked how they came up with the name Brandye, Donna says, “I know we went to United Sound Studio one evening and had some ideas for names. When we first got together we were called Joy, but for some reason we didn't like that name that much. While we were still pondering the names, Bootsy Collins, who was part of Parliament / Funkadelic, came in and we asked him which name he would like best. Bootsy said “I like Brandye” and that's how our name was born.

When she thinks about the recordings with Millie Jackson, she always says that she couldn't wait to work with Millie.

Brandye Backstage Las Vegas

Her tracks were always very good musically and she was great fun to work with. She gave us a lot of freedom when it came to arranging the backing vocals. Body Movements is one of my favorite songs that we recorded with her.

Brandye can also be heard on Millies' 1979 live album "Live and Uncensored". Donna says, “We weren't on stage with her. I think she wasn't entirely satisfied with the backing vocals and they then recorded our vocals in the studio afterwards ”. Speaking of the recordings on the James Brown album, which they flown to LA for, Donna says, “James wasn't there while we were being recorded, but he loved the backing vocal so much that he took us on tour and called us the brownets wanted."

Both Donna and Pam have both worked with Aretha, but only after Cynthia moved away.

A highlight in the collaboration with Aretha was the soundtrack for the film Malcom X.

As special memories with Aretha, there was an appearance in Madison Square Garden at the Democratic Convention, around the time Bill Clinton became president.

When Aretha Franklin had a recording session in Detroit, I missed my assignment because I was so carried away with Aretha Franklin's vocals. I just couldn't believe I was behind the First Lady of Soul. Aretha Franklin is one of the few artists we've worked with who knew exactly what she wanted and how we had to sound.

She says of Ronn Matlock (Love City), “He's brilliant, he's very calm, but from the moment they left the tracks on and we heard his voice, I just thought, Wow. I think it's a shame that his records never got the attention they deserved in the States. He's a great artist and songwriter.

Just before we started recording Crossover, we signed our first contract for our own album and we weren't familiar with the whole process. Brad Shapiro came to Detroit with a stack of tapes and brought us a few songs that he thought would be a good fit for us. Brad knew us as a background singer but not as a main act. He also never saw our show and we had to choose from this material.

The schedule was very tight, the time for which the session was scheduled was already fixed and the studio was booked. None of the songs he presented to us really met our style or suited us. That means we had to make the material fit our style, but none of the songs would have been material that we would have chosen for ourselves. That means you finally get the chance to make your own album and then you have material that you are not really happy with. What was unusual was that after we had chosen songs, Brad didn't leave us the demos to familiarize us with the material. He took the material back with him and told us "I don't want you to be so familiar with the songs, I want you to be spontaneous when we record the songs".

When we landed in Nashville for the recordings, we heard the songs on a cassette recorder on the drive to the studio (Muscle Shoals). As happy as we were about the possibility of an album of our own, we were just as unhappy with the material or found it unsuitable.

Donna with David Ruffin

But over the years the album has somehow grown together with us.

My favorite song of all the songs we've done as the main act is Rhythm of Love, and we only recently learned that the song was a hit in some countries. We're even considering re-recording the song. At our shows, the song is always very well received in an up-tempo version, it is the highlight of our show.

My daughter took us to the studio a while ago, she is a songwriter herself and we hope to be able to release new material soon. Her husband is a five-time Grammy Award winner and he saw our show in Las Vegas and loved it. That is of course music to our ears. He is a very well known songwriter and we hope he will write something for Brandye.

Donna explains that there was no follow-up to Crossover as follows: “We had a contract with TK Records, a disco label, but we weren't a disco group. Unfortunately, they didn't promote our album as we hoped. And shortly before our album was released, “Ring my Bell” came out of our label, which was a monster hit at the time. The full attention of the label was next to KC and the Sunshine Band then Anita Ward.

Donna Private 2017

The following year, Cynthia moved to California and the moment just never came to follow up.

Last year we wanted to know if we still had it and it was great to see that it was still there.

I love working with others, we know each other, we are like sisters, there have never been arguments and that should mean something in the business.

When asked which is her favorite song of all the songs she has ever recorded, Donna says, “I can't answer that question. It was more like 4000 songs that we recorded. I like some because the backing vocals are good, others I like because the whole song is great. It's just very difficult. When we recorded Disco Lady, the first song to ever go platinum, we said to David Shapiro, you've lost your mind, shake it up, shake it down, we just didn't like that part and what happened, it became one of the biggest hits the 70s.

Ronn Matlock promotion picture 1979

And then you have the Ronn Matlock songs that weren't hits and the vocals are just great. So, if you're asking me that right now, it's "I can't forget about you baby" by Ronn.

Is there a special person or kind of mentor they want mentioned, Donna says, “You know, most of the time we sang the vocals and didn't meet the artist because he already sang his part. We never had much contact with the singers, they were incredible talents who, like us, were just at the beginning of their careers.

We did a show with Bob Hope and we weren't that enthusiastic, he belonged to a different generation and also addressed a different target group. But when we got to know him that changed our mind, he was so friendly and greeted us with a hug and invited us into his cloakroom. It was just great that a superstar like him had such an impact on us.

We accepted his offer to come to his dressing room after the show. But there were so many people who all made a very important impression that we didn't want to disturb them. But he saw us out of the corner of his eye and greeted us warmly. He was really kind.

 

Looking back, my best memory is being on tour with the others. Cynthia and I were roommates in the collage, and we just extended that time a bit. It's nice to be with people with whom you get along well. But honestly, I'm very excited about what's happening now, after all these years people still remember us. We did a lot of backing vocals, but only one album as the main act. We are more confident now, our best times are ahead of us. In business you always say you're as good as your last record and I think our big hit is still to come.